THE NAORA.
The Oasis of Tagius or Wodian, in the Desert of Sahara, in Africa, comprehends these villages—D'kash, Krees, Wozorkan, Owlad, Majed, Sedadah, Zowiat Elarab, and Sidy Bohlan.
These villages are situated at short distances from each other, numbering together a population of between 25,000 and 30,000, whose chief employment consists in cultivating the palm, or date tree. At Kreez they have an excellent spring, but which does not suffice to water all their plantations, and hence they are forced to have recourse to the naora, so common on the coast. The naora is the name given to the rude, though ingenious contrivance, by means of which, through the agency of either a camel, a mule, or a horse, water is raised from a deep well in earthen jars, which, as soon as they have emptied their contents into a wooden trough, descend for fresh supplies. The water from the trough is then conducted by the planters into channels and trenches, as occasion requires. These are again easily diverted, and as soon as it is considered that the trees in one particular direction have had a sufficient supply, fresh trenches are opened in another direction, and in this manner the whole plantation receives the requisite moisture and nourishment. We here engrave the naora.
The pain and labour which the inhabitants of such an oasis take with their vast date plantations are immense, but their toil is amply repaid by the "lord of the vegetable world." Independent of its picturesque appearance, grateful shade, luscious fruit, and agreeable beverage, it supplies them with fuel, and wood for the construction of their houses. From its leaves they manufacture baskets, ropes, mats, bags, couches, brushes, brooms, fans, &c. From the branches they make fences, stools, and cages. The kernels, after being soaked in water for two or three days, are eagerly eaten by camels.
Every palm-tree shoots forth a number of suckers, which are removed at the proper season and transplanted. With care, these will produce fruit in about ten years, whereas those raised from kernels will only yield dates when they reach to the age of twenty. The tree reaches its vigour at thirty, and continues so till a hundred years old, when it begins to decline, and decays about the end of its second century. During its vigorous years, a good tree will produce between twenty and thirty clusters, each weighing about thirty pounds.
Mr. Morier relates an anecdote, which greatly illustrates how highly the date-tree is appreciated by those who are from their infancy taught to value it. An Arab woman who had been in England, and who returned in the suite of the English ambassador to Persia, on her reaching home, told her countrywomen of the riches and beauty of the country she had visited, and described the roads, the carriages, the scenery, the splendour of the cities, and the fertility of the well-cultivated soil. Her audience were full of admiration, and had almost retired in envy, when she happened to mention that there was but one thing wanting to make the whole almost a Paradise. "And what is that?" said they. "Why, it has not a single date-tree. All the time that I was there, I never ceased to look for one, but I looked in vain." The charm was instantly broken; the Arabs turned away in pity for men, who, whatever might be their comforts, or their magnificence, were doomed to live in a country where there are no date-trees.
PRIMITIVE PAIR OF BELLOWS.