THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. i 57 



makes fuch a noife and difturbed appearance, that it fills: 

 the mind with confufion rather than with terror. 



We faw the miferable Kennoufs (who inhabit the 



banks of the river up into Nubia, to above the fecond 



cataract) to procure their daily food, lying behind rocks, 



with lines in their hands, and catching fifh ; they did not 



feem to be either dexterous or fuccefsful in the {'port. 



They are not black, but of the darker! brown ; are not 



woolly-headed, but have hair. They are fmall, light, agile 



people, and feem to be more than half-ftarved. . I made a 



fign that I wanted to fpeak with one of them ; but feeing 



me furrounded with a number of horfe and fire-arms, they 



did not choofe to truft themfelves. I left my people behind 



with my firelock, and went alone to fee if I could engage 



them in a converfation. At firft they walked off; finding 



I.perfifted in following them, they ran at full fpeed, and 



hid themfelves among the rocks, 



Pliny* fays, that, in his time, the city of Syene was fitu- 

 ated fo directly under the tropic of Cancer, that there was 

 a well, into which the fun fhone fo perpendicular, that it 

 was enlightened by its rays down to the bottom. Strabo f 

 had faid the fame. The ignorance, or negligence, in the 

 Geodefique meafure in this obfervation, is extraordinary ; 

 Egypt had been meafured yearly, from early ages, and the 

 diftance between Syene and Alexandria mould have been 

 known to an ell. From this inaccuracy, I do very much 

 fufpect the other meafure Eratofthenes is faid to have made, 

 by which he fixed the fun's parallax at 10 feconds and a 

 v - L u haif, 



* Pli °y> Kb. ''• cap. 73. -)• Strabo, lib. XTJi. p. 944, . 



