Select Specimens of Natural History Collected in Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile. Volume 5.

Part 1

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SELECT SPECIMENS OF NATURAL HISTORY, COLLECTED IN Travels to discover the Source of the NILE, IN EGYPT, ARABIA, ABYSSINIA, AND NUBIA.

ΑΙΕΙ ΦΕΡΕΙ ΤΙ ΛΙΒΥΗ ΚΑΙΝΟΝ

Arist. Hist. Anim. Lib. 8.]

VOL. V.

“AND HE SPAKE OF TREES, FROM THE CEDAR-TREE THAT IS IN LEBANON, EVEN UNTO THE HYSSOP THAT SPRINGETH OUT OF THE WALL: HE SPAKE ALSO OF BEASTS, AND OF FOWL, AND OF CREEPING THINGS, AND OF FISHES.”

1 KINGS, chap. iv. ver. 33.

EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY J. RUTHVEN, FOR G. G. J. AND J. ROBINSON, PATERNOSTER-ROW, LONDON.

M.DCC.XC.

CONTENTS

OF THE

FIFTH VOLUME.

INTRODUCTION, P. i

OF PLANTS, SHRUBS, AND TREES.

Papyrus, P 1

Balessan, Balm, or Balsam, 16

Sassa, Myrrh, Opocalpasum, 27

Ergett Y’dimmo, 34

Ergett el Krone, 35

Ensete, 36

Kol-quall, 41

Rack, 44

Gir Gir, or Gesh el Aube, 47

Kantuffa, 49

Gaguedi, 52

Wanzey, 54

Farek, or Bauhinia Acuminata, 57

Kuara, 65

Part 2

Walkuffa, 67

Wooginoos, or Brucea Antidysenterica, 69

Cusso, or Bankesia Abyssinica, 73

Teff, 76

OF QUADRUPEDS.

Rhinoceros, 85

Hyæna, 107

Jerboa, 121

Fennec, 128

Ashkoko, 139

Booted Lynx, 146

OF BIRDS.

Nisser, or Golden Eagle, 155

Black Eagle, 159

Rachamah, 163

Erkoom, 169

Moroc, 178

Sheregrig, 182

Waalia, 186

Tsaltsalya, or Fly, 188

El Adda, 193

Cerastes, or Horned Viper, 198

Binny, 211

Caretta, or Sea Tortoise, 215

Pearls, 219

MAPS.

1. General Map.

2. Itinerary from Gondar to the Source of the Nile.

Part 3

3. Chart of Solomon’s Voyage to Tarshish.

INTRODUCTION.

As it has been my endeavour, throughout this history, to leave nothing unexplained that may assist the reader in understanding the different subjects that have been treated in the course of it, I think myself obliged to say a few words concerning the manner of arranging this Appendix. With regard to the Natural History, it must occur to every one, that, however numerous and respectable they may be who have dedicated themselves entirely to this study, they bear but a very small proportion to those who, for amusement or instruction, seek the miscellaneous and general occurrences of life that ordinarily compose a series of travels.

By presenting the two subjects promiscuously, I was apprehensive of incommoding and disgusting both species of readers. Every body that has read Tournefort, and some other authors of merit of that kind, must be sensible how unpleasant it is to have a very rapid, well-told, interesting narrative, concerning the arts, government, or ruins of Corinth, Athens, or Ephesus, interrupted by the appearance of a nettle or daffodil, from some particularity which they may possess, curious and important in the eye of a botanist, but invisible and indifferent to an ordinary beholder.

To prevent this, I have placed what belongs to Natural History in one volume or appendix, and in so doing I hope to meet the approbation of my scientific botanical readers, by laying the different subjects all together before them, without subjecting them to the trouble of turning over different books to get at any one of them. The figures, landscapes, and a few other plates of this kind, are illustrations of what immediately passes in the page; these descriptions seldom occupy more than a few lines, and therefore such plates cannot be more ornamentally or usefully placed than opposite to the page which treats of them.

Some further consideration was necessary in placing the maps, and the Appendix appeared to me to be by far the most proper part for them. The maps, whether such as are general of the country, or those adapted to serve particular itineraries, should always be laid open before the reader, till he has made himself perfectly master of the bearings and distances of the principal rivers, mountains, or provinces where the scene of action is then laid. Maps that fold lie generally but one way, and are mostly of strong paper, so that when they are doubled by an inattentive hand, contrary to the original fold they got at binding, they break, and come asunder in quarters and square pieces, the map is destroyed, and the book ever after incomplete; whereas, even if this misfortune happens to a map placed in the Appendix, it may either be taken out and joined anew, or replaced at very little expence by a fresh map from the bookseller.

