472 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
you mould be refufed ; I certainly am not ; only I bar one of them, you are not to relapfe into your ufual defpondency, and talk of going home." — " Well, Sir, faid I, I obey, and that is not one of them. They are thefe — You mall give me, and oblige Fafil to ratify it, the village Geefh, and the fource where the Nile rifes, that I may be from thence fur- nifhed with honey for myfelf and fervants ; it fhall Hand me inftead of Tangouri, near Hmfras, and, in value, it is not worth fo much. The fecond is, That, when I fhall fee that it is in his power to carry me to Geefh, and fhew me thofe fources, Fafil fhall do it upon my requeft, without fee Gr reward, and without excufe or evafion.
They all laughed at the eafinefs of the requeft ; all de- clared that this was nothing, and wiihed to do ten times as much. The king faid, " Tell Fafd I do give the village of Geefh, and thofe fountains he is fo fond of, to Yagoube and his pofterity for ever, never to appear under another's name in the deftar, and never to be taken from him, or exchanged, either in peace or war. Do you fwear this to him in the name of your mafter," Upon which they took the two fore fingers of my right hand, and, one after the other, laid the two fore fingers of their right hand acrofs them, then kiffed them ; a form of fwearing ufed there, at leaft among thofe that call themfelves Chriftians. And as Azage Kyrillos, the king's fecretary andhiftorian, was then prefent, the king ordered him to enter the gift in the def- tar, or revenue-book, where the taxes and revenue of the king's lands are regiflered. " I will write it, fays the old man, in letters of gold, and, poor as 1 am, wili give him a village four times better than either Geefh or Tangouri, if he wili take a wife and flay amongft us, at leaft till my eyes 2 ' are
