Page:Livingstone in Africa.djvu/102

Fans clear and lucid now in morning hours;
Vivid green pennons of tall rushes wave
Athwart blue light, with dense papyrus reed,
Wherein soft brown gazelles rustle and play
'Neath hollyhock, brown bulrush, and flagflowers.
A mighiy river horse
Protrudes a shining snout; trumpets aloud,
Blowing out spurts of water like a whale.
"Pula, pula," calls the "Son-in-law of God;"¹⁶
While ever and anon an ebony bird
Rouses from his dim dreaming on the sand,
And screaming harshly, wakes a long wild cry
From some fish-eagle, widening vast brown wings.
In shoals grave marabouts, with red flamingoes,
Wade; and behold! yon bird on floating lotus
Leaves walks among the holy white lilies,
Dipping a glossy fold below the ripple.
A snowy ibis, a slim demoiselle,
A tall grey heron, an egret of white plume;
These, and the like, stand fairy sentinels,
With wavering bright image down below,
Silent before a twilit emerald