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THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 589 
rugged, uneven bottom of black rock. At a quarter paft 
twelve we halted on a fmail eminence, where the market 
of Sacala is held every Saturday. Horned cattle, many of 
the greateft beauty poflible, with which all this country a- 
bounds; large affes, the moft ufeful of all beafts for riding 
or carriage; honey, butter, enfete for food, and a manufac- 
ture of the leaf of that plant, painted with different colours 
like Mofaic work, are here expofed to fale in great plenty ; 
the butter and honey, indeed, are chiefly carried to Gondar, 
or to Buré; but Damot, Maitfha, and Gojam likewife fos a 
: eopedcatble, quantity of all thefe commodities. 
Ara quarter after one o'clock we paffed the rivér Gu- 
metti, the boundary of the plain: we were now afcending 
a very fteep and rugged mountain, the worft pafs we had 
met on our whole journey. We had no other path but a 
road made by the fheep or the goats, which did not feem 
-to have been frequented by men, for it was broken, full of 
holes, and in other places obftructed with large ftones that 
feemed to,have been. there from the creation. It muft be 
added to this, that the whole was covered with thick wood, 
which often occupied the very. edge of the precipices on 
which we ftood, and we were everywhere ftopt and entang- 
led by that execrable thorn the kantuffa, and feveral other 
thorns and brambles nearly as inconvenient, We afcended, 
however, with great alacrity,as we conceived we were fur- 
mounting the laft difficulty after the many thoufands we 
had already overcome. Juft above this almoft impenetra- 
ble wood, in a very romantic fituation, ftands St Michael, in 
a hollow fpace like a nitch between two hills of the fame 
height, and from which it is equally diftant. This church 
has been unfrequented for many years; the excufe they 
ie Ell. 4. ¢ make. 
