THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 539 



CCS of flatues, both of men and animals, had been dug up 

 there ; the flatues of the men were moftly of black ftone. 

 It is impoffible to avoid rifquing a guefs that this is the an- 

 cient city of Meroe, whofe latitude fliould be 16° 26' ; and I 

 appi^ehend further, that in this iHand was the obfervatory 

 of that famous cradle of aftronomy. The Ethiopians can- 

 not pronounce P ; there is, indeed, no fuch letter in their 

 alphabet. Curgos, then, the name of the ifland, Ihould 

 probably be Purgos, the tower or obfervatory of that city. 



There are four remarkable rivers mentioned by the an- 

 cients as contributing to form the ifland of Meroe. The 

 firll is the Aftufafpes, or the river Mareb, fo called from 

 hiding itfelf under ground in the fand, and again im- 

 merging in the time of rain, and running to join the Ta- 

 cazze. 



The next is the Tacazze, as I have faid, the Siris of the 

 ancients, by the natives called Aftaboras, which forms, as 

 Pliny has faid, the left channel of Atbara, or, as the Greeks 

 have called it, the ifland of Meroe. 



On the weft, or right hand, is another confiderable river, 

 called by the name of the White River, and by the ancients 

 Aftapus, and which Diodorus Siculus fays comes from large 

 lakes to the fouthward, which we know to be truth. This 

 river throws itfelf into the Nile, and together with it makes 

 the' right-hand channel, inclofing Mcroc or Atbara. The 

 Nile here is called the Blue River; and Nil, in the language 

 of the country, has precifely that fignification. This too 

 was known to the ancients, as the Greeks have called it' the 

 Blue River, and tliefe being ail found to inclofe Meroe, nei- 



' 3 Y 2 ther 



