And thenceforth it[BC] runneth ever above ground without any more hiding of itself beneath the soil, and parteth Africa from Ethiopia, and maketh great lakes from the which the men of that country derive their maintenance; and in the same way are to be found there all the creatures which breed in the other places of the said river. And from the place where it beginneth to run above ground without again taking its course subterranean, down to the place where it commenceth to divide itself, it is called Niger; and in this part its stream is already very great, and here it maketh of itself three parts, each one of which is a river by itself. And of these three rivers, one entereth Ethiopia and divideth the same in the middle, and this is called Astapus, that is to say, according to the language of that land, a water that runneth out of darkness. And this river watereth many islands which are so great that, in passing by the smallest of them, though it runneth in its course very briskly, it doth consume five days. But the noblest of these islands is that called Meroë, which we have named above; and the second branch of these three is that called Astaboras,[BD] the which in their language is as much as to say "an arm of the water which cometh out of darkness," and this taketh its course towards the left; the third of these three is called Astusapes, which meaneth "the water of the lake," and this also floweth towards the left; and these streams, so far as they flow separately, are called by these names that we have given. But when they are all joined together in one river, the stream taketh its own proper name, to wit, "the Nile;" but it is not called so before, though all these streams be one water. And when it leaveth the islands, it shutteth itself up in certain mountains, but in no part doth it flow so angrily and with such a rushing stream as when it cometh to a place of Ethiopia called Catadupia,[BE] and thenceforth its bed is strewn with many great rocks for a long space. And these break it in its course, and the river goeth dashing through those rocks and maketh a very great noise therewith: so much so, that the learned say that no pregnant women dare dwell within two leagues of the same, in that the terror caused by this noise straightway maketh them to miscarry. [Footnote BC: The Nile.] [Footnote BD: Astabores.] [Footnote BE: The Cataracts.] And coming forth from that multitude of great rocks, the strength of the waters is now broken, and the stream floweth as if wearied, and the current of the water is very gentle. And as soon as it entereth the plains of Egypt, it divideth many islands which have other names than those they used to have; and thence it maketh its way directly to the sea; but before that it formeth many lakes and marshes by which are watered all the plains of Egypt; and thereafter the river entereth the sea in one stream near the city which is called Damietta. CHAPTER LXII.