THESOURCEOFTHENILE. i 4 l 



The firft ferpent was of a new fpecies, that kills a man at 

 the diftance of 12 feet by breathing upon him. The fecond 

 was alfo new, for he killed by a fting. We know of no fuch 

 power that any of the ferpent kind have. If Drjohnfon 

 bebeves this, I will not fay that it is the moll improbable 

 th -ng he ever gave credit to, but this I will fay, that it is 

 altogether different from what at this day is taught us by 

 natural philofophy. We eafily fee, by the ftrain in which 

 thefe ftories aie told, that all thefe fables of Lobo would 

 have palled for miracles, had the converlion of Abyflinia 

 followed. They were preparatory lteps for receiving him 

 as confeflbr, had his merit not been fufficient to have enti- 

 tled him to a higher place in the kalendar. Rainy, miry, 

 and cold countries, are not the favourite habitation of fer- 

 pents. Abyflinia is deluged with fix months rain every year 

 while the fun is palling over it. It only enjoys clear wea- 

 ther when the fun is fartheft diilant from it in the fouthem 

 hemifphere ; the days and nights are always nearly equal. Vi- 

 pers are not found in a climate like this. Accordingly, I can 

 tellify, I never faw one of the kind in the high country of 

 Abyflinia all the time I lived there ; and Tigre, where Jerome 

 Lobo places the fcene of his adventures, by being one of the 

 Iiigheft provinces in the country, is furely not one of the 

 molt proper. 



It was the 20th of January, at feven o'clock in the morn- 

 ing,we left Axum; our road was at firft fufficiently even, thro' 

 fmall vallies and meadows ; we began to afcend gently, but 

 through a road exceedingly difficult in itfelf, by reafon of 

 large Hones Handing on edge, or heaped one upon another ; 

 apparently the remains of an old large caufeway, part of the 

 magnificent works about Axum, 



The 



