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1. Approaching the source of the Nile |
James Bruce
1. Approaching the source of the Nile
Lowes argues that Coleridge's Xanadu resembles the area around the fountain
from which the Nile begins.
One thread of imagery, then, suggests that the site is the long-sought but
rarely found source of the Nile, one of the four sacred rivers that
tradition says flowed out of Paradise.
Lowes has stitched together phrases and sentences from eight out of 47
consecutive pages, creating a miniature narrative of Bruce's journey as he
approached the source of the Nile.
Bruce's guide led him through a very
thick wood, in a situation that Bruce found romantic.
At that point the Nile
was not more than four yards wide, shaded by cedars. The thick groves seemed
a cover from which savage animals might burst at any moment.
Nearing the
source, Bruce hesitated, because the water was enchanted.
In the middle of a
hill, there was a cliff called Geesh. In that cliff, in the direction of the
fountain from which the Nile flows, Bruce found a large cave, suggesting
that perhaps the Nile itself came out of those depths.
From the cliff, the ground sloped downhill very gradually, descending toward
the fountain itself.
In these particulars, gathered together into an anthology, the narrative
does seem to echo Coleridge's poem. |
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William Bartram |
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