clothes in a bundle on their heads, and paddle it along with their
hands. Even this is not necessary. The gardener going to market
will frequently fasten his load of melons and other vegetables
together with wisps of straw, and thus let it float behind him,
while he swims over the river, and draws it along by means of
a rope fastened to a coarse cloth, that goes round his breast; his
clothes being bound upon his head, as in the former instance.
When loaded camels are to pass the river, they are tied in a string,
one to the tail of another; a man swimming before holds in his
mouth the bridle of the first camel; and another man, sitting on
a truss of straw, brings up the rear, and sees that the rest follow
in order.
The dealers in earthen jars likewise dispense with the use of
boats. To convey these down the Nile, from the places where
they are fabricated, to Cairo and the Delta, they bind a number
of them together in a triangular form, and fasten on the top of this
float a deck of palm branches. Here the owner sits, and rows
with a pair of oars, or drives with the current, till he arrives at
the place of his destination; then he unties his raft, disposes of his
jars, and makes the best of his way home with the money, or with
the necessaries he purchases, which he carries on his back. Sometimes
these rafts are made larger, two or three joining their wares
together; and not unfrequently the men are provided with nets,
resembling our casting nets, with which they catch fish on their
passage. In the use of these they are very adroit, one man, stand -
ing at the point or head of the triangular raft, throws in his net;
as he draws it out, two others, at the opposite corners; throw in