k of watering their
lands; on the contrary, they were compelled to protect themselves from
it, and to keep at a distance the volume of waters it brought down.
Each property, whether of square, triangular, or any other shape, was
surrounded with a continuous earth-built barrier which bounded it
on every side, and served at the same time as a rampart against the
inundation.

[Illustration: 324.jpg TWO ROWS OF SHADUFS ON THE BANK OF A RIVER.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian bas-relief from
Koyunjik.

Rows of shadufs installed along the banks of the canals or streams
provided for the irrigation of the lands.* The fields were laid out like
a chess-board, and the squares, separated from each other by earthen
ridges, formed as it were so many basins: when the elevation of the
ground arrested the flow of the waters, these were collected into
reservoirs, whence by the use of other shadufs they were raised to a
higher level.

* In Mesopotamia and Chaldaea there may still be seen
"everywhere ruins of ancient canals; and there are also to
be met with, in many places, ridges of earth, which stretch
for considerable distances in a straight line, and surround
lands perfectly level." (Olivier).

The plough was nothing more than an obliquely placed mattock, whose
handle was lengthened in order to harness oxen to it. Whilst the
ploughman pressed heavily on the handle, two attendants kept incessantly
goading the beasts, or urging them forward with voice and whip, and
a third scattered the seed in the furrow. A considerable capital was
needed to ensure success in agricultural undertakings: contracts were
made for three years, and stipulated that payments should be made partly
in metal and partly in the products of the soil.

[Illustration: 325.jpg CHALDAEAN FARMING OPERATIONS.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chaldaean intaglio reproduced
in Layard. The original is in the cabinet of medals in the
Bibliotheque Nationale.

The farmer paid a small sum when entering into possession, and the
remainder of the debt was gradually liquidated at the end of each
twelve months, the payment being in silver one year, and in corn the two
following. The rent varied according to the quality of the soil and the
facilities which it afforded for cultivation: a field, for instance, of
three bushels was made to pay nine hundred measures, while another of
ten bushels had only eighteen hundred