CHAPTER XXIX. THE SOURCES OF THE NILE—THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON, AND THE FOUNTAINS OF THE NILE.
Père Jerome Lobo and the Nile—The chartographers of Homer’s time—Hekatæus’s ideas of Africa—Africa after Hipparchus—The great Ptolemy’s map—Edrisi’s map—Map of the Margarita Philosophica—Map of John Ruysch—Sylvannus’ Map—Sebastian Cabot’s map—The arbitrariness of the modern map-maker—Map of Constable, Edinburgh—What Hugh Murray says in his book published in 1818—A fine dissertation on the Nile by Father Lobo—Extracts from part of a MS. in the possession of H. E. Ali Pasha Moubarek—Plan of Mount Gumr—A good description of Africa by Scheabeddin—The Nile according to Abdul Hassen Ali—Abu Abd Allah Mohammed on the Nile river.
1889.
June.
The Nile.
Every reader of this chapter will agree with Père Jerome Lobo, of the Company of Jesus, who wrote in the 16th century, that “it is not difficult, after having found the sources of the Nile, and of the rivers that run into it, to resolve the question as to its origin—a question that has caused so much anxiety to ancient and modern authors, because they were looking for that which could not be discovered in their heads, by which they were lost in vain thoughts and reasonings.”
For the complacent satisfaction of those who have not undergone the harassing anxieties attending the exploration of the countries in the region of the Nile sources, and who would prefer to content themselves with reading about them at home before a sparkling fire and under the light of the parlour lamp, I beg to present them with a few copies of ancient maps, from Homer’s time, forty centuries ago, down to those whence we derived instruction in African geography. They will observe with pleasure that we have not much to boast of; that the ancient travellers, geographers, and authors had a very fair idea whence the Nile issued, that they had heard of the Lunae Montes, and the triple lakes, and of the springs which gave birth to the famous river of Egypt. We only claim to have barred for a time the periodic flights of these interesting features of Africa, from 10° north latitude to as far as 20° south latitude, and from east to west Africa, and to have located with reasonable precision the grand old Mountains of the Moon, and the Albertine and Victorine sources of the Nile. And for a time only! For “what profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.”
What the chartographers of Homer’s time illustrated of geographical knowledge succeeding chartographers effaced, and what they in their turn sketched was expunged by those who came after them. In vain explorers sweated under the burning sun, and endured the fatigues and privations of arduous travel: in vain did they endeavour to give form to their discoveries, for in a few years the ruthless map-maker obliterated all away. Cast your eyes over these series of small maps, and witness for yourselves what this tribe has done to destroy every discovery, and to render labour and knowledge vain. There is a chartographer living, the chiefest sinner alive. In 1875, I found a bay at the north-east end of Lake Victoria. A large and mountainous island, capacious enough to supply 20,000 people with its products of food, blocked the entrance from the lake into it, but there is a winding strait at either end of sufficient depth and width to enable an Atlantic liner to steam in boldly. The bay has been wiped out, the great island has been shifted elsewhere, and the picturesque channels are not in existence on his latest maps, and they will not be restored until some other traveller, years hence, replaces them as they stood in 1875. And young travellers are known to chuckle with malicious pleasure at all this, forgetful of what old Solomon said in the olden time: “There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.”
So, though it is some satisfaction to be able to vindicate the more ancient geographers to some extent, I publish at the end of the series of old maps the small chart which illustrates what we have verified during our late travels. I do it with the painful consciousness that some stupid English or German map-maker within the next ten years may, from spleen and ignorance, shift the basin 300 or 400 miles farther east or west, north or south, and entirely expunge our labours. However, I am comforted that on some shelf of the British Museum will be found a copy of ‘In Darkest Africa,’ which shall contain these maps, and that I have a chance of being brought forth as an honest witness of the truth, in the same manner as I cite the learned geographers of the olden time to the confusion of the map-makers of the nineteenth century.
In the little sketch of ‘Homer’s World,’ which I have taken the liberty of copying, with a few others, from Judge Daly’s[13] learned and valuable contribution to the knowledge of ancient geography, it will be seen that the Nile is traced up to an immense range of mountains, beyond which are located the pigmies.
Five centuries later a celebrated traveller called Hekatæus illustrates his ideas of Africa in a map given below. Though he had visited Egypt, it is quite clear that not many new discoveries had been made. According to him the great Egyptian river takes its rise at the southern extremity of Africa, where the pigmies live.
