and when they have so made their boats, they lay benches across them. They do not use ribs, but calk the seams with byblus (papyrus) inside. They make one rudder, and this projects through the keel. They use a mast of acacia, and sails of byblus. These boats will not sail against the stream, unless there be a strong wind in their favour, but are towed from the shore. But they are brought down stream in this way. They take a hurdle made of tamarisk,

M

Ancient Nile-boat, from a Relief in the Louvre.

and wattled with reeds, and a stone with a hole through it, weighing about two talents (150 to 200 lbs.); the hurdle is let down by a rope in front of the boat for the stream to lay hold of, and the stone is fastened by another rope and let down from the stern. The hurdle is carried on at a good pace by the force of the stream, and draws the baris (as they call these boats) after it; while the stone dragging at the stern and deep in the water keeps the boat's head right. They have numbers of these boats, and

some of them carry several thousand talents.' (1000 talents 30 or 40 tons.)

Herodotus makes no mention of oars, but representations of boats and canoes are to be seen on the Egyptian monuments, where a number of broad paddles are used, and the steersman guides the boat by one paddle at the stern. The mast and sail look very like those used by the Greeks and Romans. The sail is large and square, and stretched on an enormous yard.

The Homeric Poems describe two kinds of ships with some precision. Firstly, large vessels big enough to contain 120 warriors. These were open boats propelled chiefly by oars. The rowers sat on benches, and the oars were fastened to the gunwale by leathern thongs. They were also provided with one mast which could be lowered at pleasure. When the mast was up, it was secured by two ropes, reaching from the mast-head to the stem and stern of the vessel,- fore-and-aft stays as we should call them. When the wind was fair, one square sail was set, which, with its yard, was hoisted by halyards, and the foot was secured by sheets running to the stern. The Grecian fleet at Troy was drawn up on land, and large stones were fastened by a rope to the poops of the vessels to secure them. A fortification was then thrown up round the fleet. These stones seem to have been in general use as anchors in the early ages.

The second kind of boat described in Homer is the Schedia, which seems to have been flat-bottomed,

and little more than a raft. The building of such a boat by Ulysses is thus described :—

'So, having shown him where the wood grew tall,
Calypso, nymph divine, returning went
Homeward. But he the forest trees made fall,
Eager to reap his work's accomplishment.
Nor did his vigour from the task relent
Till twenty he had felled, and each with care
Meted and planed. Then nymph Calypso lent
Augers, and he the pierced planks fitted fair,
And with firm bolts and joints the good ship did prepare.

As is the wide-walled compass which a man
Makes for a merchant-craft which he doth build,
Such for his broad bark did Odysseus plan,
And set the upright ribs, and sockets drilled
For thwart deck-timbers, and the space unfilled
With horizontal planks did overlay,

And planted the tall mast with art well skilled,
And to its place the sail-yard did convey,

And shaped the rudder well to rule her onward way.

Also an osier bulwark, woven deep

To breast the dashings of the angry tide,

That he securely through the waves might sweep,
He wrought; and ballast for the ship supplied.
Divine Calypso linen did provide

For sails, which he contriving not in vain

Well fashioned, and each rope and cable tied,

Bound down the strong sheets, fit for every strain,

And launched the ship with levers on the noble main.'

The bard afterwards describes his voyage thus:

'He sitting wielded the good helm aright,
Nor on his eyelids Slumber cast her pall.
He on the silver Pleiades all night

Gazed, and Boötes, which so late doth fall,
And the bright Arctus, which the Wain they call,
Close to him wheeling, on the watch to find
Orion. She alone among them all

Bathes not in Ocean. Thus the nymph assigned
His course, with starry Arctus on the left, to wind.'
WORSLEY'S Translation.

In describing the ships of the ancients, during the more advanced periods of their history, it will be well to divide them into two classes, ships of burden and ships of war, for they differed considerably.

And, first, of merchant-vessels, or ships of burden. These were round in build and flat-bottomed. The fore-part of the hull below the upper works differed but little in form from that of ships of modern times; and as both ends were alike, if we suppose a full-built merchant-ship of the present day cut in two, and the stern half replaced by one exactly the same as that of the bow, we shall have a pretty accurate notion of what these ships were.'*

The stem and stern posts rose to a considerable height, as in ships of 200 or 300 years ago, and terminated in an ornament of some kind. That at the prow was most frequently a chemiscus (chen, a goose), i.e. the head and neck of a water-bird, arching gracefully. That at the stern was usually a feather or fan-shaped ornament called aplustre, which gave some protection against wind and rain

to the steersman, who was still further sheltered in some ships by a sort of sentry-box under the aplustre. There was sometimes a cheniscus at the stern, or the stern-post terminated in the head of some divinity or hero. The prow was adorned by some emblem, which was the distinguishing mark of the ship, and the poop by an image of her tutelary deity. On each side of the prow figures were inlaid or painted, and there was generally an eye represented there, in order to give a life-like appearance to the vessel. This eye was sometimes used as a hawse-hole. As amongst us, each vessel had her

own name.

The bulwarks terminated in an open railing; they were made square at the head and stern, and formed projecting galleries or gangways, used for stowing away the anchors, and for capstans, &c.

The steering apparatus was not like a modern rudder, but consisted of two large paddle-shaped oars, which projected from each side of the stern. They either rested in a notch on the gunwale, and were secured by a thong, or, in larger vessels, worked through rudder ports. They could be unshipped, and then the rudder ports could be used for hawse-holes, if it were found necessary to anchor by the stern. The anchors were like ours, except that they were without flukes, as the triangular plates at the ends of the arms are called.

Merchant-vessels were propelled chiefly by sails. A strong main-mast was fixed a little towards the bows, and on this was set a large square sail, the