1839] 



On the Slatislics of DuJchun, 



449 



applied to the capacity, extent, or capabilities of land, are not referrible 

 to the Beegah or its multiples, I must consider the Beegah of IMoosul- 

 man introduction. Like itinerary measures, it is raised from the Buhi 

 or cubit of a fraction more than 18 inches in length; 5 Balits and 5 

 J/ooiV/^^e^ (fists or palms) make! Eat tee or stick, 20 square Kaltees 

 or sticks make 1 Paan J, and 20 Pannds a Beegah ; reduced to Englisli 

 measurements, the 5 Eah's and 5 Moo^ldees will be equal to 105 inches 

 in length, and the square of this sum will be 11,025 inches in a square 

 Kutt>!e or stick, and 20 Katteea a Paand equal to 220,500 inches, and 

 20 Paands a Beegah or 4,410,000 square inches ; and as the English sta- 

 tute acre contains 43,560 square feet, the Beegah is to the acre as 70| 

 is to lOO, or as 211 to 1^00, being a trifie more than seven-tenths of an 

 acre. But as the ^^a/^^ or cubit is a fra tion more than 18 inches, the 

 Beegah may fairly be consinered equal to three-fourths of an acre : but 

 I very much doubt whether any other than garden lands were aclually 

 measured by the Moosulmans ; and in converting the Hindoo terms 

 Kuncee, Mun, Doree, and fifty other denominations, into Beegahs, it 

 was done by estimate ; and this explanation v\-ill account for the variable 

 size of the Beegah in different parts of the country, ^vhich the British 

 survey has discovered. The only multiples of the Beegah, to my 

 knowledge, are the Roolceh of 6 Beegahs or 4| acres, and the Chahoor 

 of 120 Beegahs or 90 acres: these terms are of Moosuhnan origin. 



Adverting to the past and present state of the knowledge of native go- 

 vernments in politics, political economy and science, it would be idle to 

 refer the origin of their weights and measures to scientific principles, 

 immutable standards, or even to any uniform, although arbitrary system. 

 Their long measure is derived from the human arm, and their weights 

 from a seed. In these derivations they have not been a whit more irra- 

 tional than the good people of England, whose standard measure of length, 

 the Ulna or Ell, is derived from the arm of one of their kings, (Henry 

 the First), and their weights from grains of wheat. There is a great 

 coincidence between the native weights and measures and those of anti- 

 quity. The first five subdivisions of the scripture measures of length 

 are identical in their derivation, and nearly so in their length, with those 

 of Dukhun: namely, the finger, fist or palm, span, ^^ftA^ or cubit, and 

 fathom ; both also have the coincidence of being destitute of a measure 

 equivalent to a foot. The foot w^as a constituent of the ancient Greek 

 and Roman measures ; but in pract ice these nations used the finger, palm, 

 and cubit ; and the Pecus or great cubit of the Greeks was precisely of 

 the length of the Dukhun cubit, namely, a fraction more than 18 inches. 



