THEVSOURCE OF THE NILE, 677 
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*, obvioufly 
defigned for Nilometers, covered with hieroglyphics, as well 
as more modern infcriptions ; thefe ftatues are: uncovered 
to the lowett 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. 
Ir appears, at leaftas far as Hadrian’s time, that if the pecur 
of the Greeks be the peek of the prefent Egyptians, the 
fame quantity of water overflowed Egypt as now. 
Tue advocates for the fuppofed increafe of the land of 
Egypt on afoot in 1oo years, preffed by this obfervation, 
which they cannot contradict, have chofe to evade it, by 
~ fuppofing, without foundation, that a {fmaller meafure of 
the 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 lefler 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 
maade it more apparent ; this would never have occafioned 
the joyful cry, Wafaa Ullab, God has given us our defire, men 
*ibbel, alla Fibbel, the Nile has overflowed, from the mountains 
on one fide of the valley tothe mountains on the other. Be- 
fides, 
* Shaamy and Taamy, of whom we have already fpoken, 
