74 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



the river being no longer navigable above, and there they 

 are employed till the next feafon. 



They know little, therefore, and care lefs about the names 

 or inhabitants of thefe villages, who have each of them 

 barks - of their own to carry on their own trade. There are 

 fome indeed employed by the Coptic andTurkifh merchants, 

 who are better verfed in the names of villages than others ; 

 but, if they are not, and find you do not underfland the 

 language, they will never confefs ignorance; they will tell 

 you the firfl name that comes uppermofl, fometimes very 

 ridiculous, often very indecent, which we fee afterwards, 

 pafs into books, and. wonder that fuch names were ever 

 given to towns. 



The reader will obferve this in comparing Mr Norden's 

 voyage and mine, where he will feldom fee the fame vil- 

 lage pafs by the fame name. My Rais, Abou Cuffi, when 

 he did not know a village, fometimes tried this with me.*- 

 But when he faw me going' to write, he ufed then to tell 

 me the truth, that he did not know the village ; but that; 

 fuch was the cuftom of him, and his- brethren, to people that, 

 did not underfland the language, efpecially if they were 

 priefls, meaning Catholic Monks. 



We parTed with great velocity Nizelet Embarak, Cubabac r 

 Nizelet Omar, Racca Kibeer, then Racca Seguier, and came 

 in fight of Atfia, a large village at fome diilance from the 

 Nile ; all the valley here is green, the palm-groves beautiful^ 

 and the Nile deep. 



Still 



