But in Jerry’s vocabulary, “Mister Haggin” possessed3 all the definiteness of sound and meaning that the word “master” possesses in the vocabularies of humans in relation to their dogs. “Mister Haggin” was the sound Jerry had always heard uttered by Bob, the clerk, and by Derby, the foreman on the plantation4, when they addressed his master. Also, Jerry had always heard the rare visiting two-legged man-creatures such as came on the Arangi, address his master as Mister Haggin.
But dogs being dogs, in their dim, inarticulate, brilliant, and heroic-worshipping ways misappraising humans, dogs think of their masters, and love their masters, more than the facts warrant. “Master” means to them, as “Mister” Haggin meant to Jerry, a deal more, and a great deal more, than it means to humans. The human considers himself as “master” to his dog, but the dog considers his master “God.”
Now “God” was no word in Jerry’s vocabulary, despite the fact that he already possessed a definite and fairly large vocabulary. “Mister Haggin” was the sound that meant “God.” In Jerry’s heart and head, in the mysterious centre of all his activities that is called consciousness, the sound, “Mister Haggin,” occupied the same place that “God” occupies in human consciousness. By word and sound, to Jerry, “Mister Haggin” had the same connotation that “God” has to God-worshipping humans. In short, Mister Haggin was Jerry’s God.
And so, when Mister Haggin, or God, or call it what one will with the limitations of language, picked Jerry up with imperative5 abruptness6, tucked him under his arm, and stepped into the whaleboat, whose black crew immediately bent7 to the oars8, Jerry was instantly and nervously9 aware that the unusual had begun to happen. Never before had he gone out on board the Arangi, which he could see growing larger and closer to each lip-hissing stroke of the oars of the blacks.
Only an hour before, Jerry had come down from the plantation house to the beach to see the Arangi depart. Twice before, in his half-year of life, had he had this delectable10 experience. Delectable it truly was, running up and down the white beach of sand-pounded coral, and, under the wise guidance of Biddy and Terrence, taking part in the excitement of the beach and even adding to it.
There was the nigger-chasing. Jerry had been born to hate niggers. His first experiences in the world as a puling puppy, had taught him that Biddy, his mother, and his father Terrence, hated niggers. A nigger was something to be snarled11 at. A nigger, unless he were a house-boy, was something to be attacked and bitten and torn if he invaded the compound. Biddy did it. Terrence did it. In doing it, they served their God—Mister Haggin. Niggers were two-legged lesser12 creatures who toiled13 and slaved for their two-legged white lords, who lived in the labour barracks afar off, and who were so much lesser and lower that they must not dare come near the habitation of their lords.
And nigger-chasing was adventure. Not long after he had learned to sprawl14, Jerry had learned that. One took his chances. As long as Mister Haggin, or Derby, or Bob, was about, the niggers took their chasing. But there were times when the white lords were not about. Then it was “’Ware niggers!” One must dare to chase only with due precaution. Because then, beyond the white lord’s eyes, the niggers had a way, not merely of scowling16 and muttering, but of attacking four-legged dogs with stones and clubs. Jerry had seen his mother so mishandled, and, ere he had learned discretion17, alone in the high grass had been himself club-mauled by Godarmy, the black who wore a china door-knob suspended on his chest from his neck on a string of sennit braided from cocoanut fibre. More. Jerry remembered another high-grass adventure, when he and his brother Michael had fought Owmi, another black distinguishable for the cogged wheels of an alarm clock on his chest. Michael had been so severely18 struck on his head that for ever after his left ear had remained sore and had withered19 into a peculiar20 wilted21 and twisted upward cock.
