The river Nile rises once a year in the month of Elul; it covers all the land, and irrigates it to a distance of fifteen days’ journey.  The waters remain upon the surface of the land during the months of Elul and Tishri, and irrigate and fertilize it.

The inhabitants have a pillar of marble, erected with much skill, in order to ascertain the extent of the rise of the Nile.  It stands in the front of an island in the midst of the water, and is twelve cubits high[187].

[p.100]

When the Nile rises and covers the column, they know that the river has risen and has covered the land for a distance of fifteen days’ journey to its full extent.  If only half the column is covered, the water only covers half the extent of the land.  And day by day an officer takes a measurement on the column and makes proclamation thereof in Zoan and in the city of Mizraim, proclaiming:  “Give praise unto the Creator, for the river this day has risen to such and such a height”; each day he takes the measurement and makes his proclamation.  If the water covers the entire column, there will be abundance throughout Egypt.  The river continues to rise gradually till it covers the land to the extent of fifteen days’ journey.  He who owns a field hires workmen, who dig deep trenches in his field, and fish come with the rise of the water and enter the trenches.  Then, when the waters have receded, the fish remain behind in the trenches, and the owners of the fields take them and either eat them or sell them to the fishmongers, who salt them and deal in them in every place.  These fish are exceedingly fat and large, and the oil obtained from them is used in this land for lamp-oil.  Though a man eat a great quantity of these fish, if he but drink Nile water afterwards they will not hurt him, for the waters have medicinal properties.

[p.101]

People ask, what causes the Nile to rise?  The Egyptians say that up the river, in the land of Al-Habash (Abyssinia), which is the land of Havilah, much rain descends at the time of the rising of the river, and that this abundance of rain causes the river to rise and to cover the surface of the land[188].  If the river does not rise, there is no sowing, and famine is sore in the land.  Sowing is done in the month of Marheshwan, after the river has gone back to its ordinary channel.  In the month of Adar is the barley-harvest, and in the month of Nisan the wheat-harvest.

In the month of Nisan they have cherries, pears, cucumbers, and gourds in plenty, also beans, peas, chickpeas, and many kinds of vegetables, such as purslane, asparagus, pulse, lettuce, coriander, endive, cabbage, leek, and cardoon.  The land is full of all good things, and the gardens and plantations are watered from the various reservoirs and by the river-water.

The river Nile, after flowing past (the city of) Mizraim, divides into four heads:  one channel proceeds in the direction of Damietta, which is Caphtor[189], where it falls into the sea.