THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 11$ 



above it is the mountain, or high hill, on which flands Zarai, 

 now a collection of villages, formerly two convents built 

 by Lalibala ; though the monks tell you a ftory of the queen 

 of Saba rending there, which the reader may be perfectly 

 fatisfied me never did in her life. 



The Mareb is the boundary between Tigre and the Ba- 

 harnagafh, on this fide. It runs over a bed of foil ; is large, 

 deep, and fmooth ; but, upon rain falling, it is more danger- 

 ous to pafs than any river in Abyflinia, on account of 

 the frequent holes in its bottom. We then entered the nar- 

 row plain of Yeeha, wherein runs the fmail river, which 

 either gives its name to, or takes it from it. The Yeeha 

 rifes from many fources in the mountains to the weft ; it 

 is neither confiderable for fize nor its courfe, and is fwal- 

 lowed up in the Mareb. 



The harveft was in great forwardnefs in this place. The 

 wheat was cut, and a confiderable fhare of the teff in ano- 

 ther part ; they were treading out this laft-mentioned grain 

 with oxen. The Dora, and a fmall grain called telba, (of 

 which they make oil) was not ripe. 



At eleven o'clock we retted by the fide of the mountain 

 whence the river falls. All the villages that had been built 

 here bore the marks of the juftice of the governor of Tigre. 

 They had been long the moil incorrigible banditti in the 

 province. He furrounded them in one night, burnt their 

 houfes, and extirpated the inhabitants ; and would never 

 fuller any one fince to fettle there. At three o'clock in the 

 afternoon we afcended what remained of the mountain of 

 Yeeha ; came to the plain upon its top ; and, at a quarter be- 



p 2 fore 



