The Nile Is Still Known By Its Ancient
Name, Being Called Nil By The Abyssinians, Egyptians, Arabians, And
Indians.
The springs and lakes of this river are on the confines which
separate the land of the Abyssinians from
The Cafres that inhabit the
continent behind Melinda and Mozambique, as I was informed by some great
lords and other persons of Abyssinia, whence it appears that the
ancients had little knowledge respecting the origin of this river.
Inquiring from these people, if it were true that this river did sink in
many places into the earth, and came out again at the distance of many
days journey, I was assured there was no such thing, but that during its
whole course it was seen on the surface, having great breadth and depth,
notwithstanding of what we read in the fifth book of the Natural
History of Pliny. I made many inquiries respecting the causes of
increase and overflowings of this river, which has been so much disputed
by all the ancient philosophers, and received the most satisfactory
solution of this question never before determined. Thus almost
jestingly, and by means of very simple questions, I came to learn that
which the greatest philosophers of antiquity were ignorant of.
[Footnote 280: That is Ethiopia below Egypt, or more properly to the
south of Egypt. The expression below seems ridiculous, as Abyssinia
or Ethiopia containing the sources of the Nile must be higher than
Egypt at its mouth. But among Greek and Roman geographers, above and
below meant respectively to the north and to the south.
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