Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/135

Rh above it is the mountain, or high hill, on which stands Zarai, now a collection of villages, formerly two convents built by Lalibala; though the monks tell you a story of the queen of Saba residing there, which the reader may be perfectly satisfied she never did in her life.

Mareb is the boundary between Tigré and the Baharnagash, on this side. It runs over a bed of soil; is large, deep, and smooth; but, upon rain falling, it is more dangerous to pass than any river in Abyssinia, on account of the frequent holes in its bottom. We then entered the narrow plain of Yeeha, wherein runs the small river, which either gives its name to, or takes it from it. The Yeeha rises from many sources in the mountains to the west; it is neither considerable for size nor its course, and is swallowed up in the Mareb.

harvest was in great forwardness in this place. The wheat was cut, and a considerable share of the teff in another part; they were treading out this last-mentioned grain with oxen. The Dora, and a small grain called telba, (of which they make oil) was not ripe.

eleven o'clock we rested by the side of the mountain whence the river falls. All the villages that had been built here bore the marks of the justice of the governor of Tigré. They had been long the most incorrigible banditti in the province. He surrounded them in one night, burnt their houses, and extirpated the inhabitants; and would never suffer any one since to settle there. At three o'clock in the afternoon we ascended what remained of the mountain of Yeeha; came to the plain upon its top; and, at a quarter be-