Cai

“ The intelligence of the Cai is worthy of notice. He learns in the first few days of his captivity to know his master and his keepers, and looks to them for food, warmth, protection, and help; trusts them fully, is pleased when his keeper plays with him, lets himself be teased by him, and after not having seen him for some time shows the greatest pleasure on his reappearance. He also soon forgets his freedom, and becomes almost wholly a domestic animal. ”

“ Into what flowers these various shootlets would expand Captain Cai knew no more than Adam, first of gardeners. He would consult some knowledgeable person—no, not Mrs Bosenna—and label them 'as per instructions': or, stay! 'Bias Hunken had a weakness for small wagers. Here was material for a long summer game, more deliberate even than draughts; to buy a botanical book and with its help back one's fancy, flower or colour. A capital game: no doubt (thought Captain Cai) quite commonly played among landsmen possessing gardens. ”

“ Neither heeded the pretty tactful clatter with which Mrs Bosenna, after sweeping her ivory toys in a heap and starting up with a little cry of pleasure, held out her hand to the intruder. Cai took it as one in a dream. His eyes were fixed on 'Bias, as 'Bias, who had withdrawn the pipe from his mouth and replaced it, withdrew it again, and asked—
"Well, an' what brings you here?"
For a moment Cai seemed to be chewing down a cud in his throat. He ought to have been quicker, he felt. It is always a mistake to let your adversary (Good Lord! had it come to this?) set up an interrogatory. ”

“ An old male which Rengger had got loose once from his cord, and ran away into the wood, but returned again in two or three days, sought out his keeper, and allowed himself to be tied up. Those who are not badly treated show great fidelity, especially to the blacks, whom they like always better than the whites. The Cai is not only fond of men, but also of animals, and it is no uncommon thing in Paraguay to bring him up with a young Dog, who serves as a horse for him. ”

“ He was plainly puzzled, as the ship-chandler was plainly nettled. But he answered simply—
"That's it—'Bias Hunken."
"Have I met the man, by any chance?"
"No," said Captain Cai firmly, "you haven't, or you wouldn't ask the question. He's the best man ever wore shoe-leather, and you can trust him to the end o' the earth."
"I can't say as I know a Hunken answerin' that description," Mr Bussa confessed dubiously.
"You've heard the description, anyway," suggested Mr Rogers, losing patience. "And now, Peter Bussa, what d'ye say to running off and annoying somebody else?" ”

“ Come along and listen—" He hurried back and they after him.
"If he chooses to back out?" Cai was taunting Bias as the crowd pressed around. So true is it that:—
"To be wroth with one we love
Doth work like madness in the brain."
"Who wants to back out?" answered 'Bias sullenly.
"If a man insults me, I hold him to his word: either that or he takes it back."
"Quite right, Cap'n';" prompted a voice. "And he can't tell us he didn't say it, for I heard him!"
"I ain't takin' nothin' back." 'Bias faced about doggedly. ”

“ Cai was crestfallen at once. "I didn' mean it in that light, ma'am," he stammered; "and I only made inquiries, d'ye see? Bein' ignorant of so many things ashore. You'd be astonished how ignorant 'Bias an' me found ourselves, first-goin' off."
"Speak for yourself," put in 'Bias.
"You should have come to me," said Mrs Bosenna. "I could have told you all about Education, especially the sort that ought to be given to labourers' children; and it's astonishin' to me the way some people will talk on matters they know nothing about. ”

“ That's the only thing nowadays. Push. . . . You're lookin' at John Peter's misfits, I see," he went on, turning to Cai. "Now, there's a man whose place, as you might say, won't go unfilled much longer—hey?" Mr Philp pointed his walking-stick at the name of the late owner of Rilla, and achieved a sort of watery wink.
"I daresay you mean something by that, Mr Philp," said Cai, staring at him, half angry and completely puzzled. "But be dashed if I know what you do mean."
"There now! And I reck'ned as you an' Cap'n Hunken had ne'er a secret you didn't share!"
'"Bias?" asked Cai slowly. ”