AFRICA IN MAP OF HEKATÆUS. 500 B.C.
The next map of Africa that I wish to introduce for inspection is by the “greatest astronomer of antiquity,” Hipparchus, who lived 100 years B.C. His sketch contains three distinct lakes, but situate far north of the equator.
Here follows the great Ptolemy, the Ravenstein or Justas Perthes of his period. Some new light has been thrown by his predecessors, and he has revised and embellished what was known. He has removed the sources of the Nile, with scientific confidence, far south of the equator, and given to the easternmost lake the name of Coloe Palus.
A thousand years elapse, and bring us to Edrisi, an Arab geographer, 1154 A.D. Some little information has been gained in the meanwhile of the Dark Interior. The Mountains of the Moon are prominent now, but several degrees south of the equator. Two of the lakes discharge their surplus waters to a third lake, which is north, whence the Nile issues, flowing northward towards Egypt. We see in it the results of geographical conferences, and many inquiries from ivory traders.
Four centuries later we see, by the following map, that the lakes have changed their position. Ambitious chartographers have been eliciting information from the latest traveller. They do not seem to be so well acquainted with the distant region around the Nile sources as those ancients preceding Edrisi. Nevertheless, the latest travellers must know best.
Central Africa according to Edrisi. 1154 a.d.
But in the short space of five years new light has been thrown again, or is it the mere vagary of a chartographer? Lo! the “Mountains of the Moon” are restored many degrees below the equator, but there are only two lakes south of the equator, while the third has travelled to an immense distance north of the line.
MAP OF THE MARGARITA PHILOSOPHICA A.D. 1503
Within three years Africa seems to have been battered out of shape somewhat. The three lakes have been attracted to one another; between two of the lakes the Mountains of the Moon begin to take form and rank. The Mons Lunæ are evidently increasing in height and length. As Topsy might have said, “specs they have grown some.”
SEBASTIAN CABOT’S MAP OF THE WORLD 16th Century
In the following map we see a reproduction of Sebastian Cabot’s map in the sixteenth century. I have omitted the pictures of elephants and crocodiles, great emperors and dwarfs, which are freely scattered over the map with somewhat odd taste. The three lakes have arranged themselves in line again, and the Mountains of the Moon are picturesquely banked at the top head of all the streams, but the continent evidently suggests unsteadiness generally, judging from the form of it.
That from the sixteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century very little further knowledge respecting the sources of the Nile was known may be proved by the map of my school-days, which follows. There is a distinct retrogression by the determined stupidity of the map-maker. All that we had gathered since the days of old Homer down to the seventeenth century—all the lakes are swept away—the Mountains of the Moon run from about 5° to about 10° north of the equator, and extend from Long. 20° to the Gulf of Aden. We simply owe our ignorance to the map-makers. We no sooner discover some natural feature than it is removed in a next issue.
THE NILE SOURCES ACCORDING to GEOGRAPHERS of the 16TH & 17TH CENTURIES
1888.
June.
The Nile.
The arbitrariness of the modern map-maker is as bad as that of his predecessors. In a late German map, for instance, considered to be the best in Germany, there is a large bay removed altogether from the Victoria Nyanza, and a straight line, drawn by pure caprice, usurps the place of a very interesting and much indented coastline, explored by me in 1875. Speke’s Lake Urigi is jostled to the east, shunted to the north; Ukerewe is utterly out of order, and the Tanganika has a great bay named after a person who had followed in the steps of six preceding investigators. Lake Leopold II. narrowly escaped being sponged out because two Germans, Kund (?) and Tappenbeck, had lost their way, and could not find it; but in the meantime an English missionary visited it, and it was left in peace. English map-makers are quite as capricious.
This map, for instance, which has made such cruel and wicked changes of Homer, Hipparchus, Ptolemy, and others, was published by Constable in 1819, in a fit of aggravated biliousness no doubt.
Hugh Murray, a compiler of African travels, published in London, 1818, a book called an ‘Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Africa,’ and as he has been an industrious collator of testimony which the best authors of twenty centuries could furnish, I avail myself of his assistance. He says:
“Herodotus shows himself to have known the course of the Nile higher probably than it has been traced by any modern European.
