MISSION OF PAYZ, 
41 
from the source is a village, called Guix, (Geesh), 
inhabited by heathens, who sacrifice many cows. 
They come to the source on a certain day of the 
year, with a sacrificer, whom they account a 
priest, who sacrifices a cow at the fountain ; and, 
having cut off the head, throws it into the abyss 
with a variety of ceremonies, which make him 
pass for a great saint among these people." 
Payz than relates the early course of the Nile, 
—the tributaries which it receives, — its crossing 
the Dembea, with a visible separation of waters, 
—the tremendous cataract of Alata, — and then 
the semicircular course round Begemder, Shoa, 
Amhara, and Damot, till it approaches within a 
day's journey of its sources. The regions which 
it next watered were barbarous and almost un- 
known, so that by an Abyssinian prince, who had 
lately marched an army into them, they were call- 
ed the New World." Passing then " through 
" innumerable regions, and over stupendous pre- 
^* cipices," it enters Egypt, 
Amid the prosperous state into which Payz had 
brought the Portuguese affairs in Abyssinia, con- 
siderable difficulty occurred in communicating 
with the government in Europe. The province of 
Tigre, by which alone they could reach Massuah^ 
was in a state of rebellion ; and supposing that dan- 
ger surmounted, the Red Sea was entirely in pos- 
