THE SOITKCE OF THE NILE. 439 



and furprife the Agows, whofe children they fell at Guba 

 co the Mahometans, who traffic there for gold and flaves, 

 and get iron and coarfe cotton-cloths in return. Their 

 country is full of woods, and their manner of life the fame 

 as has been already defcribed in fpeaking of the other 

 tribes. 



The Geefa live clofe upon the Nile, to which river they 

 give their own name. It is alfo called Geefa by the Agows, 

 in the fmall diftricT: of Geefli, where it rifes from its fource, . 

 They never have yet made peace with Abyffinia, are govern- 

 ed by the heads of families, and live feparately for the fake 

 of hunting, and, for this reafon, are eafily conquered. The 

 men are naked, having a cotton rag only about their mid- 

 dle. The nights are very cold, and they lie round greafc 

 fires ; but the fly is not fo dangerous here as to the eaft- 

 ward, fo that goats, in a fmall number, live here. Their 

 arms are bows, lances, and arrows ; large wooden clubs, with; 

 knobs, nearly as big as a man's head, at the end of them ; 

 their fhields are oval. They worfhip the Nile, but no other? 

 river, as I have faid before ; it is called Geefa, which, in 

 their language, fignifies the firft Maker, or Creator. They:, 

 imagine its water is a cure for moft difeafes* 



East of the Geefa. is Wumbarea, which readies to Belay, 

 The king fell firft on the Geefa, part of whom he took, and- 

 the reft he difperfed. He then turned to the right through-: 

 Wumbarea, and met with fome refrftance in the narrow 

 pafTes in the mountains, in one of which Kafmati Kofte^one; 

 of his principal officers) a man of low birth, but raifed by 

 his merit to his prefent rank, was flain by an arrow. . 



