They Brought Us A He-Goat, Together With
Milk And Honey.
The latter we had revelled in for some months
past, as the countries through which we travelled abounded with
a supply in the rocks and hollow trees; but the milk was a
luxury, as our goats were nearly dry.
The he-goat was a regular
old patriarch of the flock, and, for those who are fond of
savoury food, it might have been a temptation, but as it exhaled
a perfume that rendered its presence unbearable, we were obliged
to hand it over as a present to our Tokrooris--even they turned
up their noses at the offer. A crowd of natives surrounded us,
and the account of our travels was related with the usual
excitement, amidst the ejaculations of the hearers, when they
heard that we had been in the country of the Base, and had
trusted ourselves in the power of Mek Nimmur.
On the following morning we were off before sunrise, and marched
rapidly over a good path through low forest, at the foot of a
range of hills; and after a journey of twenty miles, during which
we had passed several small villages, and many brooks that flowed
from the mountains, we arrived at our old friend, the Atbara
river, at the sharp angle as it issues from the mountains. At
this place it was in its infancy. The noble Atbara whose course
we had tracked for hundreds of weary miles, and whose tributaries
we had so carefully examined, was a second-class mountam torrent,
about equal to the Royan, and not to be named in comparison with
the Salaam or Angrab. The power of the Atbara depended entirely
upon the western drainage of the Abyssinian Alps: of itself it
was insignificant, until aided by the great arteries of the
mountain chain. The junction of the Salaam at once changed its
character; and the Settite or Taccazzy completed its importance
as the great river of Abyssinia, that has washed down the fertile
soil of those regions to create the Delta of Lower Egypt; and to
perpetuate that Delta by annual deposits, that ARE NOW FORMING A
NEW EGYPT BENEATH THE WATERS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. We had seen
the Atbara a bed of glaring sand--a mere continuation of the
burning desert that surrounded its course, fringed by a belt of
withered trees, like a monument sacred to the memory of a dead
river. We had seen the sudden rush of waters when, in the still
night, the mysterious stream had invaded the dry bed, and swept
all before it like an awakened giant; we knew at that moment "the
rains were falling in Abyssinia," although the sky above us was
without a cloud. We had subsequently witnessed that tremendous
rainfall, and seen the Atbara at its grandest flood. We had
traced each river, and crossed each tiny stream, that fed the
mighty Atbara from the mountain chain, and we now, after our long
journey, forded the Atlara in its infancy, hardly knee deep, over
its rocky bed of about sixty yards width, and camped in the
little village of Toganai, on the rising ground upon the opposite
side. It was evening, and we sat upon an angarep among the lovely
hills that surrounded us, and looked down upon the Atbara for the
last time, as the sun sank behind the rugged mountain of Ras el
Feel (the elephant's head). Once more I thought of that wonderful
river Nile, that could flow for ever through the exhausting
deserts of sand, while the Atbara, during the summer months,
shrank to a dry skeleton, although the powerful affluents, the
Salaam and the Settite, never ceased to flow, every drop of their
waters was evaporated by the air and absorbed by the desert sand
in the bed of the Atbara, two hundred miles above its junction
with the Nile!
The Atbara exploration was completed; and I looked forward to the
fresh enterprise of new rivers and lower latitudes, that should
unravel the mystery of the Nile!
CHAPTER XX.
ARRIVAL AT METEMMA, OR GALLABAT.
WE left the village of Toganai at 5 A.M. and, after a rapid march
of sixteen miles, we came in view of Metemma, or Gallabat, in the
bottom of a valley surrounded by hills, and backed on the east by
the range of mountains of which Nahoot Guddabi formed the
extremity of a spur. As we descended the valley, we perceived
great crowds of people in and about the town, which, in
appearance, was merely a repetition of Katariff. It was
market-day, and as we descended the hill and arrived in the scene
below, with our nine camels heavily laden with the heads and
horns of a multitude of different beasts, from the gaping jaws of
hippopotami to the vicious-looking heads of rhinoceros and
buffalo, while the skins of lions and various antelopes were
piled above masses of the much-prized hide of the rhinoceros, we
were beset by crowds of people who were curious to know whence so
strange a party had appeared. We formed a regular procession
through the market, our Tokrooris feeling quite at home among so
many of their brethren. Upon our arrival at the extremity of the
valley, we were horribly disgusted at the appearance of the
water. A trifling stream of about two inches in depth trickled
over a bed of sand, shaded by a grove of trees. The putrefying
bodies of about half a dozen donkeys, three or four camels, and
the remains of a number of horses, lay in and about the margin of
the water. Nevertheless, the natives had scraped small holes in
the sand, as filters, and thus they were satisfied with this
poisonous fluid; in some of these holes, the women were washing
their filthy clothes. I immediately determined to follow up
stream, until I should arrive at some clear spot above these
horrible impurities, that were sufficient to create a pestilence.
Ascending the rising ground, I found on the summit, at about half
a mile distant, an immense sycamore (Ficus sycamorus), whose
green and wide-spreading branches afforded a tempting shade.
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