“The hummals in the timber yards, and on the stone wharfs, use slings and a stout pole by means of which a gang of no more than eight or ten will carry off sticks of timber, or masses of stone, of very considerable bulk. I observed that these men timed their movements by uttering a sort of song in cadence, as men ever learn to do when the object is to unite their strength in moving some one heavy substance: hence the heave-ho of the sailor, the grunting, and the cadential chaunt of the India palankeen bearers, the wild song of the Arabs, or their shouting which Layard so well describes as they worked at his winged bull. And here I find these grave, hard-featured, bearded men, after their grave fashion, stretching their lungs and limbs together to some pious cry of allah or the like: what is this consentaneous action of the respiratory organs as aiding in the union of muscular power, and exhibition of strength? It is an actual thing which labouring man practically discovers all the world over, and which I have often seen laughed over in the well-known drawing-room pastime as absurd and ridiculous, when we failed, breathing together, to raise our recumbent friend breathing with us, on our finger points, and that for very merriment over our own proper nonsense in trying the experiment.”
[Idle Days in Egypt, A Selection from the Writings, Prose and Poetical, of the Late Henry W. Torrens, Vol.2, 1854]