The storage of water in cisterns or reservoirs is by no means a modern practice. The earliest tribes of whom we have any traditions or records resorted to this method for providing a supply of water. In xi Kings, 18-31, the first mention is made of cisterns in "Drink ye every one the water of his cistern." The methods employed by the ancients to construct cisterns must have been laborious and unsatisfactory. Cement at that time was unknown and bricks were not made, so that the modern cistern, as we know it, could not have existed. No doubt in some localities where clay was plentiful the cisterns were scooped out of the earth and puddled with clay, just as many reservoirs of to-day are made. This method of constructing a cistern, however, would limit the form to a cup-shaped affair, which would be very difficult to roof over. If the cisterns were not covered, as much water might be lost by evaporation as would be used by the inhabitants, so that at its best a clay-puddled cistern must have been an unsatisfactory affair. In the locality of mountains and quarries, cisterns were hewn out of the solid rock. "They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water."—Jer. 2-3. Rock-hewn cisterns must have made ideal storage reservoirs for water. The darkness of the cavern would prevent the growth of vegetation, while the thick walls of rock, affording a shelter from the sun, would keep the water cool and refreshing. [Illustration: The Cisterns at Carthage. All that is left of the Ancient City] [Illustration: Pole and Bucket for Raising Water] [Illustration: Ruins of Ancient Cisterns] It is worthy of noting here that the ancients seem to have been aware of the movement of ground water through the soil, a fact that was forgotten and rediscovered in comparatively recent times. In Prov. 5-15 the statement, "Drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well," would lead to this conclusion, unless, indeed, they classed a bubbling spring as a well. The earliest known cistern or reservoir of which we have any authentic knowledge are the masonry cisterns or reservoirs that stored water for the supply of the ancient city of Carthage. These cisterns, which are wonderfully well preserved, are still to be seen on the site of the ancient Punic city, but outside of what was the walled city, before it was totally destroyed by the Romans. [Illustration: Old Roman Water Wheel] [Illustration: Water Carrier with Jar]