"We met some funny-looking rafts a few miles above Sioot, and wondered what they could be. They did not appear to be made of logs, or barrels, or anything of the sort, and yet they were floating along, and each carried two or three men. What do you suppose they were? "Doctor Bronson said they were made up of large jars for holding water, and were principally from a town called Ballas. The jars are arranged in rows, with the mouth uppermost, and when enough of them have been put together to form a raft, they are enclosed in a frame of poles and reeds; then they are ready to float down the river to Cairo, where they are sold. The jar is made of a porous clay that lets the water filter slowly through it. Every few hours the men in charge of the raft must bail out their conveyance, which they do by means of a sponge or bunch of reeds lowered into each jar. Unless they do this the raft would soon take in water enough to sink it, and not only would the jars be lost, but the men would run the risk of being drowned into the bargain. [Illustration: INFLATED SKIN RAFT (FROM ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE).] "It seemed so funny to make up a raft in this way, but the Doctor informed us that the idea was a very old one. He said it was in practice among the ancient Assyrians, as there were pictures on the walls of their temples of men rowing rafts made of inflated skins, which were preferred to jars on account of their obviating the necessity of frequent bailing. "We thought of the scriptural phrase, and asked, 'Is there anything new under the sun?' [Illustration: AN ANCIENT LIFE-PRESERVER.] "'There are fewer new things than you might suppose,' was the Doctor's reply. 'Perhaps you think the inflated life-preserver is a modern invention, but it isn't. The Assyrians had it centuries ago; and we learn from their sculptures that their warriors used to swim across rivers on the skins of goats that were filled with air, just as we fill the life-preservers that we buy in New York or London. I believe that a patent was granted to the modern inventor, but the Assyrian was thousands of years ahead of him.' "One of us suggested that perhaps the modern inventor was honest, and thought he really had made an entirely new thing.