THfi SOURCE OF THE NILE. 547 



These Shangalla, during the fair half of the year, live un- 

 der the fliade of trees, the loweft branches of which they 

 cut near the Item on the upper part, and then bend, or 

 break them down, planting the ends of the branches in the 

 earth. Thefe branches they cover with the fkins of wild 

 beafts. After this they cut away all the fmall or fuperflu- 

 ous branches in the infide, and fo form a fpacious pavilion, 

 which at a diflance appears like a tent, the tree ferving for 

 the pole in the middle of it, and the large top overfhadow- 

 ing it fo as to make a very pi&urefque appearance. 



Every tree then is a houfe, under which live a multitude 

 of black inhabitants until the tropical rains begin. It is 

 then they hunt the elephant, which they kill by many va- 

 rious devices, as they do the rhinoceros and the other large 

 creatures. Thofe who refide where water abounds, with 

 the fame induftry kill the hippopotami, or river-horfes, 

 which are exceedingly numerous in the pools of the ftag- 

 nant rivers. Where this flat belt, or country, is broadeft, the 

 trees thickeft, and the water in the largeft pools, there the 

 molt powerful nations live, who have often defeated the 

 royal army of Abyffinia, and conftantly laid wafte, and fome- 

 times nearly conquered, the provinces of Tigre and Sire, the 

 moft warlike and moll populous part in Abyffinia. 



The moft confiderable fettlement of this nation is at Am- 

 ba Tzaada, between the Mareb and Tacazze, but nearer by 

 one-third to the Mareb, and almoft N. W. from Dobarwa, 

 Thefe people, who have a variety of venifon, kill it in the 

 fair months, and hang it up, cut into thongs as thick as a 

 man's thumb, like fo many ropes, on the trees around them. 

 The fun dries and hardens it to a confidence almoft like 



3 Z 2 leather, 