Still more. There had been his brother Patsy, and his sister Kathleen, who had disappeared two months before, who had ceased and no longer were. The great god, Mister Haggin, had raged up and down the plantation. The bush had been searched. Half a dozen niggers had been whipped. And Mister Haggin had failed to solve the mystery of Patsy’s and Kathleen’s disappearance22. But Biddy and Terrence knew. So did Michael and Jerry. The four-months’ old Patsy and Kathleen had gone into the cooking-pot at the barracks, and their puppy-soft skins had been destroyed in the fire. Jerry knew this, as did his father and mother and brother, for they had smelled the unmistakable burnt-meat smell, and Terrence, in his rage of knowledge, had even attacked Mogom the house-boy, and been reprimanded and cuffed23 by Mister Haggin, who had not smelled and did not understand, and who had always to impress discipline on all creatures under his roof-tree.
But on the beach, when the blacks, whose terms of service were up came down with their trade-boxes on their heads to depart on the Arangi, was the time when nigger-chasing was not dangerous. Old scores could be settled, and it was the last chance, for the blacks who departed on the Arangi never came back. As an instance, this very morning Biddy, remembering a secret mauling at the hands of Lerumie, laid teeth into his naked calf24 and threw him sprawling25 into the water, trade-box, earthly possessions and all, and then laughed at him, sure in the protection of Mister Haggin who grinned at the episode.
Then, too, there was usually at least one bush-dog on the Arangi at which Jerry and Michael, from the beach, could bark their heads off. Once, Terrence, who was nearly as large as an Airedale and fully26 as lion-hearted—Terrence the Magnificent, as Tom Haggin called him—had caught such a bush-dog trespassing27 on the beach and given him a delightful28 thrashing, in which Jerry and Michael, and Patsy and Kathleen, who were at the time alive, had joined with many shrill29 yelps30 and sharp nips. Jerry had never forgotten the ecstasy31 of the hair, unmistakably doggy in scent32, which had filled his mouth at his one successful nip. Bush-dogs were dogs—he recognized them as his kind; but they were somehow different from his own lordly breed, different and lesser, just as the blacks were compared with Mister Haggin, Derby, and Bob.
But Jerry did not continue to gaze at the nearing Arangi. Biddy, wise with previous bitter bereavements, had sat down on the edge of the sand, her fore-feet in the water, and was mouthing her woe33. That this concerned him, Jerry knew, for her grief tore sharply, albeit34 vaguely35, at his sensitive, passionate36 heart. What it presaged37 he knew not, save that it was disaster and catastrophe38 connected with him. As he looked back at her, rough-coated and grief-stricken, he could see Terrence hovering39 solicitously40 near her. He, too, was rough-coated, as was Michael, and as Patsy and Kathleen had been, Jerry being the one smooth-coated member of the family.
Further, although Jerry did not know it and Tom Haggin did, Terrence was a royal lover and a devoted41 spouse42. Jerry, from his earliest impressions, could remember the way Terrence had of running with Biddy, miles and miles along the beaches or through the avenues of cocoanuts, side by side with her, both with laughing mouths of sheer delight. As these were the only dogs, besides his brothers and sisters and the several eruptions43 of strange bush-dogs that Jerry knew, it did not enter his head otherwise than that this was the way of dogs, male and female, wedded45 and faithful. But Tom Haggin knew its unusualness. “Proper affinities,” he declared, and repeatedly declared, with warm voice and moist eyes of appreciation46. “A gentleman, that Terrence, and a four-legged proper man. A man-dog, if there ever was one, four-square as the legs on the four corners of him. And prepotent! My word! His blood’d breed true for a thousand generations, and the cool head and the kindly47 brave heart of him.”
Terrence did not voice his sorrow, if sorrow he had; but his hovering about Biddy tokened his anxiety for her. Michael, however, yielding to the contagion48, sat beside his mother and barked angrily out across the increasing stretch of water as he would have barked at any danger that crept and rustled49 in the jungle. This, too, sank to Jerry’s heart, adding weight to his sure intuition that dire50 fate, he knew not what, was upon him.
