Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/191

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THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.
169

at Lamalmon, and insisted upon his suffering us to depart. On the other hand, he threatened to send us to Ayto Tesfos. I answered, "Ayto Tesfos was a friend to Ayto Aylo, under whose protection I was, and a servant to the Iteghé, and was likelier to punish him for using me ill, than to approve of it, but that I would not suffer him to send me either to Ayto Tesfos, or an inch out of the road in which I was going." He said, "That I was mad;" and held a consultation with his people for about half an hour, after which he came in again, seemingly quite another man, and said, he would dispatch us on the morrow, which was the 3d, and would send us that evening some provisions. And, indeed, we now began to be in need, having only flour barely sufficient to make bread for one meal next day. The miserable village on the cliff had nothing to barter with us; and none from the five villages about the Shum had come near us, probably by his order. As he had softened his tone, so did I mine. I gave him a small present, and he went away repeating his promises. But all that evening passed without provision, and all next day without his coming, so we got every thing ready for our departure. Our supper did not prevent our sleeping, as all our provision was gone, and we had tasted nothing all that day since our breakfast.

The country of the Shangalla lies forty miles N.N.W. of this, or rather more westerly. All this district from the Tacazzé is called, in the language of Tigré, Salent, and Talent in Amharic. This probably arises from the name being originally spelled with (Tz), which has occasioned the difference, the one language omitting the first letter, the other the second.

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