Edgar Allan Poe

Name: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym — Chapter 20
Author: Edgar Allan Poe

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym… (1838)

Summary

“The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym — Chapter 20”, published in 1838, is a work by Edgar Allan Poe. It explores elements such as savages, piculs and shore.

Quotes from The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym… (Edgar Allan Poe)

Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym… (1838)

“ In short, there could be no place in the world better adapted for the consummation of an ambuscade, and it was no more than natural that we should look carefully to our arms as we entered upon it. When I now think of our egregious folly, the chief subject of astonishment seems to be, that we should have ever ventured, under any circumstances, so completely into the power of unknown savages as to permit them to march both before and behind us in our progress through this ravine. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym… (1838)

“ In return for these good things we presented the natives with blue beads, brass trinkets, nails, knives, and pieces of red cloth, they being fully delighted in the exchange. We established a regular market on shore, just under the guns of the schooner, where our barterings were carried on with every appearance of good faith, and a degree of order which their conduct at the village of Klock-klock had not led us to expect from the savages. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym… (1838)

“ A large flat space near the eastern shore of the bay was selected, where there was plenty of both wood and water, and within a convenient distance of the principal reefs on which the biche de mer was to be procured. We now all set to work in good earnest, and soon, to the great astonishment of the savages, had felled a sufficient number of trees for our purpose, getting them quickly in order for the framework of the houses, which in two or three days were so far under way that we could safely trust the rest of the work to the three men whom we intended to leave behind. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym… (1838)

“ The women especially were most obliging in every respect, and, upon the whole, we should have been the most suspicious of human beings had we entertained a single thought of perfidy on the part of a people who treated us so well. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym… (1838)

“ Those cured by the sun are worth the most; but where one picul (133 1/3 lbs.) can be cured that way, I can cure thirty piculs by the fire. When once properly cured, they can be kept in a dry place for two or three years without any risk; but they should be examined once in every few months, say four times a year, to see if any dampness is likely to affect them.
"The Chinese, as before stated, consider biche de mer a very great luxury, believing that it wonderfully strengthens and nourishes the system, and renews the exhausted system of the immoderate voluptuary. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym… (1838)

“ They have no shell, no legs, nor any prominent part, except an absorbing and an excretory, opposite organs; but, by their elastic wings, like caterpillars or worms, they creep in shallow waters, in which, when low, they can be seen by a kind of swallow, the sharp bill of which, inserted in the soft animal, draws a gummy and filamentous substance, which, by drying, can be wrought into the solid walls of their nest. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym… (1838)

“ This mollusca is oblong, and of different sizes, from three to eighteen inches in length; and I have seen a few that were not less than two feet long. They were nearly round, a little flattish on one side, which lies next to the bottom of the sea; and they are from one to eight inches thick. They crawl up into shallow water at particular seasons of the year, probably for the purpose of gendering, as we often find them in pairs. It is when the sun has the most power on the water, rendering it tepid, that they approach the shore ”

Edgar Allan Poe

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Quotes from The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym… (Edgar Allan Poe)

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