138 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



It mull be confefTcd, that, during the inundation, thefe 

 things wear a contrary face. It carries in its bed near one- 

 third of all the water that falls in Abyflinia ; and we faw 

 the mark the llream had reached the preceding year, eigh- 

 teen feet above the bottom of the river, which we '■ do not 

 know was the higheil point that it arrived at. But three 

 fathoms it certainly had rolled in its bed ; and this prodi- 

 gious body of water, pafling furioufly from a high ground 

 in a very deep defcent, tearing up rocks and large trees in 

 its courfe, and forcing down their broken fragments fcat- 

 tered on its ilream, with a noife like thunder echoed from 

 a hundred hills, thefe very naturally fuggeft an idea, that, 

 from thefe circumilances, it is very rightly called the terribk. 

 But then it mufl be considered, that all rivers in Abyffinia 

 at the fame time equally overflow; that every ilream makes 

 thefe ravages upon its banks ; and that there is nothing in 

 this that peculiarly affects the Tacazze, or mould give it this 

 fpecial name : at lead, fuch is my opinion ; though it is 

 with great willingnefs I leave every reader in poffeilion of 

 his own, efpecially in etymology. 



At half an hour pari eight we began a gradual defcent, 

 at firft eafily enough, till we crofted the fmall brook called 

 Maitemquct, or, the wdfe'/S of baptifm. We then began to de- 

 fcend very rapidly in a narrow path, winding along the fide 

 of the mountain, all lhaded with lofty timber-trees of great 

 beauty. About three miles further we came to the edge of 

 the ilream at the principal ford of the Tacazze, which is very 

 firm and good ; the bottom confiils of fmall pebbles, without 

 cither land or large flones. The river here at this time was 

 fully 200 yards broad, the water perfectly clear, and running 

 very fwiftly ; it was about three feet deep. This was the dry 



1 feafon 



