The Whispering Land

Tres Arroyos ['tres e'roies] (Sp.) - Three Streams the Pampa (or Pampas) – the extensive treeless plains of South America

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eucalyptus tree – a tree of the myrtle family; most of the trees of this genus are important timber trees, and some secrete resinous gums (e. g. the Australian gum-tree)

like leprous limbs – like the arms and legs of people affected with leprosy, a chronic infectious disease characterized by a thickening and ulceration of the skin estancia (Sp.) - farm, estate carunculated – covered with caruncles, small hard outgrowths electric-blue – a steely blue color oven-bird [Avnba:d] – the popular name of various South American birds which build dome-shaped oven-like nests blank-faced – here inexpressive, lacking individuality

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tattoo [ta'tu:] – a continuous tapping or knocking

Hola! (Sp.) - Hullo!

sanitary arrangements – a polite way of speaking about a lavatory stone – measure of weight used in Great Britain (6.34 kg); the plural form is unchanged

Chelsea – a district of London on the north bank of the Thames, with many gardens, including the London Botanic Garden buenas noches (Sp.) - good evening

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Hablo con la patrona? (Sp.) - Am I speaking to the hostess?

Si, si, señor… que quiores? (Sp.) - Yes, sir, what is it you need?

she puffed and undulated her way down to the kitchen – puffing and undulating, she made her way to the kitchen (note this construction, often resorted to by the author when describing different sorts of movement)

monochromatic Martian landscape – the author evidently has in mind standard descriptions of the planet Mars encountered in science-fiction books country – here ground

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nodded off – fell suddenly asleep

Scotch = Scotch whisky

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dust-devil – a mass of dust whirling rapidly round and round in cylindrical or funnel shape

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I ever dream = that I ever dreamed of (i.e. imagined). In the next remark the same verb is used in a different meaning: 'to see in sleep'.

introduction – here a letter of introduction, one that introduces a person to friends or acquaintances of the writer in a… reptilian manner – like a serpent or a lizard

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to make out with something (colloq.) - to get along, be satisfied with something

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crow's feet – wrinkles at the outer corner of the eye to sum up somebody – to form a final opinion or judgment of somebody

Si, si, como no? (Sp.) - Yes, yes, why not?

forlorn – here sad lilting (said of a melody) – swinging or flowing rhythmically joie de vivre ['3wa de 'vi;vre] (Fr.) – joy of life

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cacophonous – unmelodious

T. B. ['ti:'bi:] – short for tuberculosis in a body – all together, as one man moth-eaten-looking – old and decrepit, looking like an old rag eaten by clothes-moth

When speaking of airplanes, the English sometimes use the pronoun she, as in the case of ships.

wind-sock – a canvas cylinder or cone flying from a masthead to show the direction of wind

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came into their own – here got down to business the plane bumped and shuddered to a halt – bumping and shuddering, the plane came to a halt (cf. note to p. 7)

their equine charges – the ponies in their charge, the ponies they had been holding back (Durrell is fond of Latin adjectives of this type as opposed to the simple-sounding English nouns: compare horse and equine, cat and feline, pig and porcine)

banshee – according to Irish and Scotch beliefs, a spirit whose wail gives warning of death in a house

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Trafalgar Square lions – the four bronze figures of lions, which lie with their heads thrown back, and fore paws stretched out, decorating the corners of the quadrangular base of the Nelson column in Trafalgar Square, London

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magenta – a brilliant crimson color scrunched our way – made our way noisily grinding the gravel under the wheels of the car (cf. note to p. 20)

to switchback – to follow a zigzag route in a mountainous region peon ['pi:on] – in Mexico and Spanish South America, a laborer, especially one working to pay off a debt bombachas (Sp,) - wide trousers

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asado (Sp.) - a sheep roasted whole

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manana (Sp.) - tomorrow

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headwaiter – chief waiter at a restaurant, generally wearing a black suit and a snow-white shirt-front; the author compares penguins to head waiters because of their coloring, and also because of their peculiar shuffling gait biscuit-colored – of the characteristic light-brown colour of biscuit, i.e. porcelain after the first firing and before being glazed or painted guanaco [gwar'neikou] -a wild llama ['la:ma] of the Andes with reddish-brown wool

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