Chap. 10.] ACCOrNT OF COITNTIIIES, ETC. ' 411 



snows and rains of Mauritania increase. Pouring forth from 

 this lake, the river disdains to flow through arid and sandy- 

 deserts, and for a distance of several days' journey conceals 

 itself; after which it bursts forth at another lake of greater 

 magnitude in the country of the Massaesyli\ a people of 

 Mauritania Cacsariensis, and thence casts a glance around, as 

 it were, upon the communities of men in its vicinity, giving 

 proofs of its identity in the same peculiarities of the animals 

 which it produces. It then buries itself once again in the 

 sands of the desert, and remains concealed for a distance of 

 twenty days' journey, till it has reached the confines of -Ethio- 

 pia. Here, when it has once more become sensible of the pre- 

 sence of man, it again emerges, at the same source, in all pro- 

 bability, to which WTiters have given the name of Niger, or 

 Black. After this, forming the boundary-line between Africa 

 and Ethiopia, its banks, though not immediately peopled by- 

 man, are the resort of numbers of wild beasts and ani- 

 mals of various kinds. Giving birth in its course to dense 

 forests of trees, it travels through the middle of -Slthiopia, 

 under the name of Astapus, a word which signifies, in the 

 language of the nations who dwell in those regions, " water 

 issuing from the shades below." Proceeding onwards, it 

 divides^ innumerable islands in its course, and some of them 

 of such vast magnitude, that although its tide runs with the 

 greatest rapidity, it is not less than five days in passing 

 them. When making the circuit of Meroe, the most 

 famous of these islands, the left branch of the river is called 

 Astobores^, or, in other words, " an arm of the water that 

 issues from the shades," while the right arm has the name 

 of Astosapes^, which adds to its original signification the 



^ A district which in reaHty was at least 1200 or 1500 miles distant 

 from any part of the Nile, and probably near 3000 from its real source. 



2 " Spargit." It is doubtful whether this word means here " waters," 

 or " divides." Probably however the latter is its meaning. 



3 This is the third or eastern branch of the river, now known as the 

 Tacazze. It rises in the highlands of Abyssinia, in about 11° 40' north 

 lat. and 39° 40^ east long., and joins the main stream of the Nile, formed 

 by the union of the Abiad and the Azrek, in 17° 45' north lat. and about 

 34° 5' east long. ; the point of junction being the apex of the island of 

 Meroe, here mentioned by Pliny. 



* Possibly by this name he designates the Bahr-el-Abied, or White 

 Eiver, the main stream of the Nile, the sources of which have not been 



