Shadoof

The waters intended for irrigating lands situated on the sides of the hills and at the bottom of a valley, are first raised to the top by a balance called deloo, or shadoof.

[T]he fields in the vicinity of the river and of the large canals, and some other lands, in which pits are dug for water, are irrigated by means of machines of different kinds. The most common of these machines is the sha′doo′f, which consists of two posts or pillars of wood, or of mud and canes or rushes, about five feet in height, and less than three feet apart, with a horizontal piece of wood extending from top to top, to which is suspended a slender lever, formed of a branch of a tree, having at one end a weight chiefly composed of mud, and at the other, suspended to two long palm-sticks, a vessel in the form of a bowl, made of basket-work, or of a hoop and a piece of woollen stuff or leather: with this vessel, the water is thrown up to the height of about eight feet, into a trough hollowed out for its reception. In the southern parts of Upper Egypt, four or five sha′doo′fs are required, when the river is at the lowest, to raise the water to the level of the fields.

From this deeper kind of well the water is usually drawn by hand in a leathern bucket not too heavy, sometimes by a windlass, but oftener, where the well is only of moderate depth, by the shadoof, which is the most common and simple of all the machines used in the East for raising water, whether from wells, reservoirs, or rivers.

The Egyptian fellaheen, in many of their ways and customs, reproduce almost exactly their ancient prototypes. They use the same ploughs and the same shadoofs for raising water.

It was the time of low Nile when all the land is baked like a crust of bread, when the creaking of the shadoofs and the singing croak of the sakkia are heard the night long like untiring crickets with throats of frogs.

The shadoof can be traced back 5,400 years, or to about 3500 B.C., and the indications are that it was considered an ancient device even at that remote time. It is much like the old-fashioned well sweep, consisting of a pivoted pole, supported on two uprights, at one end of which is suspended a rope or pole with a bucket at the lower end. In using, the bucket is simply dipped into the water and is then raised by pulling down on the opposite side of the pivoted pole.

Were there a thousand—or was it five thousand slaves?—cranking the long poles of these shadufs to raise our water? I know as we looked from our boat across that hot shimmering river, I could hear shadufs creaking near and far, and the sun blazed like a sword each time water splashed into a higher sluice.

Now and again you can hear a shrill screeching sound from the bank, produced by sakhiehs and shadoofs, this last being similar to the water-raising "crane" pump we have in the Ukraine.