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Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773; To Which Is Prefixed a Life of the Author
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile in the Years 1768 1769 1770 1771 1772 and 1773 To Which Is Prefixed a Life of the Author Author:James Bruce General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1804 Original Publisher: Printed by J. Ballantyne, for A. Constable Subjects: Natural history Ethiopia Nile River Egypt Voyages and travels Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. ... more »When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAP. VIII. The Author sets out from Kenne -- Crosses the Desert of the Thebaid -- Visits the Marble Mountains -- Arrives at Cosseir, on the Red Sea -- Transactions there. ON Thurday, the 16th of February 1769, we heard the caravan was ready to set out from Kenne, the Csene Emporium of antiquity. From Kenne our road was first east, for half an hour, to the foot of the hills, which here bounded the cultivated land ; then S. E. when, at 11 o'clock in the forenoon, we passed a very dirty small village, called Sheraffa. All the way from Kenne, close on our left, were desert hills, on which not the least verdure grew, but a few plants of a large species of Solanum, called Bur- rumbuc. At half past two we came to a well, called Bir Ambar, the well of spices, and a dirty village of the same name, belonging to the Azaizy, a poor inconsiderable tribe of Arabs. They live by letting out their cattle for hire to the caravans that go to Cosseir, and attending themselves, when necessary. It got its name, I suppose, from its having formerly been a station of the caravans from the Red Sea, loaded with this kind of merchandise from India. The houses of the Azaizy are of a very particular construction, if they can be called houses. They are all made of potter-clay, in one piece, in shape of a bee-hive; the largest is not above ten feet high, anil the greatest diameter six. There are no vestiges here of any canal, mentioned to have been cut between the Nile and the Red Sea. The cu...« less