72 MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 



not enter into his feelings, he retired to his tent to 

 dream his adventures over again. 



The small marsh, in which stood the hillock of 

 green sods, was ahout eighty yards broad ; the altar 

 itself was nearly three feet high and ahout twelve 

 in diameter, surrounded by a wall of turf, at the 

 foot of which there was a narrow trench to collect 

 the water. In the middle of the hillock was a hole 

 about three feet in diameter and six deep, filled 

 with water, which had no ebullition or perceptible 

 motion of any kind upon its surface. About ten 

 feet distant, there was a second small fountain, with 

 a wall, trench, and hole like the other. The body 

 of water from all these, when collected in one 

 stream, according to Bruce, " would have filled a 

 pipe of about two inches in diameter." The latitude 

 he fixed at 10 59' 25" north, and 36 55' 30" 

 east longitude. The Shum, or priest of the river 

 (Kefla Abay), an old venerable man, with a white 

 flowing beard, and a skin buckled round his body 

 with a belt, received the traveller with great kind- 

 ness ; he gave up his house to Bruce and his at- 

 tendants, and insisted upon their taking his daughters 

 fhe was the father of eighty-four children) as his 

 housekeepers, a proposal which was readily ac- 

 cepted. 



Bruce staid at Geesh several days, during which 

 time he was constantly occupied in making various 

 surveys and astronomical observations. He became 

 exceedingly popular with the inhabitants, who were 

 given to understand he was their new sovereign or 



