[Illustration: THE SOURCE OF THE BLUE NILE SHOWING LAKE IN THE DISTANCE. _See p._ 136.] THE SOURCE OF THE BLUE NILE A RECORD OF A JOURNEY THROUGH THE SOUDAN TO LAKE TSANA IN WESTERN ABYSSINIA, AND OF THE RETURN TO EGYPT BY THE VALLEY OF THE ATBARA WITH A NOTE ON THE RELIGION, CUSTOMS, ETC. OF ABYSSINIA BY ARTHUR J. HAYES, L.S.A. (LOND.) MEDICAL OFFICER, QUARANTINE OFFICE, SUEZ AND AN ENTOMOLOGICAL APPENDIX BY E. B. POULTON, LL.D., F.R.S. HOPE PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS_ LONDON SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15, WATERLOO PLACE 1905 _(All rights reserved)_ PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. PREFACE In Africa the centre of interest shifts quickly, from Khartoum to the Cape, from the Congo to Morocco. Before now it has lain in Abyssinia, for Englishmen especially. It may be found there again. If so, the theatre of action will probably be the little known region of Western Abyssinia, and that district of the Anglo-Egyptian Nile Province which adjoins it. Geographically, Western Abyssinia dominates the south-east of the Soudan. The Soudan, as every one in England knows now, is not a continuation of the Desert of Sahara, but a land that once flowed with milk and honey, and may again. It contains vast tracts of soil perfectly adapted for the cultivation of cotton. A hostile force descending from Abyssinia has the enormous advantage of moving from difficult into easy country with an open line of retreat into almost inaccessible mountains. An expedition from the Soudan, on the other hand, would be confronted, after traversing miles of uninhabited hilly wastes, by the necessity of forcing its way up mule-paths winding among precipices.