“From Elephantine at the southern extremity of Egypt (Assouan) to Meroe, the capital of Ethiopia, was a journey of fifty-two days, and from thence an equal distance to the country of Automolos, or exiles,[14] making in all a hundred and four days’ journey. The regions deeper in the interior were known to him only by the very short narrative of the ‘Excursion of the Nassamones.’ The river to which the travellers were carried flowing to the eastward is believed to have been the Niger, though Herodotus conceived it to be the Nile. As it was proved by this data to proceed from the west, it appeared natural that this river was one of the main branches.
“Eratosthenes compared Africa to a trapezium, of which the Mediterranean coast formed one side, the Nile another, the southern coast the longest side, and the western coast the shortest side. So little were the ancients aware of its extent that Pliny pronounced it to be the least of the continents, and inferior to Europe. Upon the Nile, therefore, they measured the habitable world of Africa, and fixed its limit at the highest known point to which that river had been ascended. This is assigned about three thousand stadia (three or four hundred miles) beyond Meroe. They seem to have been fully aware of two great rivers rising from lakes and called the Astaboras and Astapus, of which the latter (White Nile) flows from the lake to the south, is swelled to a great height by summer rains and forms then almost the main body of the Nile.
MAP of the NILE BASIN. 1819. A.D.
“Equal in fame with the Geographical School of Eratosthenes was that of Ptolemy. This school displays an increase of actual knowledge which was not, however, always accompanied by sounder views respecting undiscovered regions. Ptolemy appears to have been the first who formed a correct idea of the whole course of the Nile, and assigns to its fountains a place in the vast range of the Mountains of the Moon. But he places his Ethiopia interior much further south beyond the equator, nearly in the latitude of Raptum” (Kilwa?).
The Prior of Neuville les Dames et de Prevessin, who published extracts from Father Lobo, the Portuguese Jesuit, launches into a fine dissertation on the Nile, some portions of which are as follows:—
“The greatest men of antiquity have passionately endeavoured to discover the sources of the Nile, imagining, after a career of conquest, that this discovery was only needed to consummate their glory. Cambyses lost many people and much time in this search.”
“When Alexander the Great consulted the oracle of Jupiter of Ammon the first thing he desired to know was whence the Nile sprang, and having camped on the Indus he believed that he had at last succeeded.”
“Ptolemy Philadelphia waged war on Ethiopia with a view to ascend the Nile. He took the town of Axum, as may be seen by the inscriptions that Cosmos Indoplustes has preserved, which he copied during the reign of Emperor Justin I.”
“Lucan makes Cæsar say in his ‘Pharsalia,’ that he would readily abandon the design of warring against his country could he be happy enough to see the primal fountains of the Nile:
“‘Nihil est quod noscere malim,
Quam fluvii causas per sæcula tanta latentes,
Ignotumque caput: spes sit mihi certa videndi
Niliacos fontes; bellum civile relinquam.’”
“Nero was animated by the same thirst for glory, for he despatched armies to make this discovery, but the report submitted to him removed all hope of success.”
“The ancients therefore, searching in vain for the sources of the Nile, attempted to conceal their ignorance by mysteries, and they related them in fables. Even the interpreters of Holy Scripture were not exempt from this defect, as they knew no other lands on Ethiopia than that of Africa; they thought that Gihon, mentioned in Genesis, was the Nile, not being able to go against the Scriptures, where it is said that the Gihon has its spring in the terrestrial paradise, and it waters the land of Chus; it passes through under the seas and under the earth to reappear in Ethiopia. How many clever men have endeavoured to clear up these fables? and how many different systems were got up? The Bishop of Avranches supports, in his ‘Treatise of the Terrestrial Paradise,’ that the Gihon is an easternly branch of the Euphrates, which flows from the country of Eden and passes along the country of Chus, now the Cheezeslam. He adds that Homer makes out that it descends from Jupiter, and calls it Δητετἡ; this is what has caused Plautus to say, in speaking of a river, which he does not name, that it has its source in heaven and under the throne of Jupiter. The Egyptians, Ethiopians, Abyssinians, Gymnosophists, after making out this river to be a divinity, have thought themselves obliged to maintain the old errors—even the most absurd ones. Therefore we should not be astonished, after the poets having attributed a heavenly origin to the Nile, if the Egyptians, who owe the fertility of their country to it, have built temples, have erected altars, have established festivals in its honour, finally, if they have adored it under the name of Osiris.”
“The Jews and the Mohammedans, who are far from each other in idolatry, have thought that the waters of the Nile were holy and blessed, and the Agaus, who live in the environs of the sources of this river, although instructed in the Christian religion, still offer sacrifices; so that obstinacy and vanity support the superstitions and the idolatries that ignorance has introduced.”
