Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/178

74 the river being no longer navigable above, and there they are employed till the next season.

know little, therefore, and care less about the names or inhabitants of these villages, who have each of them barks of their own to carry on their own trade. There are some indeed employed by the Coptic and Turkish merchants, who are better versed in the names of villages than others; but, if they are not, and find you do not understand the language, they will never confess ignorance; they will tell you the first name that comes uppermost, sometimes very ridiculous, often very indecent, which we see afterwards pass into books, and wonder that such names were ever given to towns.

reader will observe this in comparing Mr Norden's voyage and mine, where he will seldom see the same village pass by the same name. My Rais, Abou Cuffi, when he did not know a village, sometimes tried this with me. But when he saw me going to write, he used then to tell me the truth, that he did not know the village; but that such was the custom of him, and his brethren, to people that did not understand the language, especially if they were priests, meaning Catholic Monks.

passed with great velocity Nizelet Embarak, Cubabac, Nizelet Omar, Racca Kibeer, then Racca Seguier, and came in sight of Atsia, a large village at some distance from the Nile; all the valley here is green, the palm-groves beautiful, and the Nile deep.