El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-09-24
FRANK G. CARPENTERS LETTER.


10 exist, and it was as late as the
middle ages, when the people gave
credit to a story that cotton of India
came from a sheep which grew on the
end of a bush, and which now and
then bent down to eat the grass which
grew around. The cotton plant was
supposed to thrive in Hindustan, and it
was not until centuries later that the
real cotton seeds were planted in
Egypt. Today Goshen is covered with
cotton. There are many plantations
near Zagazig, and I have seen thou
sands of acres of this crop throughout
different parts of the Egyptian delta.
1t is the chief money crop of the coun-
try and 1T will bring in upward Of
one hundred million dollars this year.
A Great Stock Country.
This land of Goshen is a fine stock
country. Camels, bufaloes and donkeys
are staked out in the fields, and flocks
of sheep and goats feed there. watch
ed by shepherds. There are, also,
dfoves of camels grazing or lying on
the ground, chewing their cuds. All
have their hehrdsmen. There are no
fences in Egypt, and the fields are
bounded by imaginary lines. Some
times the limits may be told by the
bitches, or the little embankments
made for irriga ton.
1t was as stock raiserS that the Is
raelites came into Egypt. They were q
pastoral people and it may have been
for that reason that Joseph had Pha-
raoh give them this land of Goshen,
the eastern part of which is fringed by
the desert, with places of scanty veg
citation, where the stock could Craze.
Today the land is well cultivated.
Most of the fields are kept like gar
dens and 1 see half naked men bend
ing over and digging the soil with
great mattocks. Here the farmers are
blowing, using the same one-handed
pillow of the days of the scriptures
Some Of them have donkeys and burfa-
loes hitched together, and now and
then one sees a plow dragged along
by a cow and a camel There is much
artificial irrigation, and the water is
lifted from level to level by men with
buckets and baskets to which ropes
are slung. In other places the water
is raised by the sakiyeh, rude
wheel which is turned by the cogs OF
another wheel, set at right angles to
it. On the perpendicular wheel clay
jars are fastened, and as this moves
through the water these fill and turn
ing empty themselves into the
troughs which lead to the little ca
in this case is blindfolded camel, bull
lock or donkey, The animal going
around like horse in an old-fashion-
ed bark mill. Many of the fields are
now under water and the silvery
streams shine out through the emerald
green of the crops.
The Villages of Goshen.
When the Israelites first came to
Goshen they probably lived in tents
such as the Bedouins use today. These
are made of sleeps wool or goats hair, =
rudely woven by hand. They are up
held by ropes and poles and are so low
that the people must crawl into them.
We know that Abraham lived in a
tent and it is probable that this was
the case with Isaac and Jacob
After coming to Goshen the Israel
ttes probably copied the houses of the
Egyptians and built villages of mud
nuts not unlike those l now see. These
houses are rude to an extreme Many
IF them are not over twenty feet
square; they have flat roofs and are
often so low that one can look over
hem as he rides by on a camel There
are no gardens or lawns about them !
They face the street and are huddled
together without regard to beauty or
comfort.
The roofs form the woodward of the |
people below. The only fuel used is |
straw, or the bushes from !