Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/523

 THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 499

without order, the only benefit expected from them being the made. At fome fmall diftance is the village Azazo, ori- ginally built for the accommodation of the king's fervants while he refided there, but now chiefly occupied by monks belonging to the large church of Tecla Haimanout, which is on a little hill adjoining. Azazo, though little, is one of the moll chearful and pleafant villages in the neighbour- hood of Gondar. The lemon-tree feems to thrive better and grow higher than the orange ; but the houfe itfelf is going fail to ruin, as the kings of this country have a fixed averlion to houfes built by their predeceflbrs.

The Dumaza is a very clear and pleafant ftream, Tun- ing brifkly over a fmall bed of pebbles : both this river and the Shimfa come from Woggora on the N. W. they pafs the hill of Kofcam, called Debra Tzai, join below Azazo, and, traverfing the flat country of Dembea,they meet the Angrab, which pafTes by Gondar, and with it fall into the Tacazze, or Atbara.

At noon we palled a fmall rivulet called Azzargiha, and, foon after, the Chergue, where there began a molt violent ftorm of rain, which forced us, much againft our will, into the village, one of the mod miferable I ever entered ; it con- fiflcd of fmall hovels built with branches of trees, and co- vered with thatch of flraw. Thefe rains that fall in the lat- ter feafon are what the natives very much depend upon, and without which they could not low the latter crops ; for, though it rains violently every day from May to the beginning of September, by the end of October the ground is fo burnt that the country would be unlit for culture. 3R2

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