Adams, Walter M.: The house of the hidden places: a clue to the creed of early Egypt from Egyptian sources (London, 1895)

164 The Mystery of the Depths. [Ch.

inches into which the casing-stone is divided,
when considered as a measure of space, viz.
twenty-five ; a close approximation to which
is found in two specimens * belonging to the
IVth dynasty, which were discovered at Ghizeh
—that is to say, which were employed in the
neighbourhood of the Grand Pyramid about
the time of its erection. Again, taking as
unit the semi-radius of the cycle of Equinox,
the radius of which cycle is about 4122 years,
and expressing an inch to a century, the half
of it gives us the cubit of 20'6 inches; and
this measure is the more common form of
the Egyptian cubit, the standard employed for
the sacred " Tat," or Nilometer, which measured
the waters of life, the symbol regarded as the

* Mr. Petrie maintains this cubit to be " evidently an
Egyptian edition of the royal twenty-five inch cubit of
Persia;" but why a Persian cubit should be employed
at Ghizeh, or what we know of Persia some thousands of
years before the time of Darius, he does not tell us. It
is difficult to see why he might not with equal reason
pronounce the Capitol of Eomulus to be " evidently an
Italian edition of the Capitol at Washington."