65(5 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



the Guba, Nuba, and Shangalla, it is filled ICc ' feotfe 

 which names fignify a watching dog, the latrator anubis, or, 

 the dog-far. In the plain country, between Fazuclo and 

 Sennaar, it is called Nil, which fignities blue; and the Arabs 

 interpret it by the word Azergue, which it keeps as far as 

 Halfaia, or near it, where it joins the White River. 



The next name by which the Nile went was Siris : Pliny 

 tells us it was called Siris both before and after it came into 

 Beja. " Nee ante Nilus, qtiamfe tot urn aquis concor dibus rurfus junxit. 

 " Sic quoque etiamnum Siris, ut ante nomhmtus per aliquot millia, et in 

 *' totum Homcro Egyptus, aliifque TritoTi*" This name the Greeks 

 thought was given to it, becaufe of its black colour during 

 the inundation, which miftake prefently produced confu- 

 fion ; and we find, according to this idea, the compiler of 

 the Old Teftament, (I mould fuppofe Efdras, after the capti- 

 vity) has tranflated Siris, the black river, by the Hebrew, Shihor; 

 but nobody ever faw the Nile black when it overflowed ; 

 and it would be a very ftrong figure to call it fo in Egypt, 

 where it is always white during the whole of the inun- 

 dation. Had Efdras, or whoever it was that followed the 

 Greek interpretation of Siris, viz. black, inquired in Beja what 

 was the origin of this name, they would have there learn- 

 ed it imported the River of the Dog-ftar, on whofe vertical 

 appearance this Nile, or Siris, overflows ; and this idolatrous 

 worfhip, paid to the Nile, was probably part of the reafon. 

 of the queftion the prophet Jeremiah afks f, " And what haft 

 " thou to do in Egypt, to drink the water of Seir? or the 

 " water profaned by idolatrous rites ?" 



As 



* Plin. Nat, Kift. lib. t. cap. 9. f Jerem. chap. ii. ver. xviii. 



