And so it spreadeth its waters over the land, not to return to its bed till the sun shall have come to the time of autumn and lessened its strength, when the shadows begin to fall in the city of Meroe, where the trees cast no shadows in summer time, so directly passeth the sun[N153] overhead above everything. And so, in conclusion, to the great might of the Nile we may apply those words wherewith Bishop Achoreus spake of it to Caesar, as Lucan writeth: "Oh," said he, "great and mighty stream, which risest from the midst of the axis of the firmament, and venturest to raise thy waters over their banks against the sign of Cancer when that is in the fulness of its heat; thou who proceedest straight towards the north-east with thy waters, and takest thy course through the midst of the plain; thou who turnest thence to the west and again to the east; thou who dost reveal thyself sometimes in Arabia and sometimes in the sands of Libya, displaying thyself to the peoples of those lands, performing so many great benefits for them--of a truth the men of those regions could not dispense with thee or live without thee, and these are the first races of men that behold thee. Thy power is to issue forth at the solstices, the which do fall, the one in December and the other in June, and thou increasest in the alien winter which is not thine. To thee is it granted by nature to go through both the axes of the firmament, to wit: the axis of the north and that of the south; thy foam fighteth with the stars, so high dost thou cause it to rise by thy power; and before thy waves do all things tremble. What can I say of thee, except that thou art as it were the navel of the world: for even as the creatures which lie in the wombs of their mothers are governed by the navels of their bodies, a like comparison may be made of thy greatness in affairs of the earth." CHAPTER LXIII. How the Caravels set forth from the river, and of the voyage which they made.