without success.
This spring, or rather these two springs, are two holes, each about two
feet diameter, a stone's cast distant from each other; the one is but
about five feet and a half in depth--at least we could not get our
plummet farther, perhaps because it was stopped by roots, for the whole
place is full of trees; of the other, which is somewhat less, with a line
of ten feet we could find no bottom, and were assured by the inhabitants
that none ever had been found. It is believed here that these springs
are the vents of a great subterraneous lake, and they have this
circumstance to favour their opinion, that the ground is always moist and
so soft that the water boils up under foot as one walks upon it. This is
more visible after rains, for then the ground yields and sinks so much,
that I believe it is chiefly supported by the roots of trees that are
interwoven one with another; such is the ground round about these
fountains. At a little distance to the south is a village named Guix,
through which the way lies to the top of the mountain, from whence the
traveller discovers a vast extent of land, which appears like a deep
valley, though the mountain rises so imperceptibly that those who go up
or down it are scarce sensible of any declivity.

On the top of this mountain is a little hill which the idolatrous Agaus
have in great veneration; their priest calls them together at this place
once a year, and having sacrificed a cow, throws the head into one of the
springs of the Nile; after which ceremony, every one sacrifices a cow or
more, according to their different degrees of wealth or devotion. The
bones of these cows have already formed two mountains of considerable
height, which afford a sufficient proof that these nations have always
paid their adorations to this famous river. They eat these sacrifices
with great devotion, as flesh consecrated to their deity. Then the
priest anoints himself with the grease and tallow of the cows, and sits
down on a heap of straw, on the top and in the middle of a pile which is
prepared; they set fire to it, and the whole heap is consumed without any
injury to the priest, who while the fire continues harangues the standers
by, and confirms them in their present ignorance and superstition. When
the pile is burnt, and the discourse at an end, every one makes a large
present to the priest, which is the grand design of this religious
mockery.

To return to the course of the Nile