Latest / Daily Classic Sci Fi Books / 22 - Around The World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two, in which Passepartou finds out that even
- 0:04Speaker 1: at the antipodes, it is convenient to have some money
- 0:07Speaker 1: in one's pocket. The carnatic setting sail from Hong Kong
- 0:15Speaker 1: at half past six on the seventh of November, directed
- 0:18Speaker 1: her course at full steam towards Japan. She carried a
- 0:22Speaker 1: large cargo in a well filled cabin of passengers. Two
- 0:25Speaker 1: state rooms in the rear were, however, unoccupied, those which
- 0:30Speaker 1: had been engaged by Phileas Fogg. The next day, a
- 0:34Speaker 1: passenger with a half stupefied eye, staggering gait, and disordered
- 0:39Speaker 1: hair was seen to emerge from the second cabin and
- 0:42Speaker 1: to totter to a seat on deck. It was past Partou,
- 0:47Speaker 1: and what had happened to him was as follows. Shortly
- 0:50Speaker 1: after Fix left the opium den, two waiters had lifted
- 0:54Speaker 1: the unconscious passepartout and had carried him to the bed
- 0:57Speaker 1: reserved for the smokers. Three hours later. Pursued even in
- 1:02Speaker 1: his dreams by a fixed idea, the poor fellow awoke
- 1:06Speaker 1: and struggled against the stupefying influence of their narcotic The
- 1:11Speaker 1: thought of a duty unfulfilled shook off his torpor, and
- 1:15Speaker 1: he hurried from the abode of drunkenness, staggering and holding
- 1:19Speaker 1: himself up by keeping against the walls, falling down and
- 1:23Speaker 1: creeping up again, and irresistibly, impelled by a kind of instinct,
- 1:28Speaker 1: he kept crying out the Carnatic, the Carnatic. The steamer
- 1:35Speaker 1: lay puffing alongside the quay. On the point of starting.
- 1:38Speaker 1: Passepartout had but a few steps to go, and, rushing
- 1:42Speaker 1: upon the plank, he crossed it and fell unconscious on
- 1:45Speaker 1: the deck. Just as the Carnatic was moving off. Several sailors,
- 1:50Speaker 1: who were evidently accustomed to this sort of scene, carried
- 1:54Speaker 1: the poor Frenchman down into the second cabin, and Passepartout
- 1:58Speaker 1: did not wake until they were one one hundred and
- 2:00Speaker 1: fifty miles away from China. Thus he found himself the
- 2:04Speaker 1: next morning on the deck of the Carnatic, and eagerly
- 2:07Speaker 1: inhaling the exhilarating sea breeze. The pure air sobered him.
- 2:12Speaker 1: He began to collect his sense, which he found a
- 2:15Speaker 1: difficult task, But at last he recalled the events of
- 2:18Speaker 1: the evening before Fix's revelation and the Opium house. It
- 2:24Speaker 1: is evident, said he to himself, that I have been
- 2:28Speaker 1: abominably drunk. What will mister Fogg say? At least I
- 2:33Speaker 1: have not missed the steamer, which is the most important thing. Then,
- 2:37Speaker 1: as Fix occurred to him. As for that rascal, I
- 2:41Speaker 1: hope we are well rid of him, and that he
- 2:43Speaker 1: has not dared as he proposed to follow us on
- 2:46Speaker 1: board the Carnatic, A detective on the track of mister
- 2:50Speaker 1: Fogg accused of robbing the Bank of England Pshaw. Mister
- 2:56Speaker 1: Falk is no more a robber than I am a murderer?
- 3:00Speaker 1: Should he divulge Fix's real errand to his master? Would
- 3:04Speaker 1: it do to tell the part the detective was playing?
- 3:07Speaker 1: Would it not be better to wait until mister Fogg
- 3:10Speaker 1: reached London again and then impart to him that an
- 3:13Speaker 1: agent of the Metropolitan Police had been following him round
- 3:16Speaker 1: the world and have a good laugh over it. No doubt,
- 3:20Speaker 1: at least it was worth considering. The first thing to
- 3:24Speaker 1: do was to find mister Fogg and apologize for his
- 3:27Speaker 1: singular behavior. Passparteu got up and proceeded as well as
- 3:32Speaker 1: he could with the rolling of the steamer to the
- 3:34Speaker 1: after deck. He saw no one who resembled either his
- 3:37Speaker 1: master or Aouda good muttered, He Aouda has not got
- 3:43Speaker 1: up yet, and mister Fogg has probably found some partners.
- 3:47Speaker 1: At whist he descended to the saloon. Mister Fogg was
- 3:52Speaker 1: not there. Passepartout had, only, however, to ask the purser
- 3:56Speaker 1: the number of his master's stateroom. The purser reply that
- 4:00Speaker 1: he did not know any passenger by the name of Fog.
- 4:04Speaker 1: I beg your pardon, said Passepartout, persistently. He is a
- 4:08Speaker 1: tall gentleman, quiet, not very talkative, and has with him
- 4:13Speaker 1: a young lady. There is no young lady on board,
- 4:17Speaker 1: interrupted the purser. Here is a list of the passengers.
- 4:21Speaker 1: You may see for yourself. Passepartout scanned the list, but
- 4:25Speaker 1: his master's name was not upon it. All. At once
- 4:29Speaker 1: an idea struck him. Ah am I on the Carnatic. Yes,
- 4:35Speaker 1: on the way to Yokohama. Certainly, Passepartout had for an
- 4:41Speaker 1: instant feared that he was on the wrong boat. But
- 4:44Speaker 1: though he was really on the Carnatic, his master was
- 4:47Speaker 1: not there. He fell thunderstruck on a seat. He saw
- 4:52Speaker 1: it all now. He remembered that the time of sailing
- 4:55Speaker 1: had been changed, that he should have informed his master
- 4:58Speaker 1: of that fact, and that he had not done so.
- 5:02Speaker 1: It was his fault then, that mister Fogg and Aouda
- 5:04Speaker 1: had missed the steamer. Yes, but it was still more
- 5:08Speaker 1: the fault of the traitor, who, in order to separate
- 5:11Speaker 1: him from his master and attained the latter at Hong Kong,
- 5:15Speaker 1: had inveigled him into getting drunk. He now saw the
- 5:19Speaker 1: detective's trick, and at this moment mister Fogg was certainly ruined.
- 5:24Speaker 1: His bet was lost, and he himself perhaps arrested and imprisoned.
- 5:29Speaker 1: At this thought, Passepartout tore his hair. Ah, if fix
- 5:34Speaker 1: ever came within his reach, what a settling of accounts
- 5:37Speaker 1: there would be. After his first depression, Passepartout became calmer
- 5:43Speaker 1: and began to study his situation. It was certainly not
- 5:47Speaker 1: an enviable one. He found himself on the way to Japan.
- 5:51Speaker 1: And what should he do when he got there? His
- 5:53Speaker 1: pocket was empty. He had not a solitary shilling, not
- 5:58Speaker 1: so much as a penny. His passage had fortunately been
- 6:01Speaker 1: paid for in advance, and he had five or six
- 6:04Speaker 1: days in which to decide upon his future course. He
- 6:08Speaker 1: fell to at meals with an appetite and ate for
- 6:11Speaker 1: mister fogg Aouda and himself. He helped himself as generously
- 6:16Speaker 1: as if Japan were a desert where nothing to eat
- 6:19Speaker 1: was to be looked for. At dawn on the thirteenth,
- 6:24Speaker 1: the Carnatic entered the port of Yokohama. This is an
- 6:27Speaker 1: important port of call in the Pacific, where all the
- 6:30Speaker 1: mail steamers and those carrying passengers between North America, China, Japan,
- 6:36Speaker 1: and the Oriental Islands put in. It is situated in
- 6:39Speaker 1: the Bay of Yedo, and at but a short distance
- 6:42Speaker 1: from that second capital of the Japanese Empire and the
- 6:46Speaker 1: residents of the Tycoon, the civil Emperor before the Mikado,
- 6:50Speaker 1: the Spiritual Emperor, absorbed his office in his own. The Carnatic,
- 6:55Speaker 1: anchored at the quay near the custom house, in the
- 6:57Speaker 1: midst of a crowd of ships bearing the flags of
- 6:59Speaker 1: all nations, passepartout went timidly ashore on this so curious
- 7:05Speaker 1: territory of the sons of the Sun. He had nothing
- 7:09Speaker 1: better to do than taking chance for his guide to
- 7:13Speaker 1: wander aimlessly through the streets of Yokohama. He found himself
- 7:17Speaker 1: at first in a thoroughly European quarter, the houses having
- 7:21Speaker 1: low fronts and being adorned with verandas beneath which he
- 7:25Speaker 1: caught glimpses of neat peristyles. This quarter occupied with its streets, squares,
- 7:31Speaker 1: docks and warehouses all the space between the promontory of
- 7:35Speaker 1: the treaty and the river. Here, as at Hong Kong
- 7:40Speaker 1: and Calcutta, were mixed crowds of all races, Americans and English,
- 7:45Speaker 1: Chinamen and Dutchmen, mostly merchants ready to buy or sell anything.
- 7:50Speaker 1: The Frenchman felt himself as much alone among them as
- 7:53Speaker 1: if he had dropped down in the midst of Hottentots.
- 7:57Speaker 1: He had at least one resource to call off the
- 8:00Speaker 1: French and English consuls at Yokohama for assistance, but he
- 8:04Speaker 1: shrank from telling the story of his adventures, intimately connected
- 8:08Speaker 1: as it was with that of his master, and before
- 8:12Speaker 1: doing so he determined to exhaust all other means of aid,
- 8:17Speaker 1: as chance did not favor him. In the European quarter,
- 8:20Speaker 1: he penetrated that inhabited by the native Japanese, determined, if necessary,
- 8:25Speaker 1: to push on to Yeddo. The Japanese quarter of Yokohama
- 8:29Speaker 1: is called Benten, after the goddess of the sea, who
- 8:33Speaker 1: was worshiped on the islands. Round About there passepartout beheld
- 8:37Speaker 1: beautiful fir and cedar groves, sacred gates of a singular architecture,
- 8:42Speaker 1: bridges half hid in the midst of bamboos and reeds,
- 8:46Speaker 1: temples shaded by immense cedar trees. Holy retreats were sheltered
- 8:51Speaker 1: Buddhist priests and sectories of Confucius, and interminable streets where
- 8:56Speaker 1: a perfect harvest of rose, tinted and red cheeked children
- 9:00Speaker 1: who looked as if they had been cut out of
- 9:02Speaker 1: Japanese screens, and who were playing in the midst of
- 9:05Speaker 1: short legged poodles and yellowish cats might have been gathered.
- 9:10Speaker 1: The streets were crowded with people. Priests were passing in processions,
- 9:14Speaker 1: beating their dreary tambourines. Police and custom house officers with
- 9:19Speaker 1: pointed hats encrusted with lock and carrying two sabers hung
- 9:23Speaker 1: to their waists, Soldiers clad in blue cotton with white
- 9:27Speaker 1: stripes and bearing guns, the Mikado's guards enveloped in silken doubles,
- 9:34Speaker 1: hauberks and coats of mail, and numbers of military folk
- 9:38Speaker 1: of all ranks for the military profession is as much
- 9:41Speaker 1: respected in Japan as it is despised in China, went
- 9:46Speaker 1: hither and thither in groups and pairs. Passepartouts saw too
- 9:50Speaker 1: begging friars, long robed pilgrims and simple civilians with their
- 9:55Speaker 1: warped and jet black hair, big head, long busts, slender legs,
- 10:00Speaker 1: short stature, and complexions varying from copper color to a
- 10:04Speaker 1: dead white, but never yellow. Like the Chinese from whom
- 10:08Speaker 1: the Japanese widely differ, he did not fail to observe
- 10:12Speaker 1: the curious equipages carriages and palanquins, barrows supplied with sails,
- 10:19Speaker 1: and litters made of bamboo, nor the women, whom he
- 10:23Speaker 1: thought not especially handsome, who took little steps with their
- 10:27Speaker 1: little feet, whereon they wore canvas shoes, straw sandals, and
- 10:31Speaker 1: clogs of worked wood, and who displayed tight looking eyes,
- 10:36Speaker 1: flat chests, teeth fashionably blackened, and gowns crossed with silken
- 10:41Speaker 1: scarves tied at an enormous knot behind an ornament which
- 10:46Speaker 1: the modern Parisian ladies seemed to have borrowed from the
- 10:48Speaker 1: names of Japan. Pstpartout wandered for several hours in the
- 10:53Speaker 1: midst of this motley crowd looking in at the windows
- 10:56Speaker 1: of the rich and curious shops, the jewelry establishments glittering
- 11:00Speaker 1: with quaint Japanese ornaments, the restaurants decked with streamers and banners,
- 11:06Speaker 1: the tea houses where the odorous beverage was being drunk
- 11:09Speaker 1: with saki, a liquor concocted from the fermentation of rice,
- 11:13Speaker 1: And the comfortable smoking houses where they were puffing not opium,
- 11:18Speaker 1: which is almost unknown in Japan, but a very fine,
- 11:22Speaker 1: stringy tobacco. He went on till he found himself in
- 11:25Speaker 1: the fields, in the midst of vast rice plantations. There
- 11:30Speaker 1: he saw dazzling camellias expanding themselves with flowers, which were
- 11:34Speaker 1: giving forth their less colors and perfumes, not on bushes,
- 11:38Speaker 1: but on trees and within bamboo enclosures, cherry, plum and
- 11:44Speaker 1: apple trees, which the Japanese cultivate rather for their blossoms
- 11:48Speaker 1: than their fruit, and which queerly fashioned grinning scarecrows protected
- 11:53Speaker 1: from the sparrows, pigeons, ravens, and other voracious birds on
- 11:57Speaker 1: the branches of the cedars were perched low large eagles
- 12:01Speaker 1: amid the foliage of the weeping willows, were herons solemnly
- 12:04Speaker 1: standing on one leg, and on every hand were crows, ducks, hawks,
- 12:10Speaker 1: wild birds, and a multitude of cranes, which the Japanese
- 12:14Speaker 1: consider sacred, and which to their minds symbolize long life
- 12:18Speaker 1: and prosperity. As he was strolling along Passepartout espied some
- 12:23Speaker 1: violets among the shrubs. Good said he, I'll have some supper.
- 12:30Speaker 1: But on smelling them he found that they were odorless.
- 12:33Speaker 1: No chance there, thought he. The worthy fellow had certainly
- 12:38Speaker 1: taken good care to eat as hearty a breakfast as
- 12:41Speaker 1: possible before leaving the Carnatic, But as he had been
- 12:45Speaker 1: walking about all day, the demands of hunger were becoming importunate.
- 12:50Speaker 1: He observed that the butcher's stalls contained neither mutton, goat,
- 12:54Speaker 1: nor pork, And knowing also that it is a sacrilege
- 12:58Speaker 1: to kill cattle which are preserved solely for farming, he
- 13:01Speaker 1: made up his mind that meat was far from plentiful
- 13:04Speaker 1: in Yokohama. Nor was he mistaken, And in default of
- 13:08Speaker 1: butcher's meat, he could have wished for a quarter of
- 13:11Speaker 1: wild boar or deer, a partridge, or some quails, some
- 13:16Speaker 1: game or fish, which, with rice the Japanese eat almost exclusively,
- 13:21Speaker 1: but he found it necessary to keep up a stout
- 13:24Speaker 1: heart and to postpone the meal he craved till the
- 13:27Speaker 1: following morning. Night came and Passepartout re entered the native quarter,
- 13:33Speaker 1: where he wandered through the streets lit by very colored lanterns,
- 13:38Speaker 1: looking on at the dancers who were executing skillful steps
- 13:41Speaker 1: and boundings, and the astrologers who stood in the open
- 13:45Speaker 1: air with their telescopes. Then he came to the harbor,
- 13:48Speaker 1: which was lit up by the resin torches of the
- 13:50Speaker 1: fishermen who were fishing from their boats. The streets at
- 13:55Speaker 1: last became quiet, and the patrol, the officers of which,
- 14:00Speaker 1: in their splendid costumes and surrounded by their suites, Passepartout,
- 14:05Speaker 1: thoughts seemed like ambassadors, succeeded the bustling crowd. Each time
- 14:10Speaker 1: a company passed, Passepartou chuckled and said to himself, good
- 14:15Speaker 1: Another Japanese embassy departing for Europe. End of chapter