the
land they often dispensed with the plow, and, like their successors,
broke up the ground with hoes, or simply dragged the moist mud with
bushes after the seed had been thrown upon the surface, and then
merely drove a number of cattle, asses, pigs, sheep, or goats into the
field to tread in the grain. "In no country," says Herodotus, "do they
gather their seed with so little labor. They are not obliged to trace
deep furrows with the plow and break the clods, nor to partition out
their fields into numerous forms as other people do, but when the
river of itself overflows the land, and the water retires again, they
sow their fields, driving the pigs over them to tread in the seed, and
this being done every one patiently awaits the harvest." On other
occasions they used to plow, but were contented, as we are told by
Diodorus and Columella, with "tracing slight furrows with light plows
on the surface of the land," and others followed with wooden hoes to
break the clods of the rich and tenacious soil.

The modern Egyptians sometimes substitute for the hoe a machine called
_khonfud_, "hedgehog," which consists of a cylinder studded with
projecting iron pins, to break the clods after the land has been
plowed, but this is only used when great care is required in the
tillage of the land, and they frequently dispense with the hoe,
contenting themselves, also, with the same slight furrows as their
predecessors, which do not exceed the depth of a few inches, measuring
from the lowest part to the summit of the ridge. It is difficult to
say if the modern Egyptians derived the hint of the "_hedgehog_" from
their predecessors, but it is a curious fact that a clod-crushing
machine, not very unlike that of Egypt, has only lately been invented
in England, which was shown at the Great Exhibition.

The ancient plow was entirely of wood, and of as simple a form as that
of modern Egypt. It consisted of a share, two handles, and the pole or
beam, which last was inserted into the lower end of the stilt, or the
base of the handles, and was strengthened by a rope connecting it with
the heel. It had no coulter, nor were wheels applied to any Egyptian
plow, but it is probable that the point was shod with a metal sock,
either of bronze or iron. It was drawn by two oxen, and the plowman
guided and drove them with a long goad, without the assistance of
reins, which are used by modern Egyptians. He was sometimes
accompanied by another man, who dro