On the next day (February 2) my friends returned to camp, having made short work of their tramp of forty-two miles. Crawley had shot an oribi, a species of gazelle, on the way to the falls, and Dupuis secured one on the march back. The former had served as tasty rations to the party on the journey, the latter came into our larder, and the prospect of venison after a long course of guinea-fowl was very pleasant.
They had met a small body of Habashes on the road, who attempted to turn them back, and these men loaded their rifles as a menace. They were probably soldiers of the King of Godjam, but as the Abyssinian troops wear no uniform it is difficult to distinguish those who are “in the service” from those who are not. As among the Boers, the combatant can at any time become a non-combatant if he has time to hide his rifle and cartridges. My friends took no notice of the hostile demonstration and rode on. Nothing came of it. Probably the threat was intended to extort money. Usually we were well received, and I attribute this to the sound judgment of our chief, who took care to leave the villages near which we camped a little richer than we found them.
The bridge is a most interesting relic of the times of Portuguese ascendency in Abyssinia. I am indebted to Dupuis for permission to reproduce his photograph of it. The following account of its construction is taken from Dr. Johnson’s translation of Father Jerome Lobo’s[88] “Voyage to Abyssinia.” I quote the passage in extenso because it contains a reference to a question which has been much discussed, though it has merely an academic interest, viz. whether Lake Tsana, or the river which is its principal tributary, should be regarded as the true source of the Blue Nile.
“The Nile, which the natives call Abavi” (Abai), “that is the father of waters, rises first in Sacala, a province of the kingdom of Goiama” (Godjam), “which is one of the most fruitful and agreeable of all the Abyssinian dominions. This province is inhabited by a nation of the Agaus, who call themselves Christians, but by daily intermarriages they have allied themselves to the Pagan Agaus, and adopted all their customs and ceremonies. These two nations are very numerous, fierce, and unconquerable, inhabiting a country full of mountains, which are covered with woods, and hollowed by nature into vast caverns, many of which are capable of containing several numerous families and hundreds of cows. To these recesses the Agaus betake themselves when they are driven out of the plain, where it is almost impossible to find them and certain ruin to pursue them. This people increases extremely, every man being allowed so many wives as he hath hundreds of cows; and it is seldom that the hundreds are required to be complete.
“In the eastern part of this kingdom, on the declivity of a mountain, whose descent is so easy that it seems a beautiful plain, is that source of the Nile which has been sought after at so much expense of labour, and about which such variety of conjectures hath been formed without success. This spring, or rather these two springs, are two holes, each about two feet diameter, a stone’s cast distant from each other. The one is but about five feet and a half in depth, at least we could not get our plummet farther, perhaps because it was stopped by roots, for the whole place is full of trees. Of the other, which is somewhat less, with a line of ten feet we could find no bottom, and were assured by the inhabitants that none ever had been found. It is believed here that these springs are the vent of a great subterraneous lake; and they have this circumstance to favour their opinion, that the ground is always moist, and so soft that the water boils up underfoot as one walks upon it: this is more visible after rains, for then the ground yields and sinks so much, that I believe it is chiefly supported by the roots of trees that are interwoven one with another. Such is the ground round about these fountains. At a little distance to the south is a village named Guix, through which the way lies to the top of the mountain, from whence the traveller discovers a vast extent of land, which appears like a deep valley, though the mountain rises so imperceptibly that those who go up or down it are scarce sensible of any declivity.
“On the top of this mountain is a little hill, which the idolatrous Agaus have in great veneration. Their priest calls them together at this place once a year; and having sacrificed a cow, throws the head into one of the springs of the Nile; after which ceremony every one sacrifices a cow or more according to their different degrees of wealth or devotion. The bones of these cows have already formed two mountains of considerable height, which afford a sufficient proof that these nations have always paid their adorations to this famous river. They eat these sacrifices with great devotion, as flesh consecrated to their deity. Then the priest anoints himself with the grease and tallow of the cows, and sits down on a heap of straw on the top and in the middle of a pile which is prepared. They set fire to it, and the whole heap is consumed without any injury to the priest; who, while the fire continues, harangues the standers by, and confirms them in their present ignorance and superstition. When the pile is burnt, and the discourse at an end, every one makes a large present to the priest, which is the grand design of this religious mockery.
“To return to the course of the Nile. Its waters, after the first rise, run to the eastward for about a musket-shot; then turning to the north, continue hidden in the grass and weeds for about a quarter of a league, and discover themselves for the first time among some rocks; a sight not to be enjoyed without some pleasure by those who have read the fabulous accounts of this stream delivered by the ancients, and the vain conjectures and reasonings which have been formed upon its original, the nature of its water, its cataracts, and its inundations, all which we are now entirely acquainted with, and eye witnesses of.”[89]
The Nile “rolls away from its source with so inconsiderable a current that it appears unlikely to escape being dried up by the hot season, but soon receiving an increase from the Gemma, the Kelta, the Bransu, and other less rivers, it is of such a breadth in the plain of Boad, which is not above three days’ journey from its source, that a ball shot from a musket will scarce fly from one bank to the other. Here it begins to run northward, deflecting, however, a little towards the east, for the space of nine or ten leagues; and then enters the so much talked of lake of Dambia” (Tsana), “called by the natives Barhar Sena, the resemblance of the sea, or Barhar Dambia, the sea of Dambia. It crosses this lake only at one end, with so violent a rapidity that the waves of the Nile” (Abai) “may be distinguished through all the passage, which is six leagues.[90] Here begins the greatness of the Nile. Fifteen miles farther, in the land of Alata, it rushes precipitately from the top of a high rock, and forms one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world. I passed under it without being wet, and resting myself there for the sake of the coolness, was charmed with a thousand delightful rainbows which the sunbeams painted on the water in all their shining and lively colours. The fall of this mighty stream, from so great a height, makes a noise that may be heard to a considerable distance. . . . The mist that rises from this fall of water may be seen much farther than the noise can be heard. After this cataract, the Nile again collects its scattered stream among the rocks which seem to be disjoined in this place only to afford it a passage. They are so near each other, that, in my time, a bridge of beams, on which the whole Imperial army passed, was laid over them. Sultan Segued[91] hath since built here a bridge of one arch in the same place, for which purpose he procured masons from India” (i.e. the Portuguese Indies).[92] “This bridge, which is the first the Abyssinians have seen on the Nile, very much facilitates a communication between the provinces, and encourages commerce among the inhabitants of his Empire.”
Bruce’s description of the source of the Abai differs somewhat from that given by Father Lobo. It is brief, and as an exceptional interest attaches to the spot, it may not be superfluous to quote it.
“Half undressed as I was, by loss of my sash, and throwing my shoes off” (as he had been directed to do in order to conform to a superstitious usage of the natives), “I ran down the hill towards the little island of green sods, which was about two hundred yards distant; the whole side of the hill was thick grown with flowers, the large bulbous roots[93] of which appearing above the surface of the ground, and their skins coming off upon treading upon them, occasioned me two very severe falls before I reached the brink of the marsh. I after this came to the altar of green turf, which was in form of an altar apparently the work of art, and I stood in rapture over the principal fountain, which rises in the middle of it.”[94]