CHAP. V.
Arrive at Adowa—Reception there—Visit Fremona and Ruins of Axum—Arrive at Siré.
Adowa is situated on the declivity of a hill, on the west side of a small plain surrounded everywhere by mountains. Its situation accounts for its name, which signifies pass, or passage, being placed on the flat ground immediately below Ribieraini; the pass through which every body must go in their way from Gondar to the Red Sea.
This plain is watered by three rivulets which are never dry in the midst of summer; the Assa, which we cross just below the town when coming from the eastward; the Mai Gogua, which runs below the hill whereon stands the village of the same name formerly, though now it is called Fremona, from the monastery of the Jesuits built there; and the Ribieraini, which, joining with the other two, falls into the river Mareb, about 22 miles below Adowa. There are fish in these three streams, but none of them remarkablefor
