56 
TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA* 
that fountain head, which the greatest monarchs 
of antiquity had in vain laboured to approach. He 
thus describes the source, in a manner which would 
lead us to suppose that he had actually visited it ; 
" This spring, or rather these two springs, are two 
" holes, each about two feet diameter, a stone's-cast 
*' distant from each other \ the one is but about 
" five feet and a half in depth, at least we could 
" not get our plummet farther, perhaps because it 
" was stopped by roots, for the whole place is full 
" of trees \ of the other, which is somewhat less, 
" with a line of ten feet we could find no bottom, 
" and were assured by the inhabitants, that none 
" ever had been found." He describes also a lit- 
tle hill at the top of the mountain, where the high 
priest annually assembled the idolatrous Agows, 
and sacrificed a cow, the head of which is thrown 
into one of the fountains, after which a general 
sacrifice and festival takes place. The stream is 
at first so narrow, as to be in danger of being dried 
up during the hot season ; but being swelled by 
several accessions, it reaches, at three days' journey 
from its source, to such a breadth, that a musket 
shot will scarcely reach across. Our author next 
describes its crossing the lake of Dembea, without 
mixing its waters ; its precipitation down the ca- 
taract of Alata, " one of the most beautiful wa- 
" ter-falls in the world, where he was charmed 
" with a thousand delightful rainbows j" its vast 
i 
