THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. ssf 



the elephant and rhinoceros, placed in a fmall territory, 

 where they never are removed above 20 miles from thefe 

 powerful invaders furnhlied with horfes and fire-arms, 

 to both of which they are flrangers, they live for part 

 of the fair feafon in continual apprehenfion. The other part 

 of the feafon, when the Abyffinian armies are all collected 

 and abroad with the king, thefe unhappy favages are con- 

 Hantly employed in a moll laborious hunting of large ani- 

 mals, fuch as the rhinoceros, the elephant, and giraffa; and 

 afterwards, in the no lefs laborious preparation of the flefli 

 of thefe quadrupeds, which is to ferve them for food during 

 the fix months rains, when each family retires to its fepa- 

 rate cave in the mountain, and has no intercourfe with any 

 of its neighbours, but leaves the country below immerfed 

 in a continual deluge of rain. In none of thefe circumftan- 

 ces, one fhould imagine, the favage, full of apprehenfion and 

 care, could have much defire to multiply a race of fuch 

 wretched beings as he feels himfelf to be. It is the wife, 

 not the man, that is the caufe of this polygamy ; and this is 

 furely a ftrong prefumption againft what is commonly faid 

 of the violence of their inclinations. 



Although the Shangalla live in feparate tribes, or na- 

 tions, yet thefe nations arc again fubdivided into families, 

 who are governed by their own head, or chief, and of a 

 number of thefe the nation is compofed, who concur in all 

 that regards the meafures of defence and offence againfl 

 their common enemy the Abyffinian and Arab. Whenever 

 an expedition is undeitaken by a nation of Shangalla, either 

 asainft their enemies, the Arabs on the north, or thofe who 

 are equally their enemies, the Abyffinians on the fouth,fup- 

 pofe the nation or tribe to be the Baafa, each family attacks 



4 A 2 and 



