forming the boundary-line between Africa and Æthiopia, its banks, though not immediately peopled by man, are the resort of numbers of wild beasts and animals of various kinds. Giving birth in its course to dense forests of trees, it travels through the middle of Æthiopia, under the name of Astapus, a word which signifies, in the language of the nations who dwell in those regions, “water issuing from the shades below.” Proceeding onwards, it divides[3527] innumerable islands in its course, and some of them of such vast magnitude, that although its tide runs with the greatest rapidity, it is not less than five days in passing them. When making the circuit of Meroë, the most famous of these islands, the left branch of the river is called Astobores[3528], or, in other words, “an arm of the water that issues from the shades,” while the right arm has the name of Astosapes[3529], which adds to its original signification the meaning of “side[3530].” It does not obtain the name of “Nile” until its waters have again met and are united in a single stream; and even then, for some miles both above and below the point of confluence, it has the name of Siris. Homer has given to the whole of this river the name of Ægyptus, while other writers again have called it Triton[3531]. Every now and then its course is interrupted by islands which intervene, and which only serve as so many incentives to add to the impetuosity of its torrent; and though at last it is hemmed in by mountains on either side, in no part is the tide more rapid and precipitate. Its waters then hastening onwards, it is borne along to the spot in the country of the Æthiopians which is known by the name of “Catadupi[3532];” where, at the last Cataract[3533], the complaint is, not that it flows, but that it rushes, with an immense noise between the rocks that lie in its way: after which it becomes more smooth, the violence of its waters is broken and subdued, and, wearied out as it were by the length of the distance it has travelled, it discharges itself, though by many mouths[3534], into the Egyptian sea. During certain days of the year, however, the volume of its waters is greatly increased, and as it traverses the whole of Egypt, it inundates the earth, and, by so doing, greatly promotes its fertility.