590 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



make is, that they cannot procure frankincenfe, without 

 which, it feems, their mafs or fervice cannot be celebrated ; 

 but the truth is, they are ftill Pagans ; and the church, ha- 

 ving been built in memory of a victory over them above a 

 hundred years ago, is not a favourite object before their 

 eyes, but a memorial of their inferiority and misfortune. 

 This church is called St Michael Sacala, to diftinguifh it 

 from another more to the fouthward, called St Michael 

 Geefh. 



At three quarters after one we arrived at the top of 

 the mountain, whence we had a diflinct view of all the re- 

 maining territory of Sacala, the mountain Geefh, and 

 church of St Michael Geefh, about a mile and a half diftant 

 from St Michael Sacala, where we then were. We faw, im- 

 mediately below us, the Nile itfelf, ftrangely diminifhed in 

 fize, and now only a brook that had fcarccly water to turn a 

 mill I could not fatiate myfelf with the fight, revolving in 

 my mind all thofe claflical prophecies that had given the 

 Nile "up to perpetual obicuriry and concealment. The lines 

 of the poet came immediately into my mind, and I enjoy- 

 ed here, for the firft time, the triumph which already, by 

 the protection of Providence, and my own intrepidity, I 

 had gained over all that were powerful, and all that were 

 learned, fince the remotefl antiquity: — 



Arcanum naiura caput vo?i prodidit id/i, 

 Nee Ucuit populis parvum te, Nile^ v id ere ; 

 AmovitquefinuSy et gentes maluit ortus 

 - Mir art i quam ?:6jfe iuos. 



LUC AN. 



I was 



