Abimelech, in reply to the complaint of Abra ham respecting the well, declared that the conduct of his servants had not been sanctioned by bim, and that, indeed, this was the first time he had heard anything of the matter ; and he made no objection to the proposal of Abraham, that the recognition af his (the patriarch's) right to the well should form a part of the proposed covenant. This proposal, thus represented as the sole matter for which Abra 'tam himself took care to provide in a solemn en gagement with the king of the Philistines, is, perhaps, as striking an indication of the supreme importance of water in those Eastern countries as can anywhere be found. Both parties then swore to the covenant, the terms of which have thus been stated ; and as a memorial of the tmnsaction, and in particular of his acknowledged right to the well, the patriarch gave it the name of Beer-sheba, the well of the oath. This imposition of commemora tive names upon places was the principal of 3.-arious methods which were resorted to in these earliest ages to perpetuate the memory of events and con tracts, in the absence of those written documents which were afterwards found more suitable for such purposes.' It appears in Scripture that the wells were some- I times owned by a number of persons in common, I and that flocks were brought to them for watenng on appointed days, in an order previously arranged. A well was often covered with a great stone, which being removed, the person descended some steps to the surface of the water, and on his return poured into a trough that which he had brought up (Gen. xxiv. 11-15 ; xxix. 3-to ; Exod. 16 ; Judg. v. II). There is, in fact, no intimation of any other way of drawing water from wells in Scripture. But as this could only be applicable in (rases where the well was not deep, we must assume that they had the use of those contrivances which are still employed in the East, and some of which are known from the Egyptian monuments to have been very ancient. This conclusion is the more probable as
the wells in Palestine are mostly deep (Prov. xx. 5 ; John iv. t). Jacob's well near Shechem is said to be 120 feet deep, with only fifteen feet of water in it (Maundrell, ymrney, ISrlarch 24) ; and the labour of drawing from so deep a well probably originated the first reluctance of the woman of Sa maria to draw water for Jesus : Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.' From this deeper kind of well the water is drawn by hand in a leathern bucket not too heavy, some times by a windlass, but oftener, when the water 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 front wells, reservoirs, or rivers. This consists of a tapering lever unequally balanced upon an upright body variously constructed, and from the smaller end of wttich is suspended the bucket by a rope. This when lowered into the well, is raised full of water by the weight of the heavier end. By this contrivance the manual power is applied in lower ing the bucket into the well, for it rises easily, and it is only necessary to regulate the aScent. This machine is in use under slight modifications from the Baltic to the Yellow Sea, and was so from the most remote ages to the present day. The speci men in the annexed woodcut occurs in the neigh bourhood of Jaffa. The water of wells, as well as of fountains, was by the Hebrews called living water,' translated running water,' and was highly esteemed (Lev. xiv. 5 ; Num. xix. 17). It was thus distinguished from water preserved in cisterns and reservoirs.—J. K.