MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 
not enter into liis feelings, he retired to his tent to 
dream his adventures over again. 
The small marsh, in which stood the hillock of 
green sods, was about eighty yards broad ; the altar 
itself was nearly three feet high and about twelve 
in diameter, surrounded by a wall of turf, at the 
foot of which there was a narrow trench to collect 
the water. In the middle of the hillock was a hole 
about three feet in diameter and six deep, filled 
with water, which had no ebullition or perceptible 
motion of any kind upon its surface. About ten 
feet distant, there was a second small fountain, with 
a wall, trench, and hole like the other. The body 
of water from all these, when collected in one 
stream, according to Bruce, “ would have filled a 
pipe of about two inches in diameter.” The latitude 
he fixed at 10° 59' 25" north, and 3(5° 55' 30" 
east longitude. The Slium, or priest of the river 
(Kefla Ahay), an old venerable man, with a white 
flowing beard, and a skin buckled round his body 
with a belt, received the traveller with great kind- 
ness ; he gave up his house to Bruce and his at- 
tendants, and insisted upon their taking his daughters 
the was the father of eiglity-four children) as his 
housekeepers, a proposal which was readily ac- 
cepted. 
Bruce staid at Geesh several days, during which 
time he was constantly occupied in making various 
surveys and astronomical observations. He became 
exceedingly popular with the inhabitants, who were 
given to understand he was their new sovereign or 
