It was the duty of the local governors to see that the canals were kept in good repair, and they had the power of requisitioning labour from the inhabitants of villages and the owners of land situated on or near the banks. In return, the villagers had the right of fishing in the waters of a canal along the section in their charge, and any poaching by other villagers in their part of the stream was strictly forbidden. On one occasion in the reign of Samsu-iluna, Hammurabi's son, fishermen from the village of Itabim went down in their boats to the district of Shakanim, and caught fish there contrary to local custom. So the inhabitants of Shakanim complained to the king of this infringement of their rights, and he sent a palace-official to the authorities of Sippar. in the jurisdiction of which the villages in question lay, with instructions to inquire into the matter and take steps to prevent any poaching in the future. Fishing by line and net was a regular industry, and the preservation of rights in local waters was jealously guarded. The larger canals were fed directly from the river, especially along the Euphrates, whose banks were lower than those of the swifter Tigris. But along the latter river, and also along the banks of the canals, it will be obvious that some means had to be employed to raise the water for purposes of irrigation from the main channel to the higher level of the land. Reference is made in the Babylonian inscriptions to irrigation-machines,[13] and, although their exact form and construction are not described, they must have been very similar to those employed at the present day. The most primitive method of raising water, which is commoner to-day in Egypt than in Mesopotamia, is the _shadduf,_ which is worked by hand. It consists of a beam supported in the centre; and at one end a bucket is suspended for raising the water, while at the other end is fixed a counter-weight. Thus comparatively little labour is required to raise the bucket when full. That this contrivance was employed on the Tigris is proved by an Assyrian bas-relief, found at Kuyunjik, with representations of the _shadduf_ in operation. Two of them are being used, the one above the other, to raise the water to successive levels. These were probably the contrivances usually employed by the early Babylonians for raising the water to the level of their fields, and the fact that they were light and easily removed must have made them tempting objects to the dishonest former. A scale of compensation was therefore in force, regulating the payments to be made to the owner by a detected thief. From the fact that these varied, according to the class and value of the machine he stole, we may infer that other contrivances, of a heavier and more permanent character, were also employed.