This Fact Is A Warning To Those Who Would Introduce
Too Sudden Reforms Among Men And Animals In A Newly-Acquired Country;
But If Mr. Hamilton Lang Had Sprinkled Salt Over His Chaff I Think The
Refractory Appetites Of The Oxen Might Have Been Overcome.
A pair of
oxen are supposed to plough one "donum" daily of fifty paces square, or
about half an acre.
Having watched the various teams, and conversed with the ploughmen by
the medium of the cook Christo, who spoke English and was an intelligent
interpreter, I ordered the vans to move on while I walked over the
country with the dogs. There was no game except a wild-duck which I shot
in the thick weeds of a neighbouring swamp. Larks were in great
quantities, and for want of larger birds I shot enough for a pilaff, and
secured a breakfast. The route, which could be hardly called a road, had
been worn by the wheels of native carts. These were narrower than our
vans, and one of our wheels was generally upon a higher level,
threatening on some occasions to overturn. The country around us was
desolate in its aridity. We passed through the ruins of an ancient city
over which the plough had triumphed, and literally not one stone was
left upon another. A few stone columns of a rough description, some of
which were broken, were lying in various directions, and I noticed a
lower millstone formed of an exceedingly hard conglomerate rock; these
pieces were too heavy to move without great exertions, therefore they
had remained in situ.
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