And, finally, the great labour of the watering: the traditional noria, turned by a little bull with bandaged eyes and, above all, the shaduf, worked by men whose naked bodies stream with the cold water.
The shadufs follow one another sometimes as far as the eye can see.

It is strange to watch the movement--confused in the distance--of all these long rods which pump the water without ceasing, and look like the swaying of living antennae.

The same sight was to be seen along this river in the times of the Ramses.

But suddenly, at some bend of the river, the old Pharaonic rigging disappears, to give place to a succession of steam machines, which, more even than the muscles of the fellahs, are busy at the water-drawing.

Before long their blackish chimneys will make a continuous border to the tamed Nile.
Did one not know their bearings, the great ruins of this Egypt would pass unnoticed.