388 . ON THE COURSE Of THE NILE. 



Here it bends a little to the eaft, from which quarter, 

 before it reaches the diftri&s of Senndr, it receives two 

 large rivers ; one called Tacazzy, which runs from 

 Tegri ; and the other, Gwangue, which comes from 

 Dembeid. 



After it has vifited Senndr, it waffles the land of 

 Dongold, and proceeds thence to Nubia, where it again 

 turns eaftward, and reaches a country named Abrim, 

 •where no veffels can be navigated, by reafon of the 

 rocks and crags which obftrucl the channel. The in- 

 habitants of Senndr and Nubia may conftantly drink of 

 its water, which lies to the eaft of them like a ftrong 

 bulwark ; but the merchants of AbyJJinia, who travel to 

 Egypt, leave the Nile on their right, as foon as they 

 have pa{Ted Nubia, and are obliged to traverfe a defert 

 of fand and gravel, in which for fifteen days they find 

 neither wood nor water. They meet it again in the 

 country of Reif, or Upper Egypt, where they find boats 

 on the river, or ride on its banks, refrefhing themfclvcs 

 with its falutary dreams. 



It is afTerted by fome travellers, that, when the Alazvy 

 has paffed Senndr and Dongold, but before it enters 

 Nubia, it divides itfelf ; that the great body of water 

 Hows entire into Egypt, where the fmaller branch (the 

 Niger) runs weftward, not fo as to reach Barbary, but 

 towards the country of Alwdh, whence it rufhes into 

 the Great Sea. The truth of this fact. I have verified, 

 partly by my own obfervations, and partly by my in- 

 quiries among intelligent men ; whofe anfwers feemed 

 the more credible, becaufe, if fo prodigious a mafs of 

 water were to roll over Egypt with all its wintry increafe, 

 not the land only, but the houfes and towns, of the 

 Egyptians muft be overflowed. 



XXIII. 