“ In the midst of it he found Mrs Bosenna, gloved, armed with a pair of secateurs, and engaged in cutting the thorns back to a few ugly inches.
She smiled as he approached. "You don't understand roses?" she asked. "If you don't, you'll be surprised at my hard pruning. If there's real strength in the root, you can trust for June, no matter what a stick you leave. The secret's under the ground; or, as you may say, under the surface, as it is with folks."
"That helps me, ma'am," said Captain Cai, "to tell you it's like that with my friend 'Bias—"
A whistle sounded up the valley. ”

“ Caius’s dark eyes were fixed on a spot in the horizon, and he did not reply. He stood motionless at the prow, gazing out in the same direction, till the moon, nearly at the full, lifted her round face above [100] the distant horizon, and sent a flood of silvery light across the water which seemed to come straight to the spot where the galley was curtseying on the rising waves. ”

“ He paused twice or thrice on his way, to commune with himself: the first time by the Passage Slip, where 'Bias and he had halted to view the traffic by the jetties. He conned it now again, but with unreceptive eyes. . . . "Rogers talks to me about takin' advice," soliloquised Cai. "It seems to me this is just one of those steps on which a man must make up his own mind. . . ."
He paused again beneath the shadow of the gasometer, possibly through association of ideas, because it suggested thoughts of 'Bias who had so much admired it—"'Bias means well, o' course. ”

“ Yet so breathless was the air that the candles within (set by Mrs Bowldler on the table beside the glasses and decanters) carried a flame as unwavering as any star of the firmament. So the two friends sat and smoked, and between their puffed tobacco-smoke penetrated the dewy scents of the garden. Both were out-tired with the day's labours; for both were growing old.
"'Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all,'" murmured Cai. "'Twas a noble text we chose."
"Ay," responded 'Bias, drawing the pipe from his lips. "She've kept a widow just thirty-six years. ”

“ They do always best when laid lateral."
"He'll come down bodily with a little coaxin'. The question is how to peg him when he's down?"
"Rick-spars," answered Mrs Bosenna promptly. "The small kind. There's dozens in the waggon-house loft." She signalled to William Skin to come down, bawled an order in his ear, and despatched him to fetch a score or so.
"Hullo!" cried Cai, who, being unemployed for the moment, had leisure to look around and enjoy the view from the roof-ridge. "If it isn't 'Bias comin' up the path! . . . Hi! 'Bias!" ”

“ From Caia to Seña is two days’ walking (about ten leagues) ; by water about three and a half days’ (sixteen leagues) . After passing Caia, you immediately come to Inhamudendundo, meaning, in the Maravi language, “large country.” ”

“ They all come, early in the morning, from different villages on the Bosphorus, rowed by men who stand to the heavy-handled [121] oars and drop with them to their backs. There are also caïques with sails, undecked boats built on the lines of a fishing caïque, that bring fruit and vegetables from the villages of the Marmora. They are prettier to look at than to navigate, for they have no keel and their mainsail is a balloon, to be pulled from one side to the other of a fearsome stick, boom and gaff in one, that spears the heavens. The human part of the caïque has its picturesque points as well. ”

“ For if the Hermus, the Cayster, the Caicus, the Maeander, and all the other [8] rivers of Asia which discharge their waters into the midland sea were all put together, they would not be worthy of comparison for volume of water with one of the Indian rivers. ”

“ Between these [two cities] ,1832 is a gulf which they have named Caiata,1833 in fact all gulfs are called by the Lacedæmonians Caietæ: some, however, say that the gulf received this appellation from [Caieta] , the nurse of Æneas. From Tarracina to the promontory of Caiata is a length of 100 stadia. Here1834 are opened vast caverns, which contain large and sumptuous mansions. From hence to Formiæ is a distance of 40 stadia. Between this city and Sinuessa, at a distance of about 80 stadia from each, is Minturnæ. The river Liris,1835 formerly named the Clanis, flows through it. ”

“ The caique is a long narrow boat, on the model of the Indian birch-bark, canoe, and as thin and light on the water; the passenger, if he accomplishes the feat of getting into one without overturning it, sits upon the bottom, careful not to wink and upset it; the oars have a heavy swell near the handle, to counterbalance the weight of the long blade, and the craft skims the water with swiftness and a most agreeable motion. The caïques are as numerous on the water as the yellow, mangy dogs on shore, and the two are the most characteristic things in Constantinople. ”

