THE SOURCE OF THENILE, 157 
weftward, from the Tacazzé to the Nile, Gojam, and the 
Agows, is called Amhara, becaufe the language of that pro- 
vince is there {fpoken, and not that of Tigré or Geez. But 
I would have my reader on his guard againft the belief that 
no languages but thefe two are fpoken in thefe divifions ; 
many different dialects are fpoken in little diftrits in 
both, and, in fome of them, neither the language of Tigré 
nor that of Amhara is underftood. 
I uave already fafficiently dwelt upon the ancient hiftory;, 
the names, manners, and people that inhabit the banks of 
this river. It was the Siris (or river of the dog-ftar) whilft 
that negro, uncivilized people, the Cufhites of the ifland of 
Meroé, refided upon its banks. It was then called the Tan- 
nufh Abay, or the leffer of two rivers that fwelled with the 
tropical rains, which was the name the peafants, or unlearn- 
ed, gave it, from comparifon with the Nile. It was the 
Tacazzé in Derkin or the dwelling of the Taka, before 
it joined the Nile in Beja, and it was the Aftaboras of thofe 
of the ancients that took the Nile for the Siris. It is now 
the Atbara, giving its name to that peninfula, which it. 
inclofes on the eaft as the Nile does on the weft; and 
which was formerly the ifland of Meroé; but it never 
was the Tekefel, as authors have called it, deriving 
the name from the Ethiopic word: Taka, which undoubt- 
edly fignifies, fear, terror, diftrefs, or fadnefs; I mean, 
this was never the derivation of its name. Far from this 
idea, our Tacazzé is one of the pleafanteft rivers in the 
world, fhaded with fine lofty trees, its banks covered with- 
Bufhes inferior in fragrance to no garden in the univerfe ;: 
its ftream is the moft limpid, its water excellent, and full of 
good fith of great variety, as its coverts are of all forts of game. 
2 Ix. 
e 
