They were perfectly acquainted with their ancient measure, and it is probable that Omar made an excessive addition by the new Nilometers which he had erected; so that faith being thereby broken between the government and people, the Egyptians set about watching the Nile upon the Nilometer with its new measure, as the only way of being informed when poverty or famine was to overtake them. This being told to Omar, he ordered the new Nilometer to be demolished; but as it had been part of the complaint to him, that their counting the divisions of the Mikeas[162] was the reason why the people were kept in continual terror, he shut up the access to Christians, and that prohibition continues in Cairo to this day; and, instead of permitting ocular inspection, he ordered the daily increase to be proclaimed, but in a manner so unintelligible, that the Egyptians in general no longer understood it, nor do they understand it now; for, beginning at a given point, which was not the bottom of the Nilometer, he went on, telling the increase by subtracting from the upper division; so that as nobody knew the lower point from which he began, although they might comprehend how much it had risen since the crier proclaimed its increase, yet they never could know the height of the water that was in the Nilometer when the proclamation began, nor what the division was to which it had ascended on the pillar.
To understand this, let us premise, that, on the point of the island Rhoda, between Geeza and Cairo, near the middle of the river, but nearer to Geeza, is a round tower, and in that an apartment, in the middle of which is a very neat well, or cistern, lined with marble, to which the Nile has free access, through a large opening like an embrasure, the bottom of the well being on the same level with the bottom of the river. In the middle of this well rises a thin column, as far as I can remember, of eight faces of blue and white marble, to the foot of which, if you are permitted to descend, you are then on the same plane with the foot of the column and bottom of the river. This pillar is divided into 20 peeks, called Draa El Belledy, of 22 inches each[163].
The two lowermost peeks are not divided at all, but are left absolutely without mark, to stand for the quantity of sludge the water deposits there, and which occupies the place of water. Two peeks are then divided on the right hand into 24 digits each; then, on the left, four peeks are divided each into 24 digits; then, on the right, four; and, on the left, another four: again, four on the right, which complete the number of 18 peeks from the first division marked on the pillar each of 22 inches. The whole, marked and unmarked, amounts to 36-8/12 feet English.
On the night of St John, when the Nucta has fallen, that is, when they see the rain-water from Ethiopia is so mixed with the Nile that at Cairo it is become exhalable, and falls down in dews upon the earth, which till that time it never does, they then begin to cry, having five peeks of water marked on the Mikeas, and two unmarked for the sludge; of which they take no notice in the proclamation. Their first proclamation, suppose the Nile hath risen 12 digits, is 12 from six, or it wants 12 digits to be six peeks. When it rises three more, it is nine from six, or, Tissa am Sitte, and so it goes on, subtracting the digits from the upper number, without giving you any information what that six is, or that they began to count from five, which I suppose is the assumed depth of the Nile before it begins to increase.
When the river has risen on the Mikeas eight peeks and 23 digits, they then call Wahad am erba Tush, i. e. one from 14, five peeks of water being left marked in the Mikeas, but only eight of augmentation that has risen upon the column, according to the divisions, which make in all 13 peeks and 23 digits, which wants one from being nine of augmentation, and that being added, they cry Wafaa Ullah, which obliges the country to the payment of the meery. Again, suppose 17 peeks, or cubits, and 23 digits to stand on the column, the cry is Wahad am temen Tush, i. e. one from 18, and, upon this being filled, and the divisions complete by a certain day in August, the next is Ashareen, 20, or, men Jibbel, alla Jibbel, from mountain to mountain, that is, 18 peeks marked on the pillar, and two unmarked at the foot of it, supposed to be covered with mud. All the land of Egypt is then fitted for cultivation; the great canal at Mansoura, and several others, are opened, which convey the water into the desert, and hinder any further stagnation on the fields, though there is still a great part of the water to come from Ethiopia, but which would not drain soon enough to fit the land for tillage, were the inundation suffered to go on.
Now, from these 16 peeks the Wafaa Ullah if we deduce 5, which were in the well, and marked on the column when the crier began, there will have been but 11 peeks of rise as a minimum, which still made the meery due, or 15, deducing 5 from 20, the maximum, men Jibbel, alla Jibbel, the increase that fits all Egypt for cultivation, after which is loss and danger. Therefore, suppose the 16 peeks on the medal of Hadrian to have been the minimum or fiscal term, we must infer, that the same quantity of inundation produced the Wafaa Ullah or payment of the meery, in Hadrian’s time, that it does at this day, and consequently the land of Egypt has not increased since his time, that is, in the last 1600 years.
As a summary of the whole relating to this periodical inundation of the Nile, I shall here deliver my opinion, which I think, as it is founded upon ancient history, consonant to that of intermediate times, and, invincibly established by modern observation, can never be overturned by any argument whatever. And this I shall do as shortly as possible, lest, having anticipated it in part by reflections explanatory of the narrative, it may at first sight have the appearance of repetition.
It is agreed on all hands, that Egypt, in early ages, had water enough to overflow the ground that composed it. It was then a narrow valley as it is now; having been early the seat of the arts, crowded with a multitude of people, enriched by the most flourishing and profitable trade, and its numbers supplied and recruited when needful by the immense nations to the southward of it, having grain and all the necessaries and luxuries of life (oil excepted) for the great multitude which it fed, Egypt was averse to any communication with strangers till after the foundation of Alexandria.
The first princes, after the building of Memphis, finding the land turn broader towards the Delta, whereas before it had been a narrow stripe confined between mountains; observing also that they had great command of water for fitting their land for cultivation, nay, that great part of it ran to waste without profit, which must have been the case, since it is so at this day: observing likewise, that the superabundance of water in the Nile did harm, and that the neighbouring sandy plains of Libya needed nothing but a judicious distribution of that water, to make it equal to the land of Egypt in fertility, and surpass it in the variety of natural productions, applied themselves very early to digging large lakes[164], that, preserving a degree of level sufficient, all the year long watered the dry deserts of Libya like so many fruitful showers. Geometry, architecture, and all the mechanic arts of those times, were employed to accomplish those designs. These canals and vast works communicated one with another to imprison the water, and set it again at liberty at proper times.
We may be satisfied this was observed attentively all the time of the dynasties, or reigns of the Egyptian princes. After the accession of the Ptolemies, who were strangers, the multitude of inhabitants had greatly decreased. There was no occasion for works to water lands that were not peopled; so far as they were necessary for cities, gardens, and pleasure-grounds, they were always kept up. The larger and more extensive conduits, dykes, and sluices, though they were not used, were protected by their own solidity and strength from sudden ruin. Egypt, now confined within its ancient narrow valley, had water enough to keep it in culture, and make it still the granary of the inhabited world.