The Whispering Land

finger – here the breadth of a finger (about an inch), a measure generally used when pouring drinks ahora los pinguinos (Sp.) - presently (you shall see) the penguins to pock-mark – to make numerous marks or scars like those left by smallpox; to dot pigmy (or pygmy) – any person, animal or plant abnormally undersized, a dwarf fallen arches – flat feet, feet not normally arched, with the arch weakened; a professional disease with waiters

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debutante I'debjuta:nt] – a girl making her first appearance in society, especially (in England) a girl presented to the king and queen at court outsize – too big for one wattle – a fold of loose flesh hanging from the neck of some birds, i.e. turkeys nerve – self-control, courage

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jig-saw puzzle – a picture pasted on board and cut in irregular pieces with a jig-saw; one has to fit the pieces together so as to make the picture (common children's game)

to negotiate – here to get over, to surmount (often said about fences and other obstacles)

tummy – a nursery and colloquial word for stomach, belly to get the worst of the climb over – to have done with the most difficult part of the climb

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to throw one off balance – to make one lose one's balance

all-in wrestling match – a general struggle to run the gauntlet – as a punishment, to run between two lines of men who strike the victim as he passes to regurgitate – to bring (partly-digested food) from the stomach back to the mouth; to get one to do something – to make one do it

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in no uncertain fashion – without hesitation or doubt, in a determined, resolute manner from stem to stern – from the front to the back part of a ship, throughout the whole length of the ship; here throughout the whole length of the bird's body (another instance of a naval term used ironically; cf. amidships on p. 8)

minute [mai'nju:t] – very small pandemonium ['paendi'mounjem] – a scene of great disorder and confusion (as in a place inhabited by all the demons)

digestive reverie ['reveri] – a quiet, thoughtful state during the process of digestion

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Vacanttum – probably Vacant-tum (my), empