- end_line
- 6065
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 6012
- text
- SKETCH SECOND.
TWO SIDES TO A TORTOISE.
“Most ugly shapes and horrible aspects,
Such as Dame Nature selfe mote feare to see,
Or shame, that ever should so fowle defects
From her most cunning hand escaped bee;
All dreadfull pourtraicts of deformitee.
No wonder if these do a man appall;
For all that here at home we dreadfull hold
Be but as bugs to fearen babes withall
Compared to the creatures in these isles’ entrall
“Fear naught, then said the palmer, well avized,
For these same monsters are not there indeed,
But are into these fearful shapes disguized.
“And lifting up his vertuous staffe on high,
Then all that dreadful armie fast gan flye
Into great Zethy’s bosom, where they hidden lye.”
In view of the description given, may one be gay upon the Encantadas?
Yes: that is, find one the gayety, and he will be gay. And, indeed,
sackcloth and ashes as they are, the isles are not perhaps unmitigated
gloom. For while no spectator can deny their claims to a most solemn
and superstitious consideration, no more than my firmest resolutions
can decline to behold the spectre-tortoise when emerging from its
shadowy recess; yet even the tortoise, dark and melancholy as it is
upon the back, still possesses a bright side; its calipee or
breast-plate being sometimes of a faint yellowish or golden tinge.
Moreover, every one knows that tortoises as well as turtle are of such
a make, that if you but put them on their backs you thereby expose
their bright sides without the possibility of their recovering
themselves, and turning into view the other. But after you have done
this, and because you have done this, you should not swear that the
tortoise has no dark side. Enjoy the bright, keep it turned up
perpetually if you can, but be honest, and don’t deny the black.
Neither should he, who cannot turn the tortoise from its natural
position so as to hide the darker and expose his livelier aspect, like
a great October pumpkin in the sun, for that cause declare the creature
to be one total inky blot. The tortoise is both black and bright. But
let us to particulars.
Some months before my first stepping ashore upon the group, my ship was
cruising in its close vicinity. One noon we found ourselves off the
South Head of Albemarle, and not very far from the land. Partly by way
of freak, and partly by way of spying out so strange a country, a
boat’s crew was sent ashore, with orders to see all they could, and
besides, bring back whatever tortoises they could conveniently
transport.
- title
- Chunk 1