“The author of the book called the ‘Mirror of Ages,’ says, ‘Hameed, son of Biktiari, has stated that the fountain which is the first of all the fountains is in Mount Gumr. From this fountain start ten rivers, one of which is the Nile. They say that the Nile traverses the first zone, then passes into the second zone, and that the length of it from the source to the Mediterranean is 3,000 parasangs. Some have thought that these fountains are the cause of the rise, whereas others say--and this is the most probable--that the cause is the abundance of rain and torrents in Abyssinia and Nubia, and that the delay in the rise reaching Egypt is on account of the great distance. All other rivers flow to the south, whereas it flows northward, and like it, Orontes in North Syria near Hamath.’ “Ti Farshi says that ‘some astronomers state that the Nile comes from beyond the equator 11½°, and then flows on to Damietta and Alexandria at 30° lat. N. They say from its source to its mouth are 142⅓° nearly, hence the length would be 8614⅓ miles with all its meanderings. It meanders eastward and westward greatly.’ “Achmed, son of Ti Farshi, in his book of the description of the Nile, says, ‘historians relate that Adam bequeathed the Nile unto Seth his son, and it remained in the possession of these children of prophecy and of religion, and they came down to Egypt (or Cairo) and it was then called Lul, so they came and dwelt upon the mountains. After them came a son Kinaan, then his son Mahaleel, and then his son Yaoud, and then his son Hamu and his son Hermes--that is Idrisi the prophet.[19] Idrisi began to reduce the land to law and order. The Nile used to come flowing down upon them, and they would escape from it to the high mountains and to elevated land until the river fell, then they would plant whatever country was left bare. Idrisi gathered the people of Egypt and went with them to the first stream of the Nile,[20] and there adjusted the levelling of the land and of the water by lowering the high land and raising the low land and other things according to the science of astronomy and surveying. Idrisi was the first person who spoke and wrote books upon these sciences. He then went to the land of Abyssinia and Nubia, and gathered the people, and extended the distance of the flow of the Nile, or reduced it according to the swiftness or sluggishness of the stream. He even calculated the volume of the water and the rate of flow. He is the first man who regulated the flow of the Nile to Egypt. It is said that in the days of Am Kaam, one of the Kings of Egypt, Idrisi was taken up to Heaven, and he prophesied the coming of the flood, so he remained the other side of the equator and there built a palace on the