E X P L A N A T IO N .— P a r t H.
THE SOURCES OF THE NILE.
“Yet still no views have urged my ardour more
Than Nile’s remotest fountains to explore;
Then say what source the famous stream supplies,
And bids it at revolving periods rise;
Show me the head from whence since time begun
The long succession of his waves have run;
This let me know, and all my toils shall cease,
The sword be sheathed, and earth be blessed with peace.”
Pharsalia (Ccesar loq.).
In the fifth century, before the Christian era
began, Herodotus, the first great African traveller,
wrote about the Nile and its sources as
follows : —
' “ Respecting the nature o f this river, the Nile,
I was unable to gain any information, either
from the priests or any one else. I was v e ry
desirous, however, o f learning from them why
the Nile, beginning at the summer solstice, fills
and overflows for a hundred days; and when it
has nearly completed this number o f days, falls
short in its stream, and retires; so that it continues
low all the winter, until the return o f the
summer solstice. O f these particulars I could
get no information from the Egyptians, though
I inquired whether this river has any peculiar
quality that makes it differ in nature from other
rivers. Being anxious, then, o f knowing what
was said about this matter, I made inquiries,
and also how it comes to pass that this is the
only one o f all rivers that does not send forth
breezes from its surface. Nevertheless, some o f
the Greeks, wishing to be distinguished for their
wisdom, have attempted to account for these
inundations in three different w a y s : two o f
these ways are scarcely worth mentioning, e x cept
that I wish to show what th ey are. One
o f them says that the Etesian winds are the
cause o f the swelling o f the river, b y preventing
the Nile from discharging itself into the sea.
But frequently the Etesian winds have not blown,
y e t the Nile produces the same effects; besides,
i f the Etesian winds were the cause, all other
rivers that flow opposite to the same winds
must o f necessity be equally affected and in
the same manner as the Nile; and even so much
the more, as th ey are less and have weaker
currents; y e t there are many rivers in Syria,
and many in Libya, which are not all affected
as the Nile is. The second opinion shows still
more ignorance than the former, but, i f I may
so sa y , is more marvellous. It sa y s that the
Nile, flowing from the ocean, produces this