Item 01: Ralph Ingram Moore letters, 10 February 1907-15 March 1918 - Page 42
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[Page 42]
2.
each side of the Nile & as the railway line runs approximately parallel to the river only well tilled lands are passed through. No fences or hedges are to be seen for the whole distance. One plot of land is divided from another by small earth mounds about one foot high as ditches. The latter traverse every plot of land for purposes of irrigation. As you know Egypt has the most perfect system of irrigation in the world. Water is elevated in the old manner of the Pharoahs i.e. by water wheels €“ ox driven €“ or by hand with the aid of weighted levers. The ground itself €“ too €“ is still ploughed by means of yoked pieces of wood drawn by oxen with a very wide yoke. Going along one seems to be seeing over again the pictures illustrating old fashioned family bibles.
The native villages are more like rabbit warrens than anything else. They are all huddled together €“ made of mud with flat roofs.
Called away for duty & I have forgotten just what I intended saying. You can't realise what it is like trying to write in a tent with everyone talking, & being called away every now & again. But to go on with some of my impressions.
On top of some of the roofs, all the rubbish of years appears to have been thrown. This in some way would serve a useful purpose in the hot months as it would tend to make the rooms cooler.