5 1 6 NILOMETERS. 



closely watched by generation after generation of the- 

 people of Egypt, and since the beginning of the eighth 

 century of the Christian era there has been a regular 

 Nilometer at Cairo, for recording the height of these 

 floods ; indeed even long before that date Herodotus and 

 Diodorus Siculus state that several of the Pharaohs erected 

 Nilometers at Memphis and other places for the same 

 purpose. The supreme importance to Egypt of a good 

 inundation can hardly be realized in England ; and 

 such is the anxiety of the whole people to hear how 

 it progresses, that it is usual, during the whole period 

 of the rise of the Nile, to proclaim the measured in- 

 crease of the river daily through the streets of Cairo 

 by public criers, to each of whom a particular district 

 is allotted. * 



The causes of the inundations have naturally been in all 

 ages a burning question in Egypt, and have given rise to 

 endless theories. Among the ancient Greeks for instance, 

 many people supposed that the waters were banked up 

 by the north wind, which at that season frequently 

 blows from the Mediterranean; others again believed 

 that the waters of the sea flowed up like a tide at 

 the time of the inundations over the land of Egypt, f 



Among the Copts on the other hand it is quite an 

 article of belief, that on a certain night, to wit the 

 1 7th of June, a miraculous drop falls from heaven, and 

 so causes the great river to rise. This night is known 

 as the " Lelet-en-Nuktah, " or " the Night of the 

 Drop, " and was formerly observed as an important anni- 

 versary and one of the principal " Festivals of the Seasons, " 



* See Murray's Handbook for Egypt, p. 229. 



j See "Herodotus" Book ii. (Eziterpe), Sect. 20 to 22, translation 

 by Henry Gary, Oxford 1847. London Edition of 1891, p. 88. 



