UPON COURSE OF THE GIBBEE. 105 



Dembca ; Angotclia, the country of Angot ; 

 Damotcha, and many others. 



We now came to the more interesting examination 

 of the sources and course of the river Gibbee, the 

 great geographical problem connected with this 

 country as yet undecided by any competent 

 authority. There is no doubt, however, that the 

 Gibbee of the present day is the Zibbee of the 

 Portuguese travellers of the seventeenth century, 

 and the Kibbee of Bruce. Hecent visitors to 

 these countries, Krapf, Beke, and Harris, all bear 

 testimony to the correctness of the account given by 

 their predecessors, that this river runs to the south 

 and empties itself into the Indian Ocean. I have 

 ventured to differ altogether from these travellers ; 

 and, as will be perceived in my diagram map at the 

 commencement of this volume, I direct the stream 

 of the Zibbee or Gibbee to the north and west, 

 contributing to form the much larger river Abiah, 

 which is the main branch of Assa-abi, or red 

 river, most erroneously written in all European 

 maps Bahr ul Assareek, or the Blue Nile. It 

 is impossible to say with whom this error 

 originated, but probably with some speculative 

 geographer; for by distorting the words st assa 

 arogue" in Amharic, the old red river, a word, 

 similar in sound to a Turkish one, signifying blue, 

 has been manufactured ; and Assareek, or Blue 

 Nile, is now the generally received name of the 

 time-honoured Assa-abinus, the Jupiter of the 



