THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 5S9
rugged, uneven bottom of black rock. At a quarter paft twelve we halted on a fmall eminence, where the market of Sacala is held every Saturday. Homed cattle, many of the greateft beauty poffible, with which all this country a- bounds ; large afles, the mod ufeful of all beaits for riding or carriage ; honey, butter, enfete for f • >d, and a manufac- ture of the leaf of that plant, painted w.cli different colours like Mofaic work, are here expofed to fale in great plenty ; the butter and honey, indeed, are chiefly carried to Gondar, or to Bure ; but Damot, Maitfha, and Gojam likewife take a considerable quantity of all thel'e commodities.
At a quarter after one o'clock we palled the river Gu- metti, the boundary of the plain : we were now afcending a very iteep and rugged mountain, the worfl pafs we had met on our whole journey. We had no other path but a road made by the fheep or the goats, which did not feem to have been frequented by men, for it was broken, full of holes, and in other places obftru&ed with large ftones that feemed to have been there from the creation. It muft be added to this, that the whole was covered with thick wood, which often occupied the very edge of the precipices on which we Hood, and we were everywhere ftopt and entang- led by that execrable thorn the kantuffa, and feveral other thorns and brambles nearly as inconvenient. We afcended, however, with great alacrity, as we conceived we were fur- mounting the laft difficulty after the many thoufands we had already overcome. Juft above this almoft impenetra- ble wood, in a very romantic fituation, ftands St Michael, in a hollow fpace like a nitch between two hills of the fame height,, and from which it is equally diftant. This church has been unfrequented for many years ; the excufe they
viii. 46 make
