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. 



