THE SOURCE OF THE NILE; tf$ 



In that part of the Shangalla country more to the eafU 

 ward, about N. N. E. of Amba Tzaada, in the northern extre- 

 mities of the woody part, where the river Mareb, leaving 

 Dobarwa, flows through thick bufhes till it doles itfeif in 

 the fands, there is a nation of thefe blacks, who being near 

 the country of the Baharnagafh, an officer whofe province 

 produces a number of horfe, dare not, for that reafon, ven- 

 ture to make an exteniive ufe of the variety of wild beats 

 which throng in the woods to the fouth ward, for fear of 

 being intercepted by their enemy, conilantly upon the watch 

 for them, part of his tribute being paid in black flaves, 

 Thefe, therefore, confine themfelves to the.fouthern part of 

 their territory, near the.Barabra, 



The extraordinary courfe of this river under the fand, 

 allures to it multitudes of oftriches, which, too, are the 

 food of the Shangalla, as is a beautiful lizard, never, that I 

 know, yet defcribed. Thefe are the food of the eaitern Shan-, 

 galla ; and I muft here obferve, that this country and peo-? 

 pie were much better known to the ancients than to us. 

 The Egyptians traded with them,' and caravans of thefe 

 people were conitantly in Alexandria in the reigns of the/ 

 firft Ptolemies. Moft of the productions of thefe parts, and 

 the people themfelves, are mentioned in the remarkable 

 proceflion made by Ptolemy Philadelphus on his accefiion 

 to the throne of Egypt, as already obferved, though a con- 

 fufion often arifes therein by this country being called by 

 the name of India, 



Ptolemy, the geographer, claffes thefe people exactly 

 enorigh, and diftinguimes them very accurarely by their 

 particular food, or dietetique regimen, though he errs, in- 

 deed: 



