The Tour · Chapter
XX explained
Uncle Catullus remains behind on the Nile boat at Memphis, bored and complaining, while Lucius, Caleb, Thrasyllus, and Tarrar journey through the desert to the oracle of Ammon.
What happens
Uncle Catullus remains behind on the Nile boat at Memphis, bored and complaining, while Lucius, Caleb, Thrasyllus, and Tarrar journey through the desert to the oracle of Ammon. The caravan faces exhaustion, water shortages, and fears of supernatural desert beings, but after a crisis where guards drink all the water, Lucius calms them with lemons and money. At dawn, they sight the oasis of Ammon-Râ, greeted by jubilant natives.
Themes in this chapter
Travel and Discovery
The caravan's arduous desert journey to the oracle of Ammon highlights the challenges and wonders of exploration.
Deception and Survival
The guards' deceit in drinking the water and the subsequent crisis underscore the struggle for survival in the desert.
Mortality and Transience
Caleb's fears of supernatural death and the exhaustion of men and animals reflect the fragility of life in the harsh environment.
Characters to notice
- Catullus
Remains on the barge at Memphis, bored and complaining to Cora about being left behind.
- Publius Lucius Sabinus
Leads the caravan to the oracle of Ammon, remains cheerful despite hardships, and resolves the water crisis with lemons and money.
- Caleb
Rides a dromedary, becomes despondent and fearful in the desert, complains of supernatural dangers, and defends his water rationing.
- Thrasyllus
Travels beside Lucius in the litter and tells the story of Alexander the Great's journey to the oracle of Ammon.
- Tarrar
Rides a camel, defies the sun, and expresses preference for Rome over his native land.
Key passages
“Uncle Catullus lay under the awning of the thalamegus and asked Cora to come and sit by him: 'Sing and play me some cheerful songs, Cora,' he said. 'Be kind to me even though I be not your master. For I feel bored here, on this Nile boat, at Memphis.'”
Catullus, lounging on the boat, asks Cora to entertain him, complaining of boredom at Memphis.
Catullus expresses his ennui and loneliness after Lucius's departure.
“Caleb, swathed in white muslin, which left only his gleaming eyes and flashing teeth visible, sat upon a powerful dromedary, on leather cushions, under a great parasol fixed to his saddle-gear, and occasionally swaying gently to and fro.”
Caleb, dressed in white with only his eyes and teeth showing, rides a dromedary under a parasol, swaying gently.
Description of Caleb's appearance and mode of travel during the desert journey.
“Then Lucius intervened and quieted them all and gave them money; and they fell on their knees and sobbed and begged his pardon for drinking up the water, but they had been so thirsty and they accused Caleb of being too sparing with the ration.”
Lucius calms the quarreling guards and drivers by giving them money, after they confess to drinking the water and blame Caleb's strict rationing.
Lucius resolves the conflict over water by offering compensation and forgiveness.
“In the first rosy glimmers of the dawn, reflected from the east to the west, there rose in the west as it were a dream, a nebulous dream-vision of unsubstantial forms, the vague paradisial vision of barely-outlined, rose-tinted trees, slender, shadowy trunks and palm-crowns suffused in rosy light; and then the straight lines, no more than an azure shadow, of walls, of roofs, terraces, domes.”
At dawn, a dreamlike vision of the oasis appears in the west, with rose-tinted trees and the outlines of buildings.
The caravan's first sight of the oasis of Ammon, described as a mirage-like vision.
