THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 65$ 



tinder thefe, or fuch-like appellations, they pray to the Nile, 

 or fpirit refiding in that river. The next name it receives " 

 is when defcended into Gojam, where it is called Abay. 

 Foreigners, of all denominations, not acquainted with the 

 language of the country, have, from hearing it was ftiled 

 Ab, Father, by the Agows, or Abai, imagined its name Abawi, 

 a cafe of that noun, which, in their ignorance, they have 

 made to fignify, the Father,. 



Ludolf, the only one in the age he lived that had any 

 real knowledge of either the Geez or Amharic, was the firft' 

 to perceive this : he found in neither of thefe languages A- 

 bawi could be a nominative, and confequently could noE 

 be applied to any thing ; and next he as truly found it 

 could not be of the Angular number, and, if fo, could not 

 fignify one river. He flopped, however, as it were, in the 

 very brink of difcovery, for he knew there was no writing 

 or letters in Amharic, which were therefore neceflarily 

 borrowed from the old and written language Geez, fo that 

 all that could be done was, firft, attentively to hear the pro- 

 nunciation of the word in Amharic, and then to write it in 

 Geez characters as nearly conformable to the found as pof- 

 fible. Now, the name of the river in Amharic is Abay, pro- 

 nouncing the y open, or like two (i), and the fenfe of that 

 word fo wrote in Geez, as well as Amharic, is, " the river 

 M that fuddenly fwells, or overflows, periodically with rain ;' 1 

 than which a more appoiite name could never have been 

 invented. 



By the Gongas, on the fouth of the mountains Dyre and. 

 Tegla, who are indigent, the river is called Dahli, and, on the 

 north of thefe mountains, where the great cataracts are by 



