Our Lord, in his parable of the sower, says, "Some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them." Buckingham, in his Travels in Palestine, remarks, "We ascended to an elevated plain where husbandmen were sowing, and some thousands of starlings covered the ground, as the wild pigeons do in Egypt, laying a heavy contribution on the grain thrown into the furrows, which are not covered by harrowing, as in Europe." The sowing "beside all waters," mentioned by Isaiah, seems to refer to the sowing of rice, which is done on low grounds flooded, and prepared for sowing by being trodden by oxen and asses, mid-leg deep; thus, they send "forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass."