THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 681 



king was not to exact his tribute, becaufe it was underffood 

 fuch a quantity only was produced as was fufficient for the 

 maintenance of the landholder and labourer. This was re- 

 ferred to the Nilometer, whofe divifion fhewed to what 

 height the Nile had rifen. Men appointed by the fovereign 

 were to fuperintend this Nilometer, and to publifh the height 

 of the Nile, whilfl the reafon why the king was to have the 

 direction of the Nilometer, and not his fubjects, was very 

 obvious, though it has not yet been underftood, becaufe the 

 king could not gain by fubftituting falfe meafures, where- 

 as the people might. 



The Nile, though in an average of years it brought down 

 nearly the fame quantity of water, yet, in particular ones, 

 it varied fometimes more and fometimes lefs. It is like- 

 wife obferved, like moll other rivers, to run more on one 

 fide of the valley for fome years than to the other. The 

 confequence of this varying and deviation was, that though, 

 upon the whole, the quantity indicated by the Nilometer was 

 the fame, yet nobody knew his quota, or what proportion of 

 the whole was drawn from the property of each individual; 

 as for this they were obliged to apply to actual menfuration, 

 Suppofing a man's property was a fection of the land of E- 

 gvpt, of 1 2,000 feet from the brink of the river to the moun- 

 tain, and of any given breadth, 4000 feet of this perhaps 

 were overflowed, whilii the other 8000 remained dry, and 

 above the level of the water. The tenant, after having mea- 

 fured, did not till then know what his farm of 12,000 feet 

 would give him for that year, only 4000 of which had been 

 overflowed by the water, and was then fit for fowing ; for 

 this he paid his landlord the higheft rent laid upon cultiva- 



Vol. III. 4 R ted 



