472 " TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
you fhould be refufed; I certainly am not; only I bar one 
of them, youare not torelapfe into your ufual defpondency, 
and talk of going home.”—* Well, Sir, faid I, I obey, and 
that is not one of them. - They are thefe—You {hall give 
me, and oblige Fafil to ratify it, the village Geefh, and the 
fource where the Nile rifes, that I may be from thence fur- 
nifhed with honey for :myfelf and fervants ; it fhall ftand 
me inftead of Tangouri, near Emfras, and, in value, it 1s 
not worth:fo much. The fecond is, That, when I fhall fee 
that it.is in - his power to carry me to Geefh, and fhew me 
thofe fources, Fafil fhall do it upon my requeit, without fee 
er reward, and without excufe or evafion. 
Tuey all laughed at the eafinefs of the requeft; all de- 
clared that this was nothing, and wifhed to do ten times as | 
much. The king faid, “ Tell Fafil I do give the village 
of Geefh, and thofe fountains he is fo fond of, to Yagoube 
and his pofterity for ever, never to appear under another’s 
name in the deftar, and never to be taken from him, or 
exchanged, either in peace or war. Do you {wear this to 
him in the name of your mafter.” Upon which they took | 
the two fore fingers of my right hand, and, one after the 
other, laid the two fore fingers of their right hand acrofs 
them, then Kiffed them ; a form of {wearing ufed there, at 
leaft among thofe thar .call therafelves Chriftians. And as. 
Azage Kyrillos, the king’s fecretary and hiftorian, was then 
prefent, the king ordered him to enter the gift in the def- 
tar, or revenue-book, where the taxes and revenue of the 
king’s lands are regiftercd. “I will write it, fays the old 
man, in letters of gold, and, poor as I am, will give him a 
village four times better than cither Geeth or Tangouri, if 
he will take a wife and flay amongtt us, at leaft ull my eyes 
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