I shall detain the reader but a few minutes with what I have further to say concerning the particular subjects of Natural History of which I have treated. The choice I know, though it may meet with the warmest concurrence from one set of readers, will not perhaps be equally agreeable to the taste of others. This I am heartily sorry for. My endeavour and wish is to please them all, if it were possible, as it is not.

The first subject I treat of is trees, shrubs, or plants; and in the selecting of them I have preferred those which, having once been considered as subjects of consequence by the ancients, and treated largely of by them, are now come, from want of the advantage of drawing, lapse of time, change of climate, alteration of manners, or accident befallen the inhabitants of a country, to be of doubtful existence and uncertain description; the ascertaining of many of these is necessary to the understanding the classics.

It is well known to every one the least versant in this part of Natural History, what a prodigious revolution has happened in the use of drugs, dyes, and gums, since the time of Galen, by the introduction of those Herculean medicines drawn from minerals. The discovery of the new world, besides, has given us vegetable medicines nearly as active and decisive as those of minerals themselves. Many found in the new world grow equally in the old, from which much confusion has arisen in the history of each, that will become inextricable in a few generations, unless attended to by regular botanists, assisted by attentive and patient draughts-men ignorant of system, or at least not slaves to it, who set down upon paper what with their eyes they see does exist, without amusing themselves with imagining, according to rules they have themselves made, what it regularly should be. One drawing of this kind, painfully and attentively made, has more merit, and promotes true knowledge more certainly, than a hundred horti sicci which constantly produce imaginary monsters, and throw a doubt upon the whole. The modern and more accurate system of botany has fixed its distinctions of genus and species upon a variety of such fine parts naturally so fragil, that drying, spreading, and pressing with the most careful hands, must break away and destroy some of those parts. These deficient in one plant, exiting in another in all other respects exactly similar, are often, I fear, construed into varieties, or different species, and well if the misfortune goes no farther. They are precisely of the same bad consequence as an inaccurate drawing, where these parts are left out through inattention, or design.

After having bestowed my first consideration upon these that make a principal figure in ancient history, which are either not at all or imperfectly known now, my next attention has been to those which have their uses in manufactures, medicine, or are used as food in the countries I am describing.

The next I have treated are the plants, or the varieties of plants, unknown, whether in genus or species. In these I have dealt sparingly in proportion to the knowledge I yet have acquired in this subject, which is every day increasing, and appears perfectly attainable.

The history of the birds and beasts is the subject which occupies the next place in this Appendix; and the rule I follow here, is to give the preference to such of each kind as are mentioned in scripture, and concerning which doubts have arisen. A positive precept that says, Thou shalt not eat such beast, or such bird, is absolutely useless, as long as it is unknown what that bird and what that animal is.

Many learned men have employed themselves with success upon these topics, yet much remains still to do; for it has generally happened, that those perfectly acquainted with the language in which the scriptures were written, have never travelled nor seen the animals of Judea, Palestine, or Arabia; and again, such as have travelled in these countries, and seen the animals in question, have been either not at all, or but superficially acquainted with the original language of scripture. It has been my earnest desire to employ the advantage I possess in both these requisites, to throw as much light as possible upon the doubts that have arisen. I hope I have done this freely, fairly, and candidly; if I have at all succeeded, I have obtained my reward.

As for the fishes and other marine productions of the Red Sea, my industry has been too great for my circumstances. I have by me above 300 articles from the Arabian gulf alone, all of equal merit with those specimens which I have here laid before the public. Though I have selected a very few articles only, and these perhaps not the most curious, yet as they are connected with the trade of the Red Sea as it was carried on in ancient times, and may again be resumed, and as of this I have treated professedly, I have preferred these, as having a classical foundation, to many others more curious and less known. Engraving in England has advanced rapidly towards perfection, and the prices, as we may suppose, have kept proportion with the improvement. My small fortune, already impaired with the expence of the journey, will not, without doing injustice to my family, bear the additional one, of publishing these numerous articles, which, however desirable it might be, would amount to a sum which in me it would not be thought prudent to venture.

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