The commonest of these machines is the _shadoof_. It is a sort of
balance, with a weight at one end and a cord and bucket at the other.
The arm of the balance rests upon a bar of wood, which is supported by
two wooden posts, the whole resembling the horizontal bar of a
gymnasium. The posts are about five feet high and two or three feet
apart, and they are set up on the top of a bank, close to the edge, so
that the end of the arm which bears the bucket may project over the
water. This arm is made out of a slender branch of a tree, and is
fastened to the horizontal bar by loops of cord. Its thicker end is
loaded with a large, round ball of mud, while the other carries a long
cord, or even a slender stick, at the end of which is the bucket, or
bowl, in which the water is raised. This bucket is not made of iron, but
of basketwork, usually covered with leather or cloth. The man who works
the shadoof stands near the water's edge, below the slender arm of the
balance. He pulls down the cord to which the bucket is attached, until
the bucket dips into the water and is filled, while at the same time he
raises the lump of mud at the other end of the balance. When the bucket
is filled, he lifts it up, and empties it into a little tank higher up
in the bank, perhaps at the height of his head. The heavy weight at the
other end of the balance aids him a great deal in lifting the bucket,
even if it does not quite balance it. When the bank is high, and the
water has to be raised some distance, several shadoofs are employed.
They are arranged in stages, or steps, one above the other; the second
from the bottom takes its water from the reservoir, into which it has
been emptied by the first, and the third from the reservoir of the
second, and so on. Drawing water with the aid of the shadoof is said to
be very hard work, especially in so hot a country as Egypt. The shadoof
was used thousands of years ago, just as it is to-day, as we know by the
pictures of it which are still to seen painted upon the walls of some of
the ruins of ancient Egyptian buildings.

[Illustration: Egyptian "Sakiyeh."]

Another machine used for the same purpose is the _sakiyeh_, or
draw-wheel. It consists of a horizontal axle, with a wheel at each end.
One of these wheels overhangs the water of a river, a canal, or a well,
and over it there passes a long, hanging loop of cords, to which a
number of earthen pots are fastened. As the axle and the wheel go round,
th