142 grs., the other 152 grs. But until some literary evidence is forthcoming for the existence of this second and heavier kat[1], we must suspend our judgment. It is perfectly possible that such existed, being used for some purpose different from that of the kat of 140 grains. For instance it might have been used specially for copper owing to a desire to make certain adjustments between silver and copper, but this is of course mere conjecture.
It is worth while here to see the method by which those who believe in a scientific system of Egyptian origin obtain their unit.
Signor Bortolotti (Del primitivo cubito Egizio) thinks that the uten of 1400 grains is exactly the 1/1000 part of the weight of a cubic cubit of Nile water, the cubit in question being not the ordinary royal cubit of 20·66 inches, but a measure which he
- ↑ W. M. Flinders Petrie, Naukratis, p. 75. It is with extreme reluctance that I must refuse to follow Mr Petrie, who for careful accuracy and scientific method stands at the head not only of metrologists but of archaeologists in general. But it seems to me that in his method of arriving at his weight-units from the weighing of weight-pieces he has overlooked one very important factor. False weights and balances have prevailed in all ages and countries, and we can hardly wrong the ancient Egyptians if we suppose that a certain number of their nation were not as honest as they might have been in their dealings. The variations in the weights of his specimens given by Mr Petrie may very well be due to false weights. And it must be carefully noted that frauds were not only perpetrated by means of light but also by means of too heavy weights. Whether the Jews learned to cheat when they sojourned in the land of Goshen or not, we cannot say, but that they used too heavy as well as too light weights is plain from the denunciations of the prophets: thus Amos (viii. 5), "When will the new moon be gone that we may sell corn? and the sabbath that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?" See also Ezekiel xlv. 10. But the practice of cheating with too heavy as well as with too light weights is best seen in Deuteronomy xxv. 13; "Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small; thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. Thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have." It seems hardly likely that of the 516 weights found by Mr Petrie at Naukratis all were "perfect and just" weights. It is thus quite possible that the variations from what there is evidence to suppose is the normal standard, whether they be those of excess or deficiency, may be accounted for, at least in part, by this consideration. Mr Petrie's method, if applied to natural products such as certain kinds of seeds, will of course give the truest possible result, but when the factor of human knavery enters, his method is at once open to serious drawbacks.
