The Sahara Water-Clock

1904

A man's wealth in the Sahara is calculated almost entirely by the number of camels or palm-trees which he owns, and by the amount of water to which he is entitled. Water in the desert is so scarce that the ownership of it is most jealously guarded.

In "A Search for the Masked Tawareks," the author says that in buying a palm grove it is always necessary to stipulate for so many sa'as per day or week. A sa'a, literally "an hour," is the amount of water which will flow in an hour through an opening the width of a man's fist in the side of a segia.

The main segias, or channels, as a rule follow the roads of the oasis, forming a sort of ditch at the side. A regular time-table is kept, showing the hours at which the owners of the different plantations are entitled to draw water.

The time is measured by a very curious little water-clock, consisting of a metal cup, made usually of brass or copper, with a small hole pierced in the bottom. At the commencement of each hour this is placed in a basin of water. The water gradually runs through the hole until, at the expiration of the hour, the cup sinks to the bottom of the basin. It is then taken out, emptied, and set again to measure off the next sa'a, and so the process is continued throughout the twenty-four hours.

This instrument is usually kept in the village mosque. In order to prevent all interference with it, a watchman is set over it, who notifies the expiration of each hour from the minaret of the mosque.

At the end of the sa'a the opening in the side of the segia through which the water flows is closed with clay, and the water is cut off, and allowed to flow down the main channel to the next plantation.

The Pearl Mosque of Agra, India

1878

A traveler in India describes one of the architectural wonders of the country as follows:

The Pearl Mosque of Agra stands inside the fort, and its three domes rise above the crenelated wall so as to be visible at considerable distances. They have been compared to bubbles, which have rested there for a moment and were liable to be blown away by the first breath of wind, and certainly the comparison is not inapt.

Domes, roofs, walls, pillars, floors, and all are of white marble, and the whole work is finished as carefully as if intended for observation under a microscope. It is not a closed building, like the mosques familiar to visitors to Constantinople. One side is quite open to a large quadrangle, and as you stand in the latter, with the sun of India beating down upon you, your eyes can penetrate to the depths of all the arches that support the domes and roof.

Never, before have I seen a more perfect specimen of the Saracenic arch, and as the arches cut each other at right angles the perspective from any given point is absolutely bewildering. There are twenty four intersecting arches and groined vaults; the structure surprises you at first by its plainness, and then by the splendor of its effect. You cannot understand why it has so captivated you, and I think that many visitors to the Pearl Mosque have gone away with a higher appreciation of Saracenic architecture than ever before.

There is nothing of decoration or ornament about it; nothing but the purest Saracenic art, whether in the mosque itself or in the cloister-surrounded quadrangle. There is no trickery of many-colored stones or elaborate work in mosaic; you see only the pure marble beneath, around, and before you and the blue sky above. As a triumph of architecture it is complete.