Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/729

 THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. joy.

It was natural to fuppofe, that, after knowing v we do, tliat no alteration has been made in the Mikeas fince the 245th year of the Hegira, that the peek of Conftantinople, a fo- reign meafure, was probably then not known, nor introdu- ced into Egypt ; nor, till after the conquer! of Sultan Se- lim, in the year 15 16, was it likely to be the peek with which the Mikeas was meafured. It did not, as I conceive, exift in the 245th of the Hegira, though, even if it had, its dimenfions may have been widely different from thofe fix- ed upon by the number of writers -whofe authority we have quoted, but who do not agree. It was not likely to be the Hendaizy peek either, for this, too, was a foreign meafure, originally from the ifland of Meroe, and well known to the Egyptians in Upper Egypt,; but not at all to the Saracens their prefent matters. The peek, El Belledy, the meafure in common. ufe, and known to all the Egyptians, was the proper cubit to, be em-ployed in an operation which con- cerned a. whole nation,, and was, therefore, the meafure made ufe of in the divifion of the Mikeas, for that column, as I have faid, is divided equally into peeks, or draas, called. Draa El Belledy ', confifting of 22 inches; and each of thefe: peeks is again divided into 24 digits,.

A very ingenious author; who treats of the particular cdrcumftances of thofe times, in his MS. called Km el Moha- derat, fays, that the inhabitants of Seide counted 24 peeks on their Nilometer, when there were 18 peeks marked as the rife of the water upon the Mikeas at Rhoda ; and this ihews perfectly two things : Firft, That they knew the whole fe- cret of counting, there both by the marked and unmarked part of the column ; for the peek of the Mikeas being 22: inches Engliih, it was, by confequence, four inches larger

each.