For his six months of life, Jerry knew a great deal and knew very little. He knew, without thinking about it, without knowing that he knew, why Biddy, the wise as well as the brave, did not act upon all the message that her heart voiced to him, and spring into the water and swim after him. She had protected him like a lioness when the big puarka (which, in Jerry’s vocabulary, along with grunts51 and squeals52, was the combination of sound, or word, for “pig”) had tried to devour53 him where he was cornered under the high-piled plantation house. Like a lioness, when the cook-boy had struck him with a stick to drive him out of the kitchen, had Biddy sprung upon the black, receiving without wince54 or whimper one straight blow from the stick, and then downing him and mauling him among his pots and pans until dragged (for the first time snarling) away by the unchiding Mister Haggin, who; however, administered sharp words to the cook-boy for daring to lift hand against a four-legged dog belonging to a god.
Jerry knew why his mother did not plunge55 into the water after him. The salt sea, as well as the lagoons57 that led out of the salt sea, were taboo58. “Taboo,” as word or sound, had no place in Jerry’s vocabulary. But its definition, or significance, was there in the quickest part of his consciousness. He possessed a dim, vague, imperative knowingness that it was not merely not good, but supremely59 disastrous60, leading to the mistily61 glimpsed sense of utter endingness for a dog, for any dog, to go into the water where slipped and slid and noiselessly paddled, sometimes on top, sometimes emerging from the depths, great scaly62 monsters, huge-jawed and horribly-toothed, that snapped down and engulfed63 a dog in an instant just as the fowls64 of Mister Haggin snapped and engulfed grains of corn.
Often he had heard his father and mother, on the safety of the sand, bark and rage their hatred65 of those terrible sea-dwellers, when, close to the beach, they appeared on the surface like logs awash. “Crocodile” was no word in Jerry’s vocabulary. It was an image, an image of a log awash that was different from any log in that it was alive. Jerry, who heard, registered, and recognized many words that were as truly tools of thought to him as they were to humans, but who, by inarticulateness of birth and breed, could not utter these many words, nevertheless in his mental processes, used images just as articulate men use words in their own mental processes. And after all, articulate men, in the act of thinking, willy nilly use images that correspond to words and that amplify66 words.
Perhaps, in Jerry’s brain, the rising into the foreground of consciousness of an image of a log awash connoted more intimate and fuller comprehension of the thing being thought about, than did the word “crocodile,” and its accompanying image, in the foreground of a human’s consciousness. For Jerry really did know more about crocodiles than the average human. He could smell a crocodile farther off and more differentiatingly than could any man, than could even a salt-water black or a bushman smell one. He could tell when a crocodile, hauled up from the lagoon56, lay without sound or movement, and perhaps asleep, a hundred feet away on the floor mat of jungle.
He knew more of the language of crocodiles than did any man. He had better means and opportunities of knowing. He knew their many noises that were as grunts and slubbers. He knew their anger noises, their fear noises, their food noises, their love noises. And these noises were as definitely words in his vocabulary as are words in a human’s vocabulary. And these crocodile noises were tools of thought. By them he weighed and judged and determined68 his own consequent courses of action, just like any human; or, just like any human, lazily resolved upon no course of action, but merely noted67 and registered a clear comprehension of something that was going on about him that did not require a correspondence of action on his part.
And yet, what Jerry did not know was very much. He did not know the size of the world. He did not know that this Meringe Lagoon, backed by high, forested mountains and fronted and sheltered by the off-shore coral islets, was anything else than the entire world. He did not know that it was a mere15 fractional part of the great island of Ysabel, that was again one island of a thousand, many of them greater, that composed the Solomon Islands that men marked on charts as a group of specks69 in the vastitude of the far-western South Pacific.
It was true, there was a somewhere else or a something beyond of which he was dimly aware. But whatever it was, it was mystery. Out of it, things that had not been, suddenly were. Chickens and puarkas and cats, that he had never seen before, had a way of abruptly appearing on Meringe Plantation. Once, even, had there been an eruption44 of strange four-legged, horned and hairy creatures, the images of which, registered in his brain, would have been identifiable in the brains of humans with what humans worded “goats.”
