244 Dr Beke on the Sources of the Nile 



to Captain Seton, that the Govind Khala, Juba, or Rogues' 

 River, called also Nilo, has its source in common with the 

 Egyptian river of the same name ; and at the same time a 

 case is made out which is precisely parallel to that of the 

 alleo-ed branchinff-off of the direct stream of the Nile towards 

 the coast of Zangebar. 



Remarkable as this coincidence is, there is another which 

 is not less so. In the language of the Somalis, through whose 

 country the Juba river flows, the word Wabbi (Wehi or Wabe) 

 is not a proper name, but an appellative, signifying " river ;" 

 and in its unqualified application to any particular stream, it 

 must be understood to mean the river, xar st,o-x/iv* Now, 

 Wabbi is the name of the stream which I have hypothetically 

 identified with Ptolemy's second arm of the Nile ; and Wabbi, 

 as I shall next proceed to shew, is not only the designation 

 of Captain Seton's River Nilo, or Gowin, — which latter name 

 is nothing more than Wabbi-Giweyna, that is to say, " the 

 great river ;" but it is also the designation of another river of 

 the coast, which was called by the Arabian geographers the 

 Nile of Mdkdashu. 



This latter river is one which is well known to us, at least 

 by name. Professor Lee, in a note to his translation of Ibn 

 Batuta, says,t " Abulfeda, as given by Rinck and Eichhorn 

 {Africa, p. 33), pronounces this word Mahdishu, and says, that 

 it is situate on the Indian sea ; that its inhabitants are Mos- 

 lems. It has a large river like the Nile of Egypt, which 

 swells in the summer season : it is said to be a branch of the 

 Nile, which issues from the lake of Kuara, and runs into the 

 Indian sea near Makdishu." At the present day, however, 

 the channel of this river into the Indian Ocean has become 

 choked up, and after running some distance parallel to the 

 coast, it terminates in a lake near the sea-shore. 



Captain Smee states respectfng this river,J that " five or 

 six coss, or about one day's journey, at the back of the towns 

 of Magadosha, Marca, and Brava, is situated a small stream 



* It is probable that the Ahai of Abessinia was originally an appellative 

 cognate with the name Wqbhi. 

 t P. 55. 

 X Trans, uf Bomb. Geoffr. Soc, 1841— A4, p. 59. 



