THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 651 



enters into the 18th degree, Taurus, and after returning 



fouthward into the 14th degree of the Lion. Lucan fays 



the fame : — 



-Late tibi gurgite mpto 



Ambit ur nigris Mero'e ' facunda colonis^ 

 Lata comis hebeni ; quce quamvis arbor e multa 

 Frondeat) ajlatem nulla fibi mitigat umbra : 

 Linea tarn reffum mundiferit ilia Lconem. 



Now Gojam, being in lat. io°, could never anfwer this de- 

 fcription. 



But there are in thefe lines two circumftances which are 

 peculiar to the peninfula of Atbara, or Meroe, and defcri- 

 bed as fuch by the poet. The firft is, the inhabitants of Me- 

 roe were black, fuch were the Gymnofophifts, the firft phi- 

 lofophers and inhabitants of this ifland, and fuch they 

 have ever been down to the Saracen conquer!. On the o- 

 ther hand, nobody will pretend to fay that the people of 

 Gojam are black ; they are long-haired, and of as fair a com- 

 plexion as other Abyffinians ; nor was it ever fuppofed 

 that they had philofophers or fcience among them before 

 the jefuits arrived in the country. 



The next circumftance, peculiar to Meroe, is, that the ebo- 

 ny-tree grew there, which is fpread all over the peninfula of 

 Atbara, and out of it this tree is not found, (as far as I know) 

 unlefs a few trees in the province of Kuara, in the low and 

 northermoft part of it ; a country, for its intolerable heat, 

 not inferior to that of Atbara, and contiguous to it ; but in 



4 N z Gojam, 



