Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/608

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584 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER

at Gondar, and even when the fun was vertical, it never came but with the wind blowing directly from Amid Amid.

At ten minutes pad three o'clock we croffed the fmall river Iworra, in the valley of Abola ; it comes from the eaft, and runs wefhvard into that river. At a quarter after four we halted at a houfe in the middle of the plain, or valley. This valley is not above a mile broad, the river being diftant about a quarter, and runs at the foot of the mountains. This village, as indeed were all the others we had feen fmce our croffing the Nile at Goutto, was fur- rounded by large, thick plantations, of that fingular plant the Enfete, one of the mofc beautiful productions of nature, as well as mofl agreeable and wholefome food of man. It is faid to have been brought by the Galla from Narea, firft to Maitfha, then to Goutto, the Agows, and Damot, which Jafl is a province on the fouth fide of the mountains of A- mid Amid. This plant, and the root, called Denitch, (the fame which is known in Europe by the name of the Jeru- faiem artichoke, a root deferving more attention than is paid to it in our country,) fupply all thefe provinces with food.

We were but fcldom lucky enough to get the people of the villages to wait our arrival ; the fears of the march of the Galla, and the uncertainty of their deftination, made them believe always we were detachments of that army, to which the prefence of Fafil's horfe driven conftantly before us very much contributed : we found the village where we a- lighted totally abandoned, and in it only an earthern pot, with a large flice of the Enfete plant boiling in it ; it was about a foot in length, and ten inches broad, and was almoft ready 2 for