Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/681

 THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 657

As for the firft, it is only the tranflation of the word Ba- liar, applied to the Nile. The inhabitants of the Barabra, to this day, call it Bahar el Nil, or, the Sea of the Nik, in con- tradistinction to the Red Sea, which they know by no other name but Bahar el Melech, the Salt Sea. The junction of the three great rivers ; the Nile, flowing on the weft of Meroe ; the Tacazze, which wafhes the eaft fide, and joins the Nile at Maggiran, in lat. 1 f ; and the Mareb, which falls into this laft, fomething above this junction — gives the name •of Triton to the Nile.

More doubt has been raifed as to the third name, ^Egyp- tus, which it obtains in Homer, and which, I apprehend, was a very ancient name given it even in Ethiopia. The generality, nay, all interpreters, I may fay, imagine, as in that of Siris, that this name was given it in relation to its colour, viz. black; but with this I cannot agree; Egypt, in the Ethiopic, is called y Gipt, Agar; and, an inhabitant of the country, Gypt, for precifely fo it is pronounced, which means the country of ditches, or canals, drawn from the Nile on both fides at right angles with the river ; nothing, fure- ly is more obvious than to write y Gipt, lb pronouncing Egypt, and, with its termination, us, or os, Egyptus. The Nile is alfo called Kronidcs, Jupiter ; as alfo fevei al other names ; but thefe are rather the epithets of poets, relative and tran- ficory, not the permanent appellation of the river.

I would pafs over another name, that of Geon, which fome of the fathers of the church have fondly given it, pre- tending it was one of the rivers that came from the terref- trial paradife, and enconipaifcd the whole land of Cum, whilll, for this purpofe, they bring it two thoufand miles by

Vol. III. 4 O a feries