While otherwhere long sheeny rapier blades
Of green matete cane adorn the marge,
With mangroves, whose bare roots affect the fen.
One who rows softly, rounding promontories,
When these high hills are overarch'd with azure,
Dipping his paddle in a light blue water,
Beholds embower'd in sweet shingly coves
Palm-nestled, hive-like huts and villages,
Whose dwellers ply their busy crafts on shore,
While fishing gear and boats adorn the strand . . .
. . And what if this great water gender Nile?17
For I have seen a Northward drift of boughs,
With other floating waifs; while Arabs tell
How from far Northern limits of the lake
A river floweth North—perchance to where
Baker, with his heroic consort, came? . .
. . Where issueth else the mighty water forth?
18 Mosi-oa-tunya.
Smooth river water holdeth softly furl'd
Thee, hoarded wonder of the wondrous world!
