Page:Isaiah Bowman - Desert Trails of Atacama (1924).pdf/146

 on. The great subdivision of property and the large number of electors make these little republics very lively; and they are very jealous of their autonomy.”

In the simpler societies of the world where there is a close dependence upon natural conditions of soil and climate there is also great similarity of customs and means of life. Tibet and the Puna de Atacama have many resemblances. Desert folk in Atacama are in certain ways strikingly like those of the Sahara or the Kalahari desert in Africa. Like the turno of Chile and Argentina is the system of water measurement in use in Algeria. From Hilton-Simpson’s extremely interesting book “Among the Hill-Folk of Algeria” I quote the following passages:

“The system of irrigation in use at Beni Ferah is that which obtains all over the Aurés, and, as its study brought to our notice a very quaint method of measuring time, we may examine it in some detail. At a point situated some distance above the gardens the river is tapped by means of a barrage, often consisting merely of a line of boulders so placed as to deflect a certain amount of the stream into a narrow canal, known in Algeria as a ‘seggia’, by means of which it is con- ducted through, or rather beside and slightly above, the land to be cultivated, each garden possessing its own branch chan- nel from the main ‘seggia’ by means of which it can be flooded in its turn…

“When a garden is purchased the buyer must acquire, also by purchase, the right to a supply of water according to its size; thus an extensive property may require the uninter- rupted flow of all the water in the canal which irrigates it for one whole day in the week, while another may only be allowed one or more hours of irrigation in the same period.

“The stream is tapped by more than one main ‘seggia’, and