620 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER. 
about a ftone-caft weft from the firft: the inhabitants fay 
that this whole mountain is full of water, and add, that 
the whole plain about the fountain is floating and un- 
fteady, a certain mark that there is water concealed un-- 
der it; for which reafon, the water does not overflow at 
the fountain, but forces itfelf with, great violence out at the: 
foot of the mountain. The inhabitants, together with the 
emperor, who was then prefent with his army, maintain” 
that that year it trembled little on account of the drought, 
but other years, that it trembled and. overflowed fo as that 
it could fcarce be approached without danger. The breadth 
of the circumference may be about the caft of a fling: be- 
low the top of this mountain the people live about a league: 
diftant from the fountain to the weft; and this places call- 
ed Geefh,. and the fountain feems'to be a cannon-fhot di-. 
ftant from Geefh); moreover, the field where the fountain is, 
is upon all fides difficult of accefs, except on the north fide, 
where it may be afcended with eafe.” , 
_ TsuHart make only a few obfervations upon this defcrip- 
tion, fuflicient to fhew that it cannot be that of Paez, or any 
man who had ever been in Abyflinia: there is no fuch place 
known as Sabala; he fhould have called it Sacala: in the E- 
thiopic language Sacala means the higheft ridge of land, 
where the water falls down equally on both fides, from eaft 
and weft, or from north and fouth. So the fharp roofs of 
our houfes, or tops of our tents, in that manner are called 
Sacala, becaufe the water runs down equally on oppofite 
fides ; fo does it in the higheft. lands in every country, and 
fo here in Sacala, where the Nile runs to the north, but 
feveral ftreams, which form the rivers Lac and Temfi, fall 
down the cliff, or precipice, and proceed fouthward in 
the 
