Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/392

 382 Journal of Philology. Now the Egyptian measures are known to us with great exactness from two standard cubits found in Egypt, of which the one is now in the Turin Museum, the other in the Louvre at Paris. A full description of these may be found in the paper of Thenius on the subject*. The hieroglyphics upon them shew that they are both cubits of the kind known as the royal cubit. The length of the former has been measured at '5235463 metres, or about 1*7176 Eng. feet : that of the second at *52300 metres, or 17159 Eng. feet. Other less accurate computations of the royal cubit are those made from the king's chamber in the Great Pyramid; Newton reckoning at 1*719 feet, Arbuthnot at 1*7325 feet. The still existing Nilometers have been sup- posed to furnish another means of calculating the length of the Egyptian cubit ; and the devakh of the Nilometer of Elephan- tine has been measured at 23361 Paris lines, or 1*729 Eng. feet; while the mean length of the devakh of the Nilometer of the Isle of Rudah is -540375 metres, or 1*7729 Eng. feett. No satis- factory proof has however yet been given of the identity of the devakh with the ancient royal cubit of Egypt : the Nilometers do not reach back beyond the times of the Ptolemies. But besides the royal cubit, there seems also to have been an older cubit in use in Egypt, which was shorter than the former. The proof of this is to be found in the hieroglyphics placed over the several divisions of the two standard cubits just mentioned : hieroglyphics which have been to a certain extent successfully interpreted by Thenius, though there still remain several difficulties to be cleared up, especially on those points where there is a seeming disagreement between the two standards. Each of these standard cubits is divided into 28 finger-breadths : of which 4 seem to have constituted a hand-breadth; 11 a simple or natural span (denoted by the mark of a span with a sparrow placed before it ;) 23 a simple or natural ell (denoted by the mark of an ell with a sparrow before it) J; while between 297 seqq. ' Essay on Ancient Weights,' &c. p. 237, t Le Pere in 'Description de 1'E- nd hai been oopied into the Dictimni v gypte,' Etat Moderne, 11. Pt. 1, p. 550. of Antiquities, under the article "Pes." His measurement seems to be more accu- J The Egyptians therefore computed rate than that of Greaves. A consider- a man's natural span at about 8 inches, able error in the length of the devakh has ;m<l Ins ell at about 17. This shews been committed by Hussey in his reduc- they were a small race.
 * 'Studien und Kritiken,' 1846. p. tion of French lines to English inches,