62© TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



about, a ftone-caft weft from the firft: the inhabitants fay- 

 that this whole mountain is full of water, and add, that 

 the whole plain about the fountain is floating and un- 

 fteady, a certain mark that there is water concealed un- 

 der it ; for which reafon, the water does not overflow at 

 the fountain, but forces itfelf with great violence out at the 

 foot of the mountain. The inhabitants, together with the 

 emperor, who was then prefent with his army, maintain 

 that that year it trembled little on account of the drought, 

 but other years, that it trembled and overflowed fo as that 

 it could fcarce be approached without danger. The breadth 

 of the circumference may be about the call of a fling: be- 

 low the top of this mountain the people live about a league 

 diitant from the fountain to the weft ; and this place is call- 

 ed Geefh, and the fountain feems to be a cannon-fhot di- 

 ftant from Geefh ; moreover, the field where the fountain is, 

 is upon all fides difficult of accefs, except on the north fide, 

 where it may be afcended with eafe," 



I shall make only a few obfervations upon this defcrip- 

 tion, fufficient to fliew that it cannot be that of Paez, or any 

 man who had ever been in Abyflinia : there is no fuch place 

 known as Sabala ; he mould have called itSacala: in the E- 

 thiopic language Sacala means the higheft ridge of land, 

 where the water falls down equally on both fides, from eaft 

 and weft, or from north and fouth. So the fharp roofs of 

 our houfes, or tops of our tents, in that manner are called 

 Sacala, becaufe the water runs down equally on oppofite 

 fides ; fo does it in the higheft lands in every country, and 

 fo here in Sacala, where the Nile runs to the north, but 

 feveral ftreams, which form the rivers Lac and 1 emfi, fall 

 down the cliff, or precipice, and proceed fouthward in 



the 