“The Nile has changed its name, according to the times and places: ‘Nec ante Nilus, quam se totum aquis concordibus rursus junxit. Sic quoque etiamnum Siris, ut ante, nominatus per aliquos in totum Homero Ægyptus, aliisque Triton.’ Pliny does not say, as some others have said, that it was the Nile which at first had the name of ‘Egypt,’ but it has given it to the countries it watered while running into the sea, or it is called so after the name of the country, as rivers are ordinarily called after the name of the countries they pass through. Hesychius pretends that the Nile was at first called Egypt, and that it is this river which has given its name to the country: Αἱγυπτος, ὁ Νεἱλος ὁ ποταμὁς ἁχ’ οὑ καἱ ἡ χαρἁ ὑπὁ τος νεωτεροὑς Αἱγυπτος ἑπωνομασμἑνος (Ægyptus, Nilus fluvius à quo regio à recentioribus Ægyptus est appellata). Egypt, nevertheless, is not the first name under which it was known; before it was called Oceanus, afterwards Aetus or Aquila, then Ægyptus, and from thence it was called Triton, on account of these three names; finally, it is known now by the Greeks as well as the Latins by the name of Nile. According to Pliny it takes the name of Syris by passing through the country of Syene. The Egyptians, who think themselves indebted to it for the fecundity of their country and for all its products, have called it the Saviour, the Sun, the God, sometimes the Father. In the Ethiopian language, as used by the learned, it is called Gejon, and he believes that it may have been called so after the name of Gihon, of which Moses speaks in his description of the terrestrial paradise, where he says, ‘Et nomen fluvii fecundi Gihon: ipse qui circumit omnem terram Æthiopiæ.’ Vatable, in explaining the word Kuseh or Æthiopia, says that this must mean the Eastern Ethiopia, ‘de Æthiopia Orientali intelligit.’ The Nile or the Gejon do not environ the whole of Ethiopia or the whole of Abyssinia, but merely a portion, which is the kingdom of Goyam.”
“It will easily be seen shortly how many false hypotheses, how many false reasonings, have been made on the subject; however, there are still people so obstinate of the antiquity, that they will not put faith in those who have been on the spot, and who, having witnessed with their own eyes, could efface what the ancients had written about them. It was difficult and even impossible in following the course of the Nile to go up to its source; those who undertook it were always stopped by the cataracts, and despairing that neither they themselves or others could succeed, they invented a thousand stories. Let us add that neither the Greeks nor the Romans, who are the only ones from whom we have borrowed all our knowledge, have ever carried their arms to that side; who have not even heard spoken of so many barbarous nations who live along this great river; that the land where the Nile springs from, and all those in its environs, are only inhabited by savage and barbarous people; that to arrive there terrible mountains will have to be crossed, impenetrable forests, deserts full of wild beasts, who hardly find there anything to live on. If, however, those who have made so many attempts to discover the source of the Nile had gone though the Red Sea they might with less trouble and expense found what they were looking for.”
After hearing what the ancients said and thought of the sources of the Nile, let us see what we are able to gather from the Arabs:
The following are extracts from part of a manuscript, in the possession of H. E. Ali Pasha Moubarek, the present Minister of Public Instruction, Egypt. The name of the compiler is not given; only the date, 1098 A.H. = 1686 A.D. They are translated by Mr. Vandyck, teacher of English in the Government Schools, Cairo.
“Abu el Fadel, son of Kadama, says in his book, ‘that all rivers in inhabited countries are 228 in number. Some flow like the Nile, from south to north, some flow from east to west, and some flow from north to south, and some flow in more than one of these directions, like the Euphrates and the Gihon.’ He further says, ‘As for the Nile, it starts from the Mountains of Gumr (Kamar) beyond the equator, from a source from which flow ten rivers, every five of these flowing into a separate lake, then from each one of these two lakes two rivers flow out; then all four of these rivers flow into one great lake in the first zone, and from this great lake flows out the Nile.”
“The author of the book called ‘The Explorer’s Desire,’ says that ‘this lake is called the Lake of Likuri,[15] from the name of a tribe in the Soudan who live around the lake, and are very barbarous, and cannibals. From this lake flows out the river Garna, and the Abyssinian river. After leaving this lake, the Nile traverses the country of Likuri, then the country of Mennan—another Soudanese tribe—between Khartoum and Nubia.’”
