The Whispering Land

Land-Rover – make of car; a car able to move across the fields or country, not following roads, a cross-country car

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feminine pulchritude – female beauty; using long bookish words of Latin and Greek origin, the author makes this phrase sound ironically pompous the Argentine (or the Argentines) – another name for Argentina, now slightly archaic and therefore sounding more dignified

a cross between the Parthenon and the Reichstag – resembling at once the Parthenon, a world-famous, temple of Athena (on the Acropolis at Athens), and the building of the Reichstag (i.e. the former German legislative assembly) in Berlin in the bowels – here within, in the innermost part

The verb weave (Past Ind. wove) is here used figuratively, implying that the movement of the car resembled a shuttle carrying the weft-thread across between threads of warp, in the process of weaving.

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to the best of my knowledge – as far as I know warming to my work – here getting more and more angry and excited de hand – Josefina's pronunciation of the hand (she asked the author to thrust his arm out of the window, giving a warning that she was going to turn). Josefina's knowledge of English is far from, perfect; the author occasionally reproduces some peculiarities of her pronunciation and her chaotic order of words. These deviations from the rules of grammar in the speech of non-English characters (Dicky de Sola, Luna, Coco and others) are easy to recognize and need not be specially commented upon.

screeched to a shuddering halt – suddenly stopped or halted with a screech animal! (Sp.) - you beast! (Note that in the Spanish language exclamation and interrogation marks always appear not only at the end, but also at the beginning of a sentence or phrase, in inverted form.)

to meet our Maker (i.e. God) – a euphemistic paraphrase for to die

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amidships – in the middle (of the ship), a naval term hero used figuratively blurry – Josefina's pronunciation of bloody (a vulgar equivalent of damned); the words shock the author as being highly unsuitable for female conversation

Anglo-Saxon expletives – here strong language (oaths in English are mostly of Anglo-Saxon origin)

his… eau-de-cologne-encrusted brow – a solemn allusion to Seiior Garcia's habit of lavishly using eau-de-cologne

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Dante – Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), the author of the great Italian poem Divine Comedy, its first part being Inferno (Hell)

the numbing effect – here the paralyzing effect tapir – a hoofed hog-like mammal of tropical America and the Malayan peninsula; tapirs have flexible snouts; feed on plants gone wrong – here a bit disproportionate, somewhat unusual in appearance as far as elephants go

The author makes ironical use of a military cliché.

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Jacquie – the author's wife (short for Jacqueline)

Claudius ['klo:djos] – one of the Roman emperors (41-54 A. D.)

en route [a:n 'ru:t] (Fr.) - on the way

Great Dane – a large short-haired dog of a breed of massive size and great strength

French window – a glazed folding door that serves as a door and a window, opening on to a garden or balcony

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dinosaur ['dainaso:] – an extinct gigantic reptile what with the Aduana and this bloody tapir… – This emphatic construction is used when enumerating the various causes of one's distress, embarrassment and the like.

the Queen Mary - one of the biggest Atlantic liners

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to put one's mind to something – to direct one's thoughts towards it, to set one's mind on doing something simpatico (Sp.) - nice, pleasant

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fur seal – a warm-blooded, fish-eating animal, found chiefly in cold regions; fur seal is hunted for its valuable fur.

elephant seal – a species of seal, so called on account of the shape of the male's nose which resembles an elephant's trunk, and also on account of its elephantine size (the male measures as much as 5.5 m in length and weighs up to 3.5 tons); now almost entirely destroyed.

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to warm to somebody – to begin liking somebody hotter by and by to win somebody over – to make somebody take a liking to you, feel friendly towards you to decide somebody – to cause somebody to come to a decision

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Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882) – the great English naturalist, founder of the theory of evolution. In 1831-36 he made a voyage round the world on board the Beagle. The results of his observations of animals and plants, made during the voyage, were described in the naturalist's journal, The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle.

H.M.S. – His (Her) Majesty's Ship, a ship of the British navy covey – here a group, a party (the word is generally used to designate a family of partridges)

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deer-stalker hat (or cap) – a cloth cap with a peak before and behind and two ear-flaps; it is often called a deer-stalker for short prenatal posture – the position of an unborn baby in the mother's womb