Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/601

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THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.
577

CHAP. XII.

Leave Goutto—Mountains of the Moon—Roguery of Woldo our Guide—Arrive at the Source of the Nile.

It was the 3d of November, at eight o'clock in the morning that we left the village of Goutto, and continued, for the first part of the day, through a plain country full of acacia-trees, and a few of other sorts; but they were all pollards, that is, stunted, by having their tops cut off when young so that they bore now nothing but small twigs, or branches; these, too, seemed to have been lopped yearly. As there appeared no doubt that this had been done purposely, and for use, I asked, and was informed, that we were now in the honey country, and that these twigs were for making large baskets, which they hung upon trees at the sides of their houses, like bird-cages, for the bees to make their honey in them during the dry months; all the houses we passed afterwards, and the trees near them, were fur-nished