THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 6 33
Nonfabula mendax
Aufa loqui defonte tuo eft : nbicnnque videris, Shtareris ; et nulli contingit gloria genti, Ut Niloftt latafuo, tiia fiumina prodam, 9ua Dens undarnm celator, Nile, tnarum Te mihi nojfe dedit. >
Lucan.
The Agows of Damot pay divine honour to the Nile; they worfhip the river, and thoufands of cattle have been offered, and ftill are offered, to the fpirit fuppofed to refide at its fource. They are divided into clans, or tribes; and it is worthy of obfervation, that it is faid there never was a feud, or hereditary animofity between any two of thefe clans ; or, if the feeds of any fuch were fown, they did not vegetate longer than till the next general convocation of all the tribes, who meet annually at the fource of the river, to which they facrifice, calling it by the name of the God of Peace. One of the leaft confiderable of thefe clans, for power and number, has ftill the preference among its bre- thren, from the circumftance that, in its territory, and near the miferable village that gives it name, are fituated the much fought-for fprings from which the Nile rifes.
Gees h, however, though not farther diftant from theie than 600 yards, is not in fight of the fources of the Nile. The country, upon the fame plane with the fountains, ter- minates in a cliff about 300 yards deep down to the plain of AfToa, which flat country continues in the fame fubaltern degree of elevation, till it meets the Nile again about feven- ty miles fouthward, after it has made the circuit of the pro- vinces of Gojam and Damot. This cliff feems purpofely
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