“ This territory extends to the Arginusæ, and the promontory above, which some call Aiga, or the goat. The second syllable however must be pronounced long, Aigan, like Actan and Archan, for this was the name of the whole mountain, which at present is called Cane, or Canæ.1493 The sea surrounds the mountain on the south and west; towards the east the plain of Caïcus lies below, and on the north the Elaïtic district. The mountain itself is very much contracted. ”

“ Called Caicon, or Jaiton in the Trevigi edition. Caicon is not very far removed from the sound of Cangtong or Canton, which has already been considered to be the Zaitum of the text.--E.
[5] A.D. 1269, according to the Trevigi edition.--E.
The idols in Zipangu and the adjoining islands are strangely made, some having the head of a bull, others of a hog, or a dog, and in other most monstrous fashions. Some have heads with four faces, others three heads on one neck, while some have faces on their shoulders. Some have four arms, others ten, or even an hundred arms ”

“ Out of a low cave of rock, at the foot of a limestone crag, the great fountain rose, quelling and bubbling and gurgling, so clear that you could not tell where the water ended and the air began; and ran away under the road, a stream large enough to turn a mill—among blue geranium, and golden globe-flower, and wild raspberry, and the bird-cherry with its tassels of snow. ”

“ He was nearer the eastern set of cliffs; on the occasion of his first vision the sun was rising over them, and black against the sunlight and pale against their shadow appeared a multitude of soaring forms that Mr Cave regarded as birds. A vast range of buildings spread below him; he seemed to be looking down upon them; and as they approached the blurred and refracted edge of the picture they became indistinct. There were also trees curious in shape, and in colouring a deep mossy green and an exquisite gray, beside a wide and shining canal. ”

“ Darker and solider grew the point on which our eyes were set, till at length we were up with a thick-set, little scrub-covered island which, compared with the low level of the line of coast stretching dimly behind it, rose high and rocky out of the water. Hence its name, "High Cay," and its importance along a coast where such definite landmarks are few. ”

“ A few small caymen, from two to twelve feet long, may be observed now and then in passing up and down the river; they just keep their heads above the water, and a stranger would not know them from a rotten stump. ”

“ Sometimes, as I sit on the settle at the door of the farmhouse, when the sun has gone down and twilight is coming on, I dream those days all over again. I see the buccaneers in the cave. I experience again the suffocation of the cage in which they left me for dead. I see before me as plainly as if I held it in my hand, with those wondrous eyes intact, and shining like two living balls of fire, that symbol of mysticism, the serpent ring. ”

“ Often the bottom is filled with fallen blocks, which obstruct the way, but elsewhere it is occupied by a brook, now frozen up. The rapids and waterfalls of this brook are also congealed into glassy ice, and shine with a bluish-green tinge in the depth of the valley, where the summer flood has excavated curious caves. Here the wind is confined as in a pair of bellows, and roars and whistles round the cliffs. In an expansion of the valley we kindle a fire and take a rest. Along the precipice above us six proud eagles soar with motionless wings. ”

“ All those little smudges on the sand between the Cave and the river are the marks of the Woman's feet and the Man's feet.
The Man and the Woman are both inside the Cave eating their dinner. They went to another cosier Cave when the Baby came, because the Baby used to crawl down to the river and fall in, and the Dog had to pull him out.
When Wild Dog reached the mouth of the Cave he lifted up the dried horse-skin with his nose and sniffed the beautiful smell of the roast [203] mutton, and the Woman, looking at the blade-bone, heard him, and laughed, and said, 'Here comes the first. ”

“ Caves formed by the action of carbonic acid and the action of water are distinguished from others by the following characters. They open on the abrupt sides of valleys and ravines at various levels, and are arranged round the main axes of erosion, just as the branches are arranged round the trunk of a tree. In a great many cases the relation of the valley to the ravine, and of the ravine to the cave, is so intimate that it is impossible to deny that all three have been produced by the same causes. ”

“ The green light from its eyes shone luminous in the twilight of the overhanging ice. There was a swish and rush of released waters as it moved forward, and closed in upon the cave mouth. The dimness grew to utter night save for the faintest glow that filtered in from above, and the two pitiless eyes shone poised in the darkness like living coals. ”