Page:Livingstone in Africa.djvu/25

Of old the Egyptian from your loins, that loom
Large in far realms of Rumour, drew the Nile.
Ye, couchant o'er the sultry continent,
Seem the great guardian Lion of Africa,
Who, from primæval ages all alone,
Silently stern, confronts a crimson dawn
Over fair Indian seas, with face that towers
Sunward, supreme; feeling a warm moist breath,
Faint with perfume, turn crystals of soft snow
Among the terrors of his icy mane;
Or, where the stature of his giant frame
Declines to westward, feeling the breath change
To rain within the hollows of his heart.
All, thundering down abrupt convulsed ravines,
Scarr'd in precipitous rugged flanks of stone,
Feed wide Nyanzas; whether there be twain,
Or many waters, these engender thee,
Wonderful Nile!
Wonderful Nile! And yet I deem that I
Shall find thy parent springs remoter still.
Lualaba, with his tributary rivers,
And lilied lakes his loving bounty fills!