THE SOURCE OF THE NIL‘. 65y 
As for the firft, it is only the tranflation of the word Ba- 
char, applied to the Nile. The inhabitants of the Barabra, to 
this day, call it Bahar el Nil, or, the Sea of the Nile, in con- 
tradiftinG@tion to the Red Sea, which they know by no other 
name but Bahar el Melech, the Salt Sea. The junction of 
the three great ‘rivers; the Nile, flowing on the weft of 
Meroé ; the Tacazzé, which wathes the eaft fide, and joins 
the Nile at Maggiran, in lat. 17°; and the Mareb, which falls 
into this laft, fomething above this junétion—gives the name 
of Triton to the Nile. 
‘More doubt has been raifed as to the:third name, Egyp- 
tus, which it obtains in Homer, and which, I apprehend, 
“was a very ancient name given it even in Ethiopia. The 
generality, nay, all interpreters,I may fay, imagine, as in 
‘that of Siris, that this‘yname was given it in relation to its 
colour, viz. black; but with this cannot agree; Egypt, in the 
Ethiopic, is called .y Gist, Agar; and, an inhabitant of the 
“country, Gyft, for precifely fo it is pronounced, which means 
‘the country of ditches, or canals, drawn from the Nile on 
‘both fides at right angles with the river; nothing, fure- 
ly is more obvious than to write y Gipt, fo pronouncing 
Egypt, and, with its termination, ws, ors, Egyptus. The Nile 
is alfo called Kronides, Jupiter; as alfo feveral other names ; 
Dut thefe are rather the epithets of poets, relative and tran- 
_fitory, not the perraanent appellation of the river. 
I wovutp pafs over another ‘name, that of Geon, which 
dome of the fathers of the church have fondly given it, pre- 
tending it was one of the rivers that came from the terref- 
arial paradife, and encompaffed the whole land of Cufh, 
whilft, for this :purpofe, they bring it two thoufand miles by 
Vou. TE, 40 — a feries 
