Drawer
Drawer
OF WATER (שֹׁאֵב מִיַם, shob' ma'yim; Sept. ὑδροφόρος, i.e., water- carrier) occurs in De 29:11; Jos 9:21,23; and in both instances it is spoken of as a hard and servile employment: to it the crafty Gibeonites were condemned. In the East water must be fetched from the river or the wells. In towns this is rarely done by the householders themselves, or by their servants. There are persons who make a trade of it to supply every day, to regular customers, the quantity required. They carry about the water in a well-prepared goat-skin, which is slung to the back; the neck is usually brought under the arm and compressed by the hand, serving as the mouth of this curious but very useful vessel. Those who drive a great trade have an ass, which carries two skins at once, borne like panniers. These men, continually passing to and fro with their wet bags through the narrow streets, are great nuisances in the towns from the difficulty of avoiding contact with them. There are no vehicles of draught in Asiatic towns; the water-carriers with their bags, and the "hewers of wood," bearing large fagots on their backs, or the backs of horses or mules, form the only obstructions in the streets. In a time of public calamity the water-carriers are the last to discontinue their labor; and their doing so is a sure indication that the distress has become intense and imminent. SEE WATER.