“On reaching Dongola, the metropolis of Nubia, it goes to the west, and then reaches the second zone. Here the banks are inhabited by the Nuba, and the river has many large cultivated islands with cities and villages, and the boats of the Nuba reach to this point coming downward, whilst the boats of Upper Egypt reach that far going upwards. There are there rugged rocks which prevent the ships from passing except at high Nile. It then flows northward, and passes east of Assouan, in Upper Egypt. It then passes between two mountain chains which border Egyptian territory, east and west, until it reaches Fostat; thence it flows a day’s journey, and then divides into two branches, the one emptying into the Mediterranean at Damietta, and is called the eastern river, and the other, which is the main Nile, passes on, and empties into the Mediterranean at Rosetta, and is called the western branch.”
“The length of the Nile from its source is 3,748 parasangs. It is said that it flows through uninhabited country for four months, and through the Soudanese territory two months, and through Moslem territory one month. No other river goes on increasing while the other rivers are at their lowest, except the Nile, for it rises in the dry season, when the sun is in the constellation Cancer, Leo and Ceres.”
“It is said that this river has tributaries. Some say that its rise is caused by snows melted in summer, and according to the quantity of snowfall will be the greater or lesser rise. Others say that the rise is caused by the different direction of the winds; that is to say, that when the north wind blows strongly, it stirs up the Mediterranean, and pushes the waters thereof backwards so that it overflows the land; and when the south wind blows the Mediterranean ceases to storm, and the waters that were dammed up flow away again.”
“Others say that the rise is caused by fountains upon its banks, that have been seen by travellers who have reached to the highest point.”
“Others say that the Nile flows from snowy mountains, and they are the mountains called Kaf. That it passes through the Green Sea, and over gold and silver and emerald and ruby mines, flowing on ad infinitum until it reaches the lake of the Zingh (Zanzibar), and they say were it not to enter into the salt sea and be mixed up with the waters thereof, it could not be drunk for great sweetness.”
“There is a difference of opinion as to the derivation of the word ‘Gumr.’ Some say it ought to be pronounced ‘Kamar,’ which means the moon, but the traveller, Ti Tarshi, says that it was called by that name because ‘the eye is dazzled by the great brightness.’ This mountain, the Gumr, extends eastward and westward into uninhabited territory on both sides. Indeed, this whole chain is uninhabited on the southern slope. This chain has peaks rising up into the air, and other peaks lower. Some have said that certain people have reached these mountains, and ascended them and looked over to the other side, where they saw a sea with troubled waters, dark as night, this sea being traversed by a white stream, bright as day, which enters the mountains from the north, and passes by the grave of the Great Hermes, and Hermes is the prophet Idrisi (Enoch).”
“It is said that Idrisi there built a dome. Some say that people have ascended the mountain, and one of them began to laugh and clap his hands,[16] and threw himself down on the further side of the mountain. The others were afraid of being seized with the same fit, and so came back. It is said that those who saw it, saw bright snows like white silver glistening with light.[17] Whoever looked at them became attracted, and stuck to them until they died, and this science is called ‘Human Magnetism.’”
“It is said that a certain king sent an expedition to discover the Nile sources, and they reached copper mountains, and when the sun rose, the rays reflected were so strong that they were burnt. Others say that these people arrived at bright mountains like crystal, and when the rays of the sun were reflected they burnt them. Others say that Mount Gumr is a mountain on an island which is called by this same name. Opposite to it is the land of Serendib,[18] four months’ journey in length and twenty days’ journey in breadth, and that from this mountain comes the bird called gimre.”
“The author of the book called the ‘Mirror of Ages,’ says, ‘Hameed, son of Biktiari, has stated that the fountain which is the first of all the fountains is in Mount Gumr. From this fountain start ten rivers, one of which is the Nile. They say that the Nile traverses the first zone, then passes into the second zone, and that the length of it from the source to the Mediterranean is 3,000 parasangs. Some have thought that these fountains are the cause of the rise, whereas others say—and this is the most probable—that the cause is the abundance of rain and torrents in Abyssinia and Nubia, and that the delay in the rise reaching Egypt is on account of the great distance. All other rivers flow to the south, whereas it flows northward, and like it, Orontes in North Syria near Hamath.’
“Ti Farshi says that ‘some astronomers state that the Nile comes from beyond the equator 11½°, and then flows on to Damietta and Alexandria at 30° lat. N. They say from its source to its mouth are 142⅓° nearly, hence the length would be 8614⅓ miles with all its meanderings. It meanders eastward and westward greatly.’
