Mardi, and a voyage thither, Vol. 1 (of 2)Melville, Herman
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Mardi, and a voyage thither, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Melville, Herman
Adventure stories; Polynesia -- Description and travel -- Fiction
For Samoa, his drowsiness was the drowsiness of one beat on sleep, come
dreams or death. He seemed insensible to the peril we ran. Often I sent
the sleepy savage below, sad, steered myself till morning. At last I
made a point of slumbering much by day, the better to stand watch by
night; though I made Samoa and Jarl regularly go through with their
allotted four hours each.
It has been mentioned, that Annatoo took her turn at the helm; but it
was only by day. And in justice to the lady, I must affirm, that upon
the whole she acquitted herself well. For notwithstanding the syren
face in the binnacle, which dimly allured her glances, Annatoo after
all was tolerably heedful of her steering. Indeed she took much pride
therein; always ready for her turn; with marvelous exactitude
calculating the approaching hour, as it came on in regular rotation.
Her time-piece was ours, the sun. By night it must have been her
guardian star; for frequently she gazed up at a particular section of
the heavens, like one regarding the dial in a tower.
By some odd reasoning or other, she had cajoled herself into the
notion, that whoever steered the brigantine, for that period was
captain. Wherefore, she gave herself mighty airs at the tiller; with
extravagant gestures issuing unintelligible orders about trimming the
sails, or pitching overboard something to see how fast we were going.
All this much diverted my Viking, who several times was delivered of a
laugh; a loud and healthy one to boot: a phenomenon worthy the
chronicling.
And thus much for Annatoo, preliminary to what is further to be said.
Seeing the drowsiness of Jarl and Samoa, which so often kept me from my
hammock at night, forcing me to repose by day, when I far preferred
being broad awake, I decided to let Annatoo take her turn at the night
watches; which several times she had solicited me to do; railing at the
sleepiness of her spouse; though abstaining from all reflections upon
Jarl, toward whom she had of late grown exceedingly friendly.
Now the Calmuc stood her first night watch to admiration; if any thing,
was altogether too wakeful. The mere steering of the craft employed not
sufficiently her active mind. Ever and anon she must needs rush from
the tiller to take a parenthetical pull at the fore- brace, the end of
which led down to the bulwarks near by; then refreshing herself with a
draught or two of water and a biscuit, she would continue to steer
away, full of the importance of her office. At any unusual flapping of
the sails, a violent stamping on deck announced the fact to the
startled crew. Finding her thus indefatigable, I readily induced her to
stand two watches to Jarl’s and Samoa’s one; and when she was at the
helm, I permitted myself to doze on a pile of old sails, spread every
evening on the quarter-deck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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