In this manner the irregularities of the Nile were corrected; and Strabo remarks, that in his time, under Petronius a governour of Egypt, when the inundation of the Nile was twelve cubits, a very great plenty enfued; and even when it rofe but to eight cubits, the dearth was fcarce felt in the country; doubtlefs, because the waters of the lake made up for those of the inundation, by the help of canals and drains. T SECT. V. The Inundations of the NILE. HE Nile is the greatest wonder of Egypt. As it feldom rains there, this river, which waters the whole country by its regular inundations, fupplies that defect, by bringing, as a yearly tribute, the rains of other countries; which made a poet fay ingeniously, The Egyptian paftures, how great joever the drought. may be, never implore Jupiter for rain. Te propter nullos tellus tua poftulat imbres To multiply fo beneficent a river, Egypt was cut into numberless canals, of a length and breadth proportioned to the different fituation and wants of the lands. The Nile brought fertility every where with its falutary streams; united cities one with another, and the Mediterranean with the Red-Sea, maintained trade at home and abroad, and fortified the Kingdom against the enemy; fo that it was at once the nourisher and protector of Egypt. The fields were delivered up to it; but the cities that were rais'd with immenfe labour, and ftood like iflands in the midft of the waters, look'd down with joy on the plains which were overflowed, and at the fame time enrich'd by the Nile. Seneca (Nat. Queft. 1 4. c. 2.) afcribes thefe verfes to Ovid, but they are Tibullus's. THIS is a general idea of the nature and effects of this river, fo famous among the ancients. But a wonder fo aftonishing in itself, and which has been the object of the curiofity and admiration of the learned in all ages, feems to require a more particular description, in which I fhall be as concife as poffible. 1. The fource of the Nile. THE ancients placed the fources of the Nile in the mountains of the moon (as they are commonly call'd) in the toth degree of fouth-latitude. But our modern travellers have discovered that they lie in the 12th degree of north-latitude and by that means they cut off about four or five hundred leagues of the course which the ancients gave to that river. It rifes at the foot of a great mountain in the kingdom of Goyam in Abyffinia, from two fprings, or eyes, to fpeak in the language of the country, the fame word in Arabick fignifying eye or fountain. These springs are thirty paces from one another, each as large as one of our wells or a coach-wheel. The Nile is increas'd with many rivulets which run into it; and after paffing through Ethiopia in a meandrous course, flows at laft into Egypt. 8. The cataracts of the Nile. THAT name is given to fome parts of the Nile, where the water falls down from the steep rocks *. Excipiunt eum (Nilum) 'cataractæ, nobilis infigni fpectaculo locus. . . . . Illic excitatis primum aquis, quas fine tumultu leni alveo duxerat, violentus & torrens per malignos tranfitus profilit, diffimilis fibi ... tandemque eluctatus obftantia, in This vaftam altitudinem fubito deftitutus cadit, cum ingenti circumjacentium regionum ftrepitu; quem perferre gens ibi a Perfis collocata non potuit, obtufis affiduo fragore auribus, & ob hoc fedibus ad quietiora tranflatis. Inter miracula fluminis incredi at This river, which first glided fmoothly along the vaft deferts of Ethiopia, before it enters Egypt, paffes by the cataracts. Then growing on a fudden, contrary to its nature, raging and violent in thofe places where it is pent up and restrained; after hav+ ing at laft broke through all obftacles in its way, it precipitates from the top of fome rocks to the bot tom, with fo loud a noise, that it is heard three leagues off. na THE inhabitants of the country, accustomed by long practice to this fport, exhibit here a fpectacle to travellers that is more terrifying than diverting. Two of them go into a little boat; the one to guide it, the other to throw out the water. After having long fuftained the violence of the raging waves, by maging their little boat very dextroufly, they fuffer themselves to be carried away with the impe tuous torrent as fwift as an arrow. The affrighted fpectator imagines they are going to be swallowed up in the precipice down which they fall; when the Nile, reftored to its natural courfe, difcovers them again, at a distance, on its fmooth and calm waters. This is Seneca's account, which is confirmed by our modern travellers. 3. Caufes of the inundations of the Nile. 1. 2. THE ancients have invented many fubtil rèa- Herod. fons for the Nile's great increafe, as may be seen in c.19-27. Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus and Seneca. But it is Diod. I. 1. now no longer a matter of difpute (it being almost p.35-39. bilem incolarum audaciam accepi. Bini parvula navigia confcendunt, quorum alter navem regit, alter exhaurit. Deinde multum inter rapidam infaniam Nili & reciprocos fluctus volutati, tandem tenuiffimos canales tenent, per quos angufta rupium effugiunt & cum toto Hamine effufi, navigium ruens Senec. manu temperant, magnoque Nat. C. 2. univer Lib. 17. P. 789. univerfally allowed, that the inundations of the Nile are owg to the great rains which fall in Ethiopia, from whence this river flows. These rains fwell it to fuch a degree, that Ethiopia firft, and then Egypt, are overflow'd; and that which at firft was but a large river, rises like a fea, and overspreads the whole country. STRA BO observes, that the ancients only guess'd that the inundations of the Nile were owing to the rains which fall in great abundance in Ethiopia; but adds, that feveral travellers have fince been eyewitneffes of it. Ptolemy Philadelphus, who was very curious in all things relating to arts and fciences, having fent thither able perfons purposely to examine forthis matter, and to ascertain the cause of fo uncomselves mon and remarkable a circumstance. Herod. P. 32. the ba fort. The time and continuance of the inundations. HERODOTUS, and after him Diodorus Siculus, 1.2. 19. md feveral other authors, declare, that the Nile Diod. 1. 1. begins to flow in Egypt at the summer-folftice, that is, about the end of June, and continues to rife till the end of September; and then decreases gradually during the months of October and November; after which it returns to its channel, and refumes its wanted courfe. This account agrees almost with the relations of all the moderns, and is founded in reality on the natural cause of the inundation, viz. the rains which fall in Ethiopia. Now, according to the constant teftimony of those who have been on the spot, these rains begin to fall in the month of April, and continue, during five months, till the end of Auguft and beginning of September. The Nile's increase in Egypt muft confequently begin three weeks or a month after the rains have begun to fall in Abyffinia; and accordingly travellers obferve, that the Nile begins to rife in the month of May, but fo flowly at first, that it probably does not yet overflow overflow its banks. The Inundation happ laced till about the end of June, and lasts the three f ing months, according to Herodotus. 1 re a I MUST point out to fuch as confult the origi a contradiction in this place between Herodotus Diodorus on one fide; and on the other betv Strabo, Pliny and Solinus. These laft fhorten v much the continuance of the inundation; and su pose the Nile to draw off from the lands in thre months or a hundred days. And that which adds to the difficulty, is, Pliny feems to ground his opinion on the testimony of Herodotus: In totum autem revocatur Nilus intra ripas in libra, ut tradit Herodotus, centefimo die. I leave to the learned the reconcil of this contradiction. 5. The height of the inundations. to k on their et the * THE juft height of the inundation, according to Pliny, is fixteen cubits. When it rifes but to twelve or thirteen, a famine is threaten'd; and when it exceeds fixteen, there is danger. It must be remember'd that a cubit is a foot and half. The Emperor Julian takes notice in a letter to Ecdicius prefect of Egypt, that the height of the Nile's overflowing was fifteen cubits, the 20th of September, in 362. The ancients do not agree entirely with one another, nor with the moderns, with regard to the height of the inundation; but the difference is not very constderable, and may proceed, 1. from thef over all between the ancient and modern meafue Nile are 'tis hard to estimate on a fixed and cof ca2. from the carelesnefs of the obferyhich How to * Juftum incrementum eft cu- In duod July and Aubitorum 16. Minores aquæ non tit, in ch part of them omnia rigant: ampliores detinent tardius recedendo. Hæ ferendi tempora abfumunt folo madente: illæ non dant fitiente. Utrumque reputat provincia. C rit: qu water is ritatem efe canals, there curitatem, nnot receive the Plin. 1 5 is want is fupplist |
