240 Dr Beke on the Sources of the Nile 



rect verification." And, as regards the validity of M. d'Ab- 

 badie's hypothesis, I apprehend that the evidence adduced by 

 myself, both in the Journal of the Royal Geographical So- 

 ciety of London* and in the Bulletin of the Geographical 

 Society of Paris, t is sufficient to prove (as far as it can be 

 proved in the existing state of our knowledge on the subject), 

 that it is the Sobi'it, Telfi. or River of Habesh, and not the 

 direct stream of the Bahr el Abyad ascended by the Egyptian 

 expeditions, which is the lower course of the Bako, theGodjeb, 

 the Gibbe, and of all the other rivers belonging to the same 

 hydrographical system. 



That the Godjeb is considered to be the head of the Nile by 

 the inhabitants of Kaffa, who dwell within its curve, is not to 

 be denied. M. d' Abbadie himself tells us, that its source at the 

 foot of the tree between Mounts Boshi and Doshi, is venerated 

 as such. I But this native opinion no more establishes the 

 fact of this river's being the true head of the Kile, than the 

 belief of the modern Abessinians, that the Ahki or Astapus 

 is the Gihon of Genesis,§ proves it to be so ; or than the no- 

 tion of the ancient Axumites or Ethiopians, that the Tak- 

 kazie or Astaboras was the river whose waters were turned 

 by Moses into blood, || establishes its identity with that river. 

 All these native opinions arise from the very natural idea of 

 the people dwelling on the banks of those rivers respectively, 

 that their own river is the principal one, and that all others 

 are merely tributaries to it ; and they can in no case be accept- 

 ed as evidence, on which to decide the general question. 



* Vol. xvii., passim. t 3d Ser., vol. viil., p. 357, et seq. 



I " Les Sidaraas ont une telle veneration pour cette source qu'ils y foiittous 

 les ans un sacrifice solennel." — Nouv. Ann. des Voy., 1845, vol. ii., p. 112. 



§ Journ. Roy. Oeogr. Soc, vol. xvii., p. 36. 



{{ Ibid. In the second portion of the inscription found by Cosmas Indicopleustes 

 at Adule (of which city the ruins exist at Zulla in Annesley Bay, about 30 miles 

 to the south of the island of Massowah), the Takkazie is expressly called the 

 Nile. This portion of the inscription records the conquests of a native Axumite 

 sovereign (see Valentia's Travels, vol. iii., p. 181 ; Salt's Voyage to Abyssinia, 

 p. 411, Appendix, p. Ixxv. ; Vincent's Voyage of Nearchus and Periplus, pp. 118, 

 119) ; and among the countries subdued by him, is mentioned " Sem6ne, a na- 

 tion beyond the Nile, among mountains difficult of access, .and covered vrith 

 snow ;" that is to say, the well-known province of Samen, beyond the Takkazie. 



