Burton would have wanted it that way. Where I found the prose of the Sindh book overly effusive yet also somewhat characterless, one of the delights of the current work is its spare, urgent, ad hoc style. It is reminiscent of Burton's own tough-minded crudite yet sensitive writing. The horrors, wonders, and incomparable natural beauty of Africa requite severe rationing of adjectives and judicious selection of subject matter if the reader is not to drown in felicities. Wordsworth's Prelude would be a mere haiku compared with what he might have written had he been young and resilient enough to join Burton and Speke.
Every house has a magnificent door, often teak studded with brass.
Elaborate carvings on the lintels and frames include quotations from the Koran which are believed to bestow a blessing on the home. There are hundreds of different doors, carved with symbols of lotus flowers for procreation, fish for fertility, dates and frankincense for abundance, and reinforced with chains for the safety and security of those within. Analyze this and you will see how much reading, knowledge, sheer inquisitiveness and study foes into producing such deceptively straightforward words. There are even times when he intuitively understands that his own feelings are best expressed through the words of his companions or the works of those who made the same journey in a different age. The Nile Source AutoRoute is still in the very preliminary planning stages, and a good road is one where the mud or dust surface is still visible 10 yards ahead.