* The silurus is the electrical fish of the Nile.  The text ironically hints that the digger, up to his waist in water, engaged in dredging the dykes or repairing a bank swept away by an inundation, is liable at any moment to salute, i.e. to meet with a silurus or an oxyrrhynchus ready to attack him; he is doomed to death, and this fact the couplet expresses by the words, “West! your digger is a digger from the West.”  The West was the region of the tombs; and the digger, owing to the dangers of his calling, was on his way thither.

[Illustration:  142b.jpg CUTTING AND CARRYING THE HARVEST]

All this takes place under the vigilant eye of the master:  as soon as his attention is relaxed, the work slackens, quarrels arise, and the spirit of idleness and theft gains the ascendency.  Two men have unharnessed their team.  One of them quickly milks one of the cows, the other holds the animal and impatiently awaits his turn:  “Be quick, while the farmer is not there.”  They run the risk of a beating for a potful of milk.  The weeks pass, the corn has ripened, the harvest begins.  The fellahin, armed with a short sickle, cut or rather saw the stalks, a handful at a time.  As they advance in line, a flute-player plays them captivating tunes, a man joins in with his voice marking the rhythm by clapping his hands, the foreman throwing in now and then a few words of exhortation:  “What lad among you, when the season is over, can say:  ’It is I who say it, to thee and to my comrades, you are all of you but idlers!’—­Who among you can say:  ‘An active lad for the job am I!’” A servant moves among the gang with a tall jar of beer, offering it to those who wish for it.  “Is it not good!” says he; and the one who drinks answers politely:  “’Tis true, the master’s beer is better than a cake of durra!” The sheaves once bound, are carried to the singing of fresh songs addressed to the donkeys who bear them:  “Those who quit the ranks will be tied, those who roll on the ground will be beaten,—­Geeho! then.”  And thus threatened, the ass trots forward.  Even when a tragic element enters the scene, and the bastinado is represented, the sculptor, catching the bantering spirit of the people among whom he lives, manages to insinuate a vein of comedy.  A peasant, summarily condemned for some misdeed, lies flat upon the ground with bared back:  two friends take hold of his arms, and two others his legs, to keep him in the proper position.  His wife or his son intercedes for him to the man with the stick:  “For mercy’s sake strike on the ground!” And as a fact, the bastinado was commonly rather a mere form of chastisement than an actual punishment:  the blows, dealt with apparent ferocity, missed their aim and fell upon the earth; the culprit howled loudly, but was let off with only a few bruises.