THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 6 77 



and thefe fmall deviations are apparently owing to the fall- 

 ing of neighbouring buildings. There are in the plain, im- 

 mediately before Thebes, two Coloilal ftatues*, obviouily 

 defigned for Nilometers, covered with hieroglyphics, as well 

 as more modern infcriptions ; thefe ftatues are uncovered 

 to the lowed: part of their bafe ; whereas we fhould have now 

 been walking on ground nearly equal in height to their 

 heads. The fame may be faid of every public monument, 

 if there had been any truth in the furface of Egypt increa- 

 fing a foot in a hundred years. 



It appears, at leaftas far as Hadrian's time, that if the peats 

 of the Greeks be the peek of the prefent Egyptians, the 

 fame quantity of water overflowed Egypt as now. 



The advocates for the fuppofed increafe of the land of 

 Egypt on a foot in ioo years, prefled by this obfervation,. 

 which they cannot contradict, have chofe to evade it, by 

 fuppofing, without foundation, that a fmaller meafure of 

 die Nile's increafe had been introduced by the Saracens to 

 obviate the Nile's fcantinefs, and this has landed them in a 

 palpable abfurdity; for, while the Nile failed, the introduc- 

 tion of a lefTer meafure would not have increafed the crop ; 

 and, if the quantity of grain had been exacted when it was 

 not produced, this would have only doubled the diftrefs,and 

 made it more apparent ; this would never have occafioned 

 the joyful. cry, Wafaa UUab> God has given us our defire, men 

 J'Mel, alia Jibbel, the Nile has overflowed, from the mountains 

 on one fide of the valley to the mountains on the other. Be- 



fides, 



* Shaamy and Taamy, of whom we have already- fpoken, 



