Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/108

 in other words, two canal boats lashed together when descending the Nile, much like the "monkey-boats," or "wussers," employed on the Thames or Severn. In the cabin a man is represented, inflicting the bastinado on a boatman; an occurrence probably not unusual, as we find it on the ordinary cattle-barge of the period. In the same boat a cow eats hay out of a net, precisely resembling the sherif now used in Egypt. These boats are without masts. The "house" appears to be of a light and a temporary character, and as the sailors on the top are evidently making a rope fast to bind it together, it may be inferred that such houses were chiefly used when these vessels were employed in the conveyance of cattle, and that they could be removed at pleasure.

In Champollion's great work, we find a sketch of another boat, in this instance carrying a bier. It is taken from a bas-relief on the tomb of Beni-Hassan. Here two rudders, one on each quarter, are clearly represented. Their upper extremities are, by some mode not easily understood, attached to separate upright posts, and the helmsmen appear to hold lanyards or bow-lines for the regulation of the rudders, proving that mechanical appliances of one sort or