THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. i 57 



weflward, from the Tacazze to the Nile, Gojam, and the 

 Agows, is called Amhara, becaufe the language of that pro- 

 vince is there fpoken, and not that of Tigre or Geez. But 

 I would have my reader on his guard againft the belief that 

 no languages but thefe two are fpoken in thefe divifions ; 

 many different dialects are fpoken in little diftricts in 

 both, and, in fome of them, neither the language of Tigre 

 nor that of Amhara is underftood. 



I have already fufficiently dwelt upon the ancient hiftory,. 

 the names, manners, and people that inhabit the banks of 

 this river. It was the Siris (or river of the dog-ftar) whilft 

 that negro, uncivilized people, the Cufliites of the iiland of 

 Meroe, refided upon its banks. It was then called the Tan- 

 nufli Abay, or the leffer of two rivers that fwelled with the 

 tropical rains, which was the name thepeafants, or unlearn- 

 ed, gave it, from comparifon with the Nile. It was the- 

 Tacazze in Derkin or the dwelling of the Taka, before 

 it joined the Nile in Beja, and it was the Aftaboras of thofe 

 of the ancients that took the Nile for the Siris. It is now 

 the Atbara, giving its name to that peninfula, which it 

 inclofes on the eaft as the Nile does on the weft, and 

 which was formerly the iiland of Meroe; but it never 

 was the Tekefel, as authors have called it, deriving 

 the name from the Ethiopic word Taka, which undoubt- 

 edly fignifies, fear, terror, diflrefs, or fadnefs ; I mean, 

 this was never the derivation of its name. Far from this 

 idea, our Tacazze is one of the pleafanteft rivers in the 

 world, fhaded with fine lofty trees, its banks covered with 

 bullies inferior in fragrance to no garden in the univerfe ; 

 its ftream is the moft limpid, its water excellent, and full of 

 good fiih of great variety, as its coverts are of all forts of game,. 



3 It 



