THE SOURCE:‘OF THE NIEE. 469 
their very infancy. This being the cafe, this climate mui. 
have undergone a ftrange revolution, as Sennaar is buc 2 
fmall diftance from where the ancients place the Macrobii, 
a nation fo called from the remarkable length of.their 
lives. But perhaps thefe were mountaineers from the fron- 
tiers of Kuara, being defcribed as having gold in their ter- 
ritory, and are the race now called Guba. It is very re- 
markable, that, though they are Mahometans, they are fo 
brutal, not to fay: indelicate,; with regard to their women, 
that they fell their flaves after having lived with, and even 
had children by them. The king himfelf,.it.is faid,.is often 
guilty of this unnatural practice, utterly unknown inany~ 
‘other Mahometan country... 
Oncein his reign the king is obliged, with his own hand, . 
to plow and fow a piece of land. From this operation he 
is called Baady, the countryman: or peafant; it is a name 
common to the whole race of kings, as: Cefar was among the 
Romans, though they have generally another name peculi- 
ar to each perfon, and this not attended to has occationed 
confufion in the narrative. given. by ftrangers wviting con- 
cerning. cantaneat 
No horfe; mule, afs, or any be eaft of burden, will breed; or - 
even live at Sennaar, or many miles aboutit. Poultry does 
not live there. Neither dog nor cat, fheep nor bullock, can 
be preferved a feafon there. They mutt go all, every half 
year, tothe fands. Though all poffible care. be..taken of — 
them, they die inevery place where the fat earth is about - 
the town during the firft feafon of the rains. Two grey- 
hounds which I brought from Atbara, andthe mules which 
I broughe. 
