158 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
Ir muft be confeffed, that, during the inundation, thefe 
things wear a contrary face. It carries in its bed near one- 
third of all the water that falls in Abyflinia; and we faw 
the mark the ftream had reached the preceding year, eigh- 
teen feet above the bottom of the river, which we do not 
know was the higheft point that it arrived at. But three 
fathoms it certainly had rolled in its bed; and this prodi- 
gious body of water, pafling furioufly from a high ground 
in a very deep defcent, tearing up rocks and large trees in 
its courfe, and forcing down their broken fragments {cat- 
tered on its ftream, with a noife like thunder echoed from 
a hundred hills, thefe very naturally fuggeft an idea, that, 
from thefe circumftances, it is very rightly called the ¢errible. 
But then it mufl be confidered, that all rivers in Abyflinia 
at the fame time equally overflow; that every ftream makes 
thefe ravages upon its banks; and that there is nothing in 
this that peculiarly affects the Tacazzé, or fhould give it this 
{pecial name: at leaft, fuch is my opinion; though it is 
with great willingnefs I leave every reader in poffeffion of 
his own, efpecially in etymology. 
At half an hour paft eight we began a gradual defcent, 
at firft eafily enough, till we crofled the {mall brook called 
Maitemquet, or, the water of baptifm. We then began to de- 
{cend very rapidly in a narrow path, winding along the fide 
of the mountain, all fhaded with lofty timber-trees of great 
beauty. About three miles further we came to the edge of 
the ftream at the principal ford of the Tacazzé, which is very 
firm and good ; the bottom confifts of fmall pebbles, without 
either fand or large ftones. The river here at this time was 
fully 200 yards broad, the water perfectly clear, and running 
very {wiftly ; ic was about three feet deep, This was the dry 
b feafon 
