5. The Halebi Pík or Arshīn
The date of this measure is as uncertain as its source. It is a Turkish measure = 27·9 inches or thereabouts, divided into 16 qirát. This division points to it being 2/3 of a Persian guz of 24 qirát.
Among the guz of Persia there is one = 1-2/3 Hashími cubits = 42 inches, of which 16/24 = 28 inches. If this length were taken, it might have been somewhat lessened to make it an aliquot part of the Turkish reed or qasáb, 6 Hashími cubits = 153·36 inches. At the length of 27·9 inches, 5-1/2 arshīn = 153·45 inches or within 1/10 inch of the qasáb.
It is curious that the Reed should be 5-1/2 arshīns, as our Rod is 5-1/2 yards.
While the Turkish qasáb is—
7 Beládi cubits, 6 Hashími cubits = 5-1/2 arshīns, the Egyptian qasáb, somewhat less, is—
6 Assyrian cubits of 25·26 inches = 151·56 inches, or 5-1/2 double royal feet of 13·76 = 151·36 inches, and is divided into 10 ‘belendi’ feet of 15·156 inches.
There is a lesser Egyptian qasáb of 5 arshīns = 139·65 inches and a third still less, of 4 Assyrian cubits = 101 inches. With each of these qasáb 20 × 20 make a Feddan of land.
The word Pík is the Greek pichūs, a cubit.
Note of Acknowledgment
In this and the next two chapters I have necessarily had to work largely on materials gathered by others. The equivalents of foreign measures and weights are in many cases taken from—
Kelly’s ‘Cambist,’ 1816.
Woolhouse’s ‘Measures, Weights and Moneys of all Nations,’ 1890.
De Malarce, ‘Poids et Mesures,’ 1879.
Browne’s ‘Merchants’ Handbook,’ 1899.
The information in the last of these is excellently compiled and very trustworthy.
My object is to give, not tabulated series of measures but their history and rationale, to apprehend the ways of thought which have given rise to them, to seek their relations. No country has an isolated system, or even an isolated measure, and unity underlies the infinite variety of measures and weights.
Table of Some European Itinerary Measures
| Yards | Miles | ||
| 1. Meridian mile—Naples | 2026-2/3 | 1·1515 | |
| „ league, 1/20 degree | — | 4·54 | |
| 2. Ancient Roman mile | 1621-1/3 | 0·921 | |
| 3. Roman mile, modified— | |||
| Venice, 1000 paces of 5 feet | 1901 | 1·08 | |
| Sicily, 720 rods of 8 palmi | 1625 | 0·924 | |
| Spain, 1000 paces of 5 feet | 1520 | 0·863 | |
| Portugal, 8 stadia of 234-2/3 varas | 2281 | 1·296 | |
| England, 8 furlongs of 220 yards | 1760 | 1·0 | |
| France, 1000 toises | 2131 | 1·21 | |
| 4. German Meile, about a meridian league— | |||
| Austria, 4000 fathoms of 6 feet | — | 4·71 | |
| Prussia and Denmark, 2000 rods of 12 feet | — | 4·68 | |
| Hanover, 1587 rods of 16 feet | — | 4·66 | |
| Brunswick, 1625 rods of 16 feet | — | 4·61 | |
| 5. An ‘hour-walk’ league— | |||
| Holland—Uur gaans | — | — | |
| Switzerland—Stunde, 1600 rods of 10 feet | — | 2·98 | |
| 6. Russia—Verst, 500 sajeng of 7 feet | 1166·6 | 0·663 | |
[45]. In this ‘pawn’ (the spelling of which shows that English had already lost the a sound of the first vowel and had to represent it by aw) I see the fusion of two words etymologically different, the Italian palmo, L. palmus, and the Provençal pán, side, panel. See, in Chaps. [IV] and [XXI], ‘The Pán of Marseilles.’
[46]. As pointed out by Don V. V. Queipo (Essai sur les Systèmes Métriques, 1859), but not quite accurately. His values are often confused or obscure, but his work is most useful.