THESOURCEOFTHENILE. 707 



The rains, that ceafc in Abyffmia about the S'th of Sep- 

 tember, leave generally a fickly feafon in the low country; 

 but other rains begin towards the end of October, in the 

 Ia.il days of the Ethiopic month Tekemt, which continue 

 moderately about three weeks, and end the 8th of Novem- 

 ber, or the 1 2th of the Ethiopic month Hedar. All ficknefs 

 and epidemical difeafes then difappear, and the 8th of that 

 month is the feaft of St Michael, the day the king marches, 

 and his army begins their campaign ; but the effect of thefe 

 fecond rains feldom make any, or a very fhort appearance 

 in Egypt, all the canals being open. But thefe are the rains 

 upon which depend their latter crops, and for which the 

 Agows, at the fource of the Nile, pray to the river, or to the 

 genius rending in the river. We had plentiful mowers both 

 in going and coming to that province, efpccially in our 

 journey out. Whenever thefe rains prove exceffive, as in 

 fome particular years it feems they do, though but very 

 rarely, the land-floods, and thofe from the marfhes, falling 

 upon the ground, already much hardened and broken into 

 chafms, by two months intenfe heat of the fun, run vio- 

 lently into the Nile without finking into the earth. The 

 confequence is this temporary fifing of the Nile in Decem- 

 ber, which is as unconnected with the good and bad crops 

 of Egypt, as it is on thofe of Paleftine or Syria. 



The quantity of rain that falls in Ethiopia varies great- 

 ly from year to year, as do the months in which it falls. 

 The quantity that fell, during 1770,111 Gondar, between the 

 vernal equinox and the 8th of September, through a funnel 

 of one foot Englifh in diameter; was 35.55$ inches ; and, in 



4U2 1771, 