It was the same way with the blacks. Out of the unknown, from the somewhere and something else, too unconditional70 for him to know any of the conditions, instantly they appeared, full-statured, walking about Meringe Plantation with loin-cloths about their middles and bone bodkins through their noses, and being put to work by Mister Haggin, Derby, and Bob. That their appearance was coincidental with the arrival of the Arangi was an association that occurred as a matter of course in Jerry’s brain. Further, he did not bother, save that there was a companion association, namely, that their occasional disappearances71 into the beyond was likewise coincidental with the Arangi’s departure.
Jerry did not query72 these appearances and disappearances. It never entered his golden-sorrel head to be curious about the affair or to attempt to solve it. He accepted it in much the way he accepted the wetness of water and the heat of the sun. It was the way of life and of the world he knew. His hazy73 awareness74 was no more than an awareness of something—which, by the way, corresponds very fairly with the hazy awareness of the average human of the mysteries of birth and death and of the beyondness about which they have no definiteness of comprehension.
For all that any man may gainsay75, the ketch Arangi, trader and blackbirder in the Solomon Islands, may have signified in Jerry’s mind as much the mysterious boat that traffics between the two worlds, as, at one time, the boat that Charon sculled across the Styx signified to the human mind. Out of the nothingness men came. Into the nothingness they went. And they came and went always on the Arangi.
And to the Arangi, this hot-white tropic morning, Jerry went on the whaleboat under the arm of his Mister Haggin, while on the beach Biddy moaned her woe, and Michael, not sophisticated, barked the eternal challenge of youth to the Unknown.
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1
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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untoward
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| adj.不利的，不幸的，困难重重的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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abruptness
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| n. 突然，唐突 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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delectable
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| adj.使人愉快的；美味的 | |
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snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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sprawl
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| vi.躺卧，扩张，蔓延；vt.使蔓延；n.躺卧，蔓延 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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scowling
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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wilted
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| （使）凋谢，枯萎( wilt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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cuffed
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| v.掌打，拳打( cuff的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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trespassing
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| [法]非法入侵 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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yelps
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| n.（因痛苦、气愤、兴奋等的）短而尖的叫声( yelp的名词复数 )v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的第三人称单数 ) | |
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ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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albeit
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| conj.即使；纵使；虽然 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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presaged
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| v.预示，预兆( presage的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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solicitously
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| adv.热心地，热切地 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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spouse
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| n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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eruptions
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| n.喷发，爆发( eruption的名词复数 ) | |
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eruption
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| n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作 | |
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45
wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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47
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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48
contagion
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| n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延 | |
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49
rustled
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| v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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51
grunts
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的第三人称单数 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说； 石鲈 | |
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52
squeals
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| n.长而尖锐的叫声( squeal的名词复数 )v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的第三人称单数 ) | |
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53
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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54
wince
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| n.畏缩，退避，（因痛苦，苦恼等)面部肌肉抽动；v.畏缩，退缩，退避 | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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lagoon
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| n.泻湖，咸水湖 | |
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lagoons
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| n.污水池( lagoon的名词复数 )；潟湖；（大湖或江河附近的）小而浅的淡水湖；温泉形成的池塘 | |
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58
taboo
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| n.禁忌，禁止接近，禁止使用；adj.禁忌的；v.禁忌，禁制，禁止 | |
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supremely
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| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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mistily
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| adv.有雾地，朦胧地，不清楚地 | |
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scaly
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| adj.鱼鳞状的；干燥粗糙的 | |
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engulfed
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| v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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amplify
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| vt.放大，增强；详述，详加解说 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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69
specks
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| n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 ) | |
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unconditional
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| adj.无条件的，无限制的，绝对的 | |
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disappearances
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| n.消失( disappearance的名词复数 )；丢失；失踪；失踪案 | |
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query
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| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
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hazy
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| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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awareness
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| n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智 | |
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gainsay
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| v.否认，反驳 | |
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