Dr. Beke on the Sources of the Nile. 99 



century, and 150 years later by Bruce, is (as I know from 

 personal experience) undoubtedly considered by the modern 

 Abessinians to be the Nile. But among the ancient Abessi- 

 nians, (or more properly speaking the Axomites of Northern 

 Abessinia, who were known to the civilized world in the first 

 ages of the Christian aera,) it was the Takkazie, and not the 

 Abai, which was regarded as the Nile. Of this a direct proof 

 is given in the second Adulitic inscription, which, recording 

 the victories of one of the princes of that country, says : — 

 " After this, I reduced Ava and Tziamo, Gambela and the 

 counlr}' round it, Zingabene, Angabe, Tiama, and the A'diagai, 

 Kalaa, and Semene^ a 7iation beyond the Nile, among moun- 

 tains difficult of access and covered with snow ; in all this 

 region there is hail and frost, and snow so deep that the 

 troops sunk up to their knees. I passed the river, and sub- 

 dued them:" — in which passage it is manifest that refer- 

 ence is made to the well-known province of Samien beyond 

 the Takkazie, in which province are the loftiest mountains 

 of Abessinia topped with snow, or more properly speaking, 

 a light kind of hail*. It is not unimportant to the present 

 question to remark that in the ancient Ethiopic language, 

 the word Takkazie is not a proper name, but an appellative 

 signifying river in general; so that " the Takkazie" is simply 

 " the river;" and it is in this sense that in the Ethiopic Scrip- 

 tures it is said that the waters of the Takkazie were turned by 

 Moses into blood. 



But the question of superiority is far from lying between 

 these two rivers, the Takkazie and Abai, alone. Proceeding 

 further southwards up the direct stream of the Bahr el Abyad 

 or White River, we come, in al)out 9° N. lat., to another large 

 arm named Sobat, Telfi, or River of Habesh, which in its upper 

 course is called Bako, then Uma, and afterwards Godjeb. The 

 source of the Godjeb is in KafFa, where it is revered by the 

 natives as the head of the Nile. Nevertheless there is no 

 more real ground for such a preference of the Godjeb than 

 there exists in the case of the two other rivers already men- 

 tioned. The recent expeditions sent by Mohammed Ali, Pasha 

 of Egypt, to explore the Nile, have ascended the White River 



* " Snow i? very rare in Abessinia; it is seen on days when the clouds 

 are but little raised above the earth, and are at the same time widely ex- 

 tended. The flakes are small, triangular, and radiated. 



"Hailstones which fall at an altitude of 4650 to 4700 metres [15,500 to 

 15,600 English feet] have the form ofa truncated polyedric pyramid, hollow- 

 The edges of the pyramid are granulated. This hail is almost as light as 

 ed at the base and summit ; the hollow being in the form ofa reversed cone, 

 snow. " — Letter from M. Schimper, on the Meteorology of Abessinia, in the 

 Coviples Rendus, vol. xxvi. No. 7- (Feb. 14, 1848 , p. 229. 



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