There are two villages of this name opposite to each other; the one Gawa Shergieh, which means the Eastern Gawa, and this is by much the largest; the other Gawa Garbieh. Several authors, not knowing the meaning of these terms, call it Gawa Gebery; a word that has no signification whatever, but Garbieh means the Western.
I was very well pleased to see here, for the first time, two shepherd dogs lapping up the water from the stream, then lying down in it with great seeming leisure and satisfaction. It refuted the old fable, that the dogs living on the banks of the Nile run as they drink, for fear of the crocodile.
All around the villages of Gawa Garbieh, and the plantations belonging to them, Meshta and Raany, with theirs also joining them (that is, all the west side of the river) are cultivated and sown from the very foot of the mountains to the water's edge, the grain being thrown upon the mud as soon as ever the water has left it. The wheat was at this time about four inches in length.
We passed three villages, Shaftour, Commawhaia, and Zinedi; we anchored off Shaftour, and within sight of Taahta. Taahta is a large village, and in it are several mosques. On the east is a mountain called Jibbel Heredy, from a Turkish saint, who was turned into a snake, has lived several hundred years, and is to live for ever. As Christians, Moors, and Turks, all faithfully believe in this, the consequence is, that abundance of nonsense is daily writ and told concerning it. Mr Norden discusses it at large, and afterwards gravely tells us, he does not believe it; in which I certainlymust
