Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/25

THE SOURCE OF THE NILE    9 thought a greater breach of delicacy to have refused than to have complied: —
 * But what success Vanessa met
 * Is to the world a secret yet;
 * Can never to mankind be told,
 * Nor shall the conscious muse unfold.

Fye upon the conscious muse, says lord Orrery; and fye, too, say I: — a man of honour and gallantry should not permit himself such a hint as this, though the Red Sea was between him and his mistress.

IT was impossible to sleep; the whole night was one continued storm of thunder, rain, and lightning; the morning was clearer, and my people very urgent to go away; but I had still to settle with Zor Woldo, who had been kept by his mistress, Fasil's wife, notwithstanding his master's orders, till he had told her the whole circumstances of our expedition, and made her laugh heartily at the oddity of our sentiments and customs. This she repaid to him by plentiful horns of mead and bouza, as also large collops of raw meat, which made him a very eloquent historian; whether or no he was a faithful one, I cannot possibly judge.

AFTER having settled with him to his perfect satisfaction and cancelled entirely the memory of some disagreeable things passed, he consigned us very solemnly to Ayto Aylo's servant, in presence of Welled Amlac, and had taken his leave, when a very fine white cow was brought to the door of the tent from Fasil's wife, who insisted, as a friend of her husband, that I would stay that day for her sake; and I should