“Achmed, son of Ti Farshi, in his book of the description of the Nile, says, ‘historians relate that Adam bequeathed the Nile unto Seth his son, and it remained in the possession of these children of prophecy and of religion, and they came down to Egypt (or Cairo) and it was then called Lul, so they came and dwelt upon the mountains. After them came a son Kinaan, then his son Mahaleel, and then his son Yaoud, and then his son Hamu and his son Hermes—that is Idrisi the prophet.[19] Idrisi began to reduce the land to law and order. The Nile used to come flowing down upon them, and they would escape from it to the high mountains and to elevated land until the river fell, then they would plant whatever country was left bare. Idrisi gathered the people of Egypt and went with them to the first stream of the Nile,[20] and there adjusted the levelling of the land and of the water by lowering the high land and raising the low land and other things according to the science of astronomy and surveying. Idrisi was the first person who spoke and wrote books upon these sciences. He then went to the land of Abyssinia and Nubia, and gathered the people, and extended the distance of the flow of the Nile, or reduced it according to the swiftness or sluggishness of the stream. He even calculated the volume of the water and the rate of flow. He is the first man who regulated the flow of the Nile to Egypt. It is said that in the days of Am Kaam, one of the Kings of Egypt, Idrisi was taken up to Heaven, and he prophesied the coming of the flood, so he remained the other side of the equator and there built a palace on the slopes of Mount Gumr.[21] He built it of copper, and made eighty-five statues of copper, the waters of the Nile flowing out through the mouths of these statues and then flowing into a great lake and thence to Egypt.’
“Idyar el Wadi says, ‘the length of the Nile is two months’ journey in Moslem territory, and four months’ journey in uninhabited country. That its source is from Mount Gumr beyond the equator, and that it flows to the light coming out of the river of darkness, and flows by the base of Mount Gumr.’
“Mohammed, the Prophet of God, says:—
“‘The Nile comes out of the Garden of Paradise, and if you were to examine it when it comes out, you would find in it leaves of Paradise.’
“King Am Kaam, mentioned above, is Hermes I. The devils carried him to this mountain, which is called Gumr, and there he saw how the Nile flows out of the Black Sea and enters into the mountain of Gumr. King Am Kaam built on the slopes of the mountain a palace having eighty-five statues, to which he collected all the water that flows from this mountain, conducting it in vaulted conduits until the water reaches the statues and flows out of their mouths in measured quantities and calculated cubic contents. It thence flows in many rivers until it reaches the Great Central Lake.[22] Round this lake is the country of the Soudan and their great city Garma. In this great lake is a mountain which traverses it, going out of the lake and extending north-west.[23] From this mountain the Nile flows on a month’s journey and then it divides in the land of Nubia, one division going to the far west, and in this branch is the greater part of the country called the Soudan—whilst the other is the branch which flows down to the land of Egypt, and beyond Assouan it divides into four branches and thus flows into the sea at Damietta and Alexandria. It is said that three of these branches flow into the Mediterranean, whereas the fourth branch flows into the Salt Lake and thence to Alexandria.
“It is said that the rivers Sihon, Gihon, the Nile and the Euphrates, all start from a green jasper dome from a mountain, and that this mountain is near the Dark Sea.[24] That the waters are sweeter than honey, and more fragrant than musk, but that the waters are changed in the course of the flow.
“Sheikh Izz Edin, son of Ibn Gamar, says in his book on medicine (and I have copied from the autograph manuscript), that the source of the Nile is from Mount Gumr beyond the equator by 11° and 20′. From this mountain start ten rivers from various sources, each five of which flow into a great round lake, which is distant from the extreme uninhabited country of the west by 57°, and from the equator 7° and 31′ to the south, and these two lakes are equal, the diameter of each being 5°. Out of each one of these two lakes flow two rivers which empty into one great lake in the first zone. It is distant from the uninhabited country of the west by 53° and 30′. It is distant north of the equator 2°. Each one of these four rivers empties itself separately into this great lake, and from it comes out one single river, and this is the Nile. It passes through the country to Nubia, and joins another river, whose source is from another part near the equator, from a great round lake whose diameter is 3°, and which is distant from the confines of inhabited country on the west of 71°.
