The process of involution by which the Pán of Marseilles was derived from the side of an Escandau of quadrantal form has been described in Chapter IV.
The Cano or fathom, = 79·24 inches, was 8 pán or spans each = 9·904 inches; the span was of 8 menut or inches, also divided into 8 parts.[47]
In Provençal, the principal idiom of the Occitanian language, nouns take no plural form; so pán, cáno, &c., do not change. The Provençal words in this chapter are pronounced—páng, cánn, saomádd, eymīnn, escandáo, panáo, cárrg, miyeyròl.
The basis of the Southern system, typically that of Marseilles, was then the Cargo, a corn-measure = 34·73 gallons (the equivalent of 154·79 litres, the official metric value), which was the cubic cubit of Al-Mamūn:
21·28 inches cubed = 9639 c.i. = 34·73 gallons.
Now what water or wine measure would be produced from the Cargo, decreased in wheat-water ratio?
Dividing the measure of the cargo by 1·22 we have:
A fluid measure of this capacity is not in use at Marseilles, but we find its half, almost exactly, in the Mieirolo = 14·19 gallons, a wine and oil measure used extensively in Mediterranean ports.
The word Mieirolo, in which _mié_ means half, corresponds to the name of the first in an Italian series of wine-measures:
Mezzaruola, Terzaruola, Quartaruola, fractions of a 28-gallon measure now apparently obsolete.
Marseilles, 64·384 litres = 14·19 gallons. Tripoli, 64·386 „ „ „ Tunis, 63·347 „ 13·97 „ Spain, 64·55 „ 14·23 „
One-fourth of the Mieirolo, or one-eighth of the obsolete wine-cargo, is the Escandau, equal to the Spanish arroba (a word meaning ‘quarter’), and containing, at the present Marseilles standard, 16·096 litres = 3·54 gallons. To this Escandau or standard corresponds, in water-wheat ratio, the Panau = 4·34 gallons, 1/8 of the Cargo = 4·34 bushels or 34·73 gallons.
The correspondence of this series of wine and corn measures, in southern water-wheat ratio, is perfect, even after many centuries, probably since the tenth century. The Escandau and the Panau or Eimino correspond then to about 4 wine-gallons and 4 corn-gallons.
The Escandau has always been understood to be a cubic pán. Escandau[48] means a standard; Pán means a side, pane or panel, and it is the measure of the side of a ‘quadrantal’ containing an Escandau of water, as our foot is the measure of one containing an English talent of 1000 Roman ounces of water. The cube root of 16·096 litres is 25·24 centimetres, a length differing by less than a millimetre from the standard of the Marseilles pán = 25·16 centimetres or 9·9 inches.