The whole district of Mesheea is covered with fertile fields producing wheat, barley, millet, Indian corn, together with madder, saffron, and other crops. Olive groves, vineyards, and orchards producing all kinds of southern fruit, abound.
This fertile little district is divided into small inclosures. In the center of each of them are two upright piles of mason-work. Between them a pulley is suspended, and on this a pointed leathern bucket is made to ascend and descend. Each time the bucket ascends it gives out a stream of limpid water.
The pulley is worked, usually, by a half-clothed negro, who leads a most disconsolate-looking specimen of an ox or cow, as he toils up and down an inclined plane, the lowest part of which is below the surface of the land.
All day and all night this work goes on, from the end of one rainy season till the beginning of the next. During these eight months all the gardens are like so many basins, which are under a regulated system of inundation.
Another curious custom prevails at the season when the sap begins to ascend in the date palm. A man begins to mount one of these trees, aided only by his naked feet and a girdle which holds him to the trunk.
Slowly, steadily, he mounts till he reaches the crown, where the branches spread out. He does not scruple to cut these off until only four remain, stretching out as if to indicate the points of the compass.
Over one of these branches, where it joins the trunk, he passes a fine cord and allows the two ends to reach the ground. He then wounds the tree by making a deep incision between two of the cuts where he chopped off the branches.
Making a descent from the tree, he sends up a bucket by means of the cord, and allows it to hang suspended just under the deep incision he has made. After a space of twelve hours, this bucket is brought down and another is sent up. The former is filled with a pale gray liquid, not quite clear in appearance. It looks much like barley water, is slightly sweet in taste, and is used as we would use mineral waters.
Exposure to the atmosphere for some hours changes the appearance of the liquid. Bubbles rise to the surface, and under this slight fermentation, travelers tell us, it becomes a refreshing beverage, somewhat like soda water.
Left to stand half a day longer, the harmless beverage changes to a thick milk-white fluid with a pungent odor and a slightly acid taste. Worse than all, it has become an intoxicating drink, as evil in its effects as brandy.