“After it has passed the city of Cairo, it reaches a town called Shatanuf, where it divides into two rivers, both of which flow into the salt sea, one of these branches being called the Rosetta River, and the other the Damietta River. This river reaches to Mansoura, and there branches off from it the river called Ashmun, which empties into a lake there, and the remainder flows into the salt sea near Damietta, and here I give a plan of Mount Gumr.
“The historian El Gahez, in his description of countries, says that ‘the source of the river of Sindh[25] and the river Nile is from one place,’ and that he came to this conclusion because ‘the two rivers rise at the same time, and because the crocodile is found in them both,’ and that ‘the kind of land-cultivation upon both is the same.’ The historian Mashi, in his ‘History of Egypt,’ says that in the country of Tegala is a Soudanese tribe of the same name in whose land gold crops up, and that in their land the Nile splits and becomes two rivers, the one branch being the Nile of Egypt, and the other being green, which flows eastward and traverses the salt sea to the landing of Sindh, and this is the river called Meharaam.
“The lake into which the water flows is called Biliha.[26] Part of the Nile flows to the Soudan country, then passes to the east of Kussed, and then flows along one of the mountains of this country and comes out at the equator. Then it passes out from a lake there, and continues going westward to the country of Laknur, and thence northwards until it flows into the great ocean. Then it flows to the country of Abyssinia, and thence to the country of the Soudan, and then to the east of Dongola, until it comes upon the cataracts of Assouan, thence it flows into the Mediterranean.
MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON.—MASSOUDI, 11TH CENTURY.
“Makrisi says, ‘There is no difference of opinion. The Nile comes from Mount Gumr.’ Makrisi also says that ‘Merka-Eel, the son of Doobar-Eel, the son of Garabat, the son of Asfusan, the son of Adam, on coming to Egypt with a number of the tribe of Arabat, settled in Egypt and there built the city of Assus and other cities, and they dug the Nile until they led the water down to them, because, before that time, it did not flow regularly, but used to spread out over the land unto the country of King Mekronsé of Nuba. They regulated the course of the Nile and drew from it various streams to their different cities which they had built. They also led one stream to the city of Susan, then after the world came out of the flood, and when time rolled on until the days of Berdashir, the son of Bzar, the son of Ham, the son of Noah, the flow of the Nile was again regulated a second time, after it had been completely ruined by the flood.’ But the historian Ibn Wasifsha says, ‘when Berdashir ruled—and he is the first who became a priest and who practised magic and used to render himself invisible—he sent the Prince Hermes to the great Lake,[27] whence the waters of the Nile flow. It is also said that he regulated the stream, because formerly it used to overflow in some places and not in others.’
“As for the place where are the copper statues, it contains fifty-eight figures, and Hermes collected to these figures the water that flows out of the Nile, conducting the water to them by vaulted conduits and aqueducts, so that the water would flow to the figures and then come out from Mount Gumr, and thence flow from under the wall, and then pass out through the mouths of these figures. He regulated and measured the quantity of water flowing out, so as to allow to flow out that amount which is required for the land of Egypt, viz., that it should rise only to eighteen cubits, each cubit having thirty-two digits. Were it not for this the Nile would swamp all the countries that it passes through.
“El Welid, the son of Romah the Amalekite, was enabled to go to discover the sources of the Nile. He occupied three years in preparing for his expedition, and then started with a large army, destroying every tribe he came upon. He passed through the tribes of the Soudan, and through the gold country, and there he saw golden sticks sprouting out. He continued journeying until he reached the great Lake,[28] unto which the Nile flows coming from the rivers which flow out from under Mount Gumr. He went on until he reached the Temple of the Sun, and passed it until he reached Mount Gumr or Kamar, which is a high mountain. He says that it is called Mount Gumr because the moon does not shine except upon it because it is outside of the Equator.[29] He saw the Nile flowing out from under Mount Gumr and coming down from the rivers of Mount Kaf. After the river traverses the Equator it is joined by waters from a stream coming from the region of Tekraan[30] in India, and this fountain starts from under Mount Gumr and flows in that direction. It is said that the river Tekraan is like the Nile. It rises and falls at the same time, and has in it crocodiles and fishes resembling those in the Nile.
“Some people have said that when they were there they saw neither sun nor moon, but the only light was the light of the most merciful God like the light of the sun.
“Other explorers have said that the four rivers, Gihon, Sihon, the Euphrates, and the Nile arise from one source—from a dome in the gold country, which is beyond the dark sea, and that that country is a part of the regions of Paradise, and that the dome is of jasper. They also say that Hyad, one of the children of Ees, prayed God to show him the extreme end of the Nile. God gave him power to do this, and he traversed the dark river, walking upon it with his feet over the water which did not stick to his feet, until he entered that dome. This legend I have taken from El Makrisi’s book.”
The best description that I have been able to discover is by Scheabeddin, an Arab geographer who wrote about 1400 A.D. He says:—
“The Isle of Mogreb (Africa) is in the midst of the seas which water it on all sides. To the east it is bounded by the sea of Kulzum (Red Sea); to the south and west by the ocean of which God only knows the extent and limits; to the north it has for limits the sea of Kharz, which is that by which the Franks came into the Holy Land, by landing on the coast of Syria.
“In the midst of the Isle of Mogreb are the deserts of the negroes, which separate the country of the negroes from that of the Berbers. In this isle is also the source of that great river which has not its equal upon the earth. It comes from the mountain of the moon which lies beyond the equator. Many sources come from this mountain and unite in a great lake. From this lake comes the Nile, the greatest and most beautiful of the rivers of all the earth. Many rivers derived from this great river water Nubia, and the country of the Djenawa. This river cuts horizontally the equator, traverses Abyssinia, the country of Kuku, comes to Syene, cuts Egypt throughout its whole length and throws itself into the sea between Tunis and Damietta.”
Abdul Hassan Ali, ibu el Hasseyn, ibu Ali el Massoudé, born at Baghdad, and who came to Egypt 955 A.D., where he closed his accounts with the world, and brought his many travels to an end, writes:—
“I have seen in a geography a plan of the Nile flowing from the Mountains of the Moon—Jebel Kumr.
“The waters burst forth from twelve springs and flow into two lakes like unto the ponds of Bussora. After leaving these lakes, the waters re-unite, and flow down through a sandy and mountainous country.
“The course of the Nile is through that part of the Soudan near the country of the Zenj (Zanzibar).”
As I finished the transcription of these interesting old legends, I said in my heart: “As it happened unto the ancient authors, so it will happen unto me. Why was I then more wise? I considered all travail, and every right work—that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. Therefore I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun is grievous unto me—for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.”
The following was kindly translated by His Excellency Count de Landburg, the Consul-General at Cairo for Sweden and Norway.
MAP OF NILE BASIN TO-DAY, FROM MEDITERRANEAN TO S. LAT 4.
“Chams ed-din Abu Abd Allah Mohammed ed Dimachgê (born 1256 A.D., Dec. 1336 (31)), in his geography, Mukhbat ed-dahr fê Ajaîb al-barr walbahr, edited by Professor Mehren, St. Petersburg, 1866, says (p. 88), in the chapter dealing with the four rivers of Paradise:—
The scholars say about this, that the Egyptian river called the Nile is the river of Nubia. Its springs are in the Mountains of the Moon, which divide the inhabited land to the south of the equator, and that on the outside from the southern unknown countries, whereof there is no information. The number of its springs are ten rivers, running with haste in ten valleys between high trees and compact sands. The distance between the longest off situated occidental is about fifteen days, and they all together flow into two large lakes, the distance between these being four days. The extension of the oriental lake with all its islands and mountains is rather four days to him that passes around it, and the extension of the occidental is about five days to him that passes around it, and in both these lakes, and in the land that lies between the streams above mentioned, are the wild Sudan tribes, whose nature resembles to that of the beasts. They do eat whomsoever they assault, and he that catches anybody of another tribe, kills him and eats him, as the game eaten. The situation of these lakes is from 50-56° longitude from the springs of the river, and from 6-7° latitude on the south of the equator. The Oriental lake is called Kúkû and Tamim es-Sudanese, and the occidental Damâdim and Galjûr and Hajami. Farther issue from each of these two lakes four rivers, running through populated valleys, where the Sudanese have their settlements. These rivers are flowing near the equator until 7° latitude, and flow all together into one long and large lake, which is called Jawas and el Jamia (Arab: the ‘Collector'), and which is called also Kûri [31] of the Sudanese. Its circuit is about six days with the islands Jawas and Kûri, inhabited by the Sudanese. From this lake issue three big rivers. The one flows towards the west, and is called Rhâna; another, turning to the south, flows to the east, and is called ed Damadim, or the Magid Shu of the Negroes, and the third is the river of Nubia, and is called the Nile. Its course is to the north until it flows into the Mediterranean, as the river Damâdim flows into the Southern Sea, and the Rhâna river into the Western Ocean.”
