5S TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA, 
" of ten feet we could find no bottom, and were 
" assured by the inhabitants, that none ever had 
" been found/' He describes also a little 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 sacri- 
fice 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* jour- 
ney from its source, to such a breadth, that a mus- 
ket shot will scarcely reach across. Our author 
next describes its crossing the lake of Dembea, 
without mixing its waters ; its precipitation down 
the cataract of Alata, " one of the most beau- 
" tiful water-falls in the world, where he was 
" charmed with a thousand delightful rainbows 
its vast semicircular sweep round Gojam and Da- 
mot, till it returns within a short day's journey 
of its spring ; and its final course through un- 
known regions to the west. He was ignorant 
of its farther course, till it arrived on the plains 
of Egypt. 
The author represents the part of the province 
of Damot in which he now resided, as the most 
charming spot he had ever beheld. The air is 
healthful and temperate, the mountains shaded 
with cedars and other trees, which afford refresh- 
