THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. / 141 
_ ° Tue firft ferpent was of a new fpecies, that kills a man at 
the diftance of 12 feet by breathing upon him. The fecond 
was alfo new, for he killed by a fting. We know of no fuch 
power that any of the ferpent kind have. -If Dr Johnfon 
believes this, I will not fay that it is the moft improbable 
thing he ever gave credit to, but this I will fay, that it is 
altogether different from what at this day is taught us by 
natural philofophy. We eafily fee, by the ftrain in which 
thefe ftories are told, that all thefe fables of Lobo would 
have pafled for miracles, had the converfion of Abyflinia 
followed. They were preparatory fteps for receiving him 
as confeffor, had his merit not been fufficient to have enti- 
tled him to a higher place in the kalendar. Rainy, miry, 
and cold cowntries, are not the favourite habitation of fer- 
pents. Abyflinia is deluged with fix months rain every year 
while the fun is pafling over it. It only enjoys clear wea- 
ther when the fun is fartheft diftant from it in the fouthern 
hemifphere; the days and nights are always nearly equal. Vi- 
pers are not foundina climate like this. Accordingly, 1 can 
teflify, I never faw one of the kind in the high country of 
Abyfiinia all the time I lived there; and Tigré, where Jerome 
Lobo places the fcene of his adventures, by being one of the 
higheft provinces in the country, is furely. not one of the 
moft proper. 
Ir was the 20th of January, at feven o’clock in the morn- 
ing,we left Axum; our road was at firft fufficiently even, thro’ 
fmall vallies and meadows ; we began to afcend gently, but 
through a road exceedingly difficult in itfelf, by reafon of 
large ftones ftanding on edge, or heaped one upon another 3; 
apparently the remains of anold large caufeway, part of the: 
magnificent works about Axum,. 
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THE: 
