THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 704 
Ir was natural to fuppofe, that, after knowing, as we do, 
that noalteration 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- 
eed into Egypt; nor, till after the conqueft. of Sultan Se.- 
lim, in the year 1516, was it hkely 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 Meroé, and well known tothe 
Egyptians in Upper Egypt, but nor 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 employed 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. . 
Avery’ ingenious-author, who treats of the particular 
circumftances of thefe times, in his MS. called Han el Moba- 
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 fhews 
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 Lnglifh, it was, by confequence, four inches larger 
each: 
