THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 683
juft high enough not to pay the meery*, for then he has all the harvefl to himfelf, and pays nothing, though he has very near the fame quantity as if he was fubjedt to the tax. The other is, when near the whole of thefe 12,000 feet is overflowed by the Nile, but before the water is in contact with the current of the river; for then, though he is liable to pay the meery, he has fown the greateft part of his land pomble, without additional labour or expence ; more than this is lofs, for then the water of the inundation is put like- wife in motion, and all the floating pulverifed earth that has been troae into an impalpable powder, during March, April, and May, is fwept away by the current into the fea, and nothing left but a bare, cold, hard till, which produces little, and is not eafily pulverifed by the poor inftruments of hufbandry there in ufe, when neither farmer nor landhold- er pays any thing, becaufe, indeed, there is not any re- ceipt.
However, from this uncertainty one thing arifes which does not feem to have been underttood ; for the tenant, not knowing precifely the quantity of feed that he may want, comes to his farm unprovided, and, being uncertain of its produce, takes his land only from year to year ; the land- lord furnifhes him with feed f, and even with all labour- ing utenfils.
And here I am to explain what I have before advanced, what to fome will feem a paradox, That the fubftituting
4 R 2 falfe
- The king's yearly land-tax, orient.
I Gen. chap, xlvii. ver. zo & 23.
