THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 539 
ees of ftatues, both of men and animals, had been dug up 
there; the ftatues of the men were moftly of black ftone. 
It is impoffible to avoid rifquing a guefs that this is the an- 
cient city of Meroé, whofe latitude fhould be 16° 26’; and I 
apprehend further, that in this ifland was the obfervatory 
of that famous cradle of aftronomy. The Ethiopians can- 
not pronounce P; there is, indeed, no fuch letter in their 
alphabet. Curgos, then, the name of the ifland, fhould 
probably be Purgos, the tower or obfervatory of that city. 
‘THERE are four remarkable rivers mentioned by the an- 
€ients as contributing to form the ifland of Meroé. The 
firft is the Aftufafpes, or the river Mareb, fo called from 
hiding itfelf under ground in the fand, and again im- 
merging in the time of rain, and running to join the Ta- 
cazzé. 
Tue next is the Tacazzé, as I have faid, the Siris of the 
ancients, by the natives called Aftaboras, which forms, as 
Pliny has faid, the left channel of Atbara, or, as the Greeks 
have called it, the ifland of Meroé. 
On the weft, or right hand, is another confiderable river, 
called by the name of the White River, and by the ancients 
Aftapus, and which Diodorus Siculus fays comes from large 
lakes to the fouthward, which we know to be truth. This 
river throws itfelf into the Nile, and together with it makes 
the right-hand channel, inclofing Meroé or Atbara. The 
‘Nile here is called the Blue River; and Nil, in the language 
of the country, has precifely that fignification. This too 
was known to the ancients, as the Greeks have called it the 
Blue River, and thefe being all found to inclofe Meroé, nci- 
oY ON ther 
