THE SOURCE OF fHE NILE. s^7 



of the mountains of AbyfTmia, where every certain number ■ 

 of foldiers had fmall farms allowed them for that purpofe 

 by government ; but Hill they could never bring up a crop • 

 in the Mazaga ; and the progrefs of the mifcarriage was 

 this : Before the month of May all that black earth was rent 

 into great chafms, trode into dull, and ventilated with hot 

 winds, fo as to be a perfeft caput mortuum^ incapabk of any 

 vegetation. Upon the firft fprinkling of rain the chafms 

 are filled up, and the whole country refembles dry garden- 

 mould newly dug up. As the fun advances the rains in- 

 €reafe ; there is no time to be loft now ; this is the feafon 

 for fowing; let us fuppofe wheat. In one night's time, while 

 the wheat is fwelling in the ground, up grows an imm.enfe 

 quantity of indigenous natural grafs, that, having fowed 

 itfelf laft year, has lain ever fince in a natural matrix, ready 

 to flart at the moft convenient feafon. Before the wheat, or 

 any grain foever can appear, this grafs has lliot up fo high . 

 and fo thick as abfolutely to choke it. Suppofe it was pof- 

 fible to hoe or weed it, the grafs will again overtop the grain 

 before it is an inch from the ground. Say it could be again 

 hoed or cleared, by this time the rains are fo continual, the 

 black earth becomes a perfecl: mire. The rain increafes, 

 and the grain rots without pi'oducing any crop. 



The fame happens t® millet, or Indian corn ; the rain rots 

 the plant which is thrown down by the wind. It is equally 

 deftroyed if fown at the end of the rains ; the grafs grows 

 up, wherever the -ground is cleared, in a greater proportion^ 

 if poffible, than in the beginning of the year ; and the rain 

 ceafmg abruptly, and the fun beginning to be intenfely hot 

 the veiy day it pafles the zenith, the earth is reduced to an 

 A impalpable 



