ve the animals, while he managed
the two handles of the plow, and sometimes the whip was substituted
for the more usual goad.

Cows were occasionally put to the plow, and it may not have been
unknown to them that the cow plows quicker than the ox.

The mode of yoking the beasts was exceedingly simple. Across the
extremity of the pole, a wooden yoke or cross-bar, about fifty-five
inches, or five feet, in length was fastened by a strap lashed
backwards and forwards over a prominence projecting from the centre of
the yoke, which corresponded to a similar peg, or knob, at the end of
the pole, and, occasionally, in addition to these, was a ring passing
over them as in some Greek chariots. At either end of the yoke was a
flat or slightly concave projection, of semi-circular form, which
rested on a pad placed upon the withers of the animal, and through a
hole on either side of it passed a thong for suspending the
shoulder-pieces which formed the collar. These were two wooden bars,
forked at about half their length, padded so as to protect the
shoulder from friction, and connected at the lower end by a strong
broad band passing under the throat.

Sometimes the draught, instead of being from the withers, was from the
head, the yoke being tied to the base of the horns, and in religious
ceremonies oxen frequently drew the bier, or the sacred shrine, by a
rope fastened to the upper part of the horns, without either yoke or
pole.

From a passage in Deuteronomy, "Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an
ass together," it might be inferred that the custom of yoking two
different animals to the plow was common in Egypt; but it was
evidently not so, and the Hebrew lawgiver had probably in view a
practice adopted by some of the people of Syria, whose country the
Israelites were about to occupy.

The hoe was of wood, like the fork, and many other implements of
husbandry, and in form was not unlike the letter A, with one limb
shorter than the other, and curving inwards. The longer limb, or
handle, was of uniform thickness, round and smooth, sometimes with a
knob at the end, and the lower extremity of the blade was of increased
breadth, and either terminated in a sharp point, or was rounded at the
end. The blade was frequently inserted into the handle, and they were
bound together, about the centre, with twisted rope. Being the most
common tool, answering for hoe, spade, and pick, it is frequently
represented in the sculptures, and seve