7 oo TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



From what I have juft now mentioned, I hope it is fuffi- 

 ciently plain to the reader, that the length and divifion of 

 the column in the Mikeas, by which the quantity of water, 

 and confequently the increafe of the foil, was to be determin- 

 ed, was utterly unknown to thofe travellers who had un- 

 dertaken this mode of determining it. 



I shall now inquire, whether they were better inftruct- 

 ed in the length of that meafure, which, after the Sa- 

 racen conquelt, was introduced into the Nilometer, of 

 Geeza, where it has remained unaltered fince the year 245 ? 

 Dr Shaw introduces the confideration of this fubjecl: by an 

 enumeration of many different peeks, feven of which he 

 quotes from Arabian authors, as being then in ufe. Firit, 

 the Homarams if digit of the common cubit. 2. The Ha- 

 famean, or greater peek, of 24 digits. 3. The Belalasan, lefs 

 than the Hafamean. 4. The black cubit lefs than the Bela- 

 lean 2| digits. 5. The Joflippamn f of a digit lefs than the 

 black cubit. 6. The Chord, or Afaba, i| digit lefs than the 

 black peek. 7. The Maharanius, 2f digits lefs than the 

 black cubit*. Now, I will appeal to any one to what all 

 this information amounts, when I am not told the length of 

 the common peek to which he refers the reft, as being i\ 

 digit, or 2 digits more or lefs. He himfelf thinks that the 

 meafuring peek is the Stambouline peek, but then, for com- 

 putation's fake, he takes a peek of his own invention, being 

 a medium of 4 or 5 guetfes, and fixes it at 25 inches, for 

 which he has no authority but his own imagination. 



I WILL 



* Shaw, p. 380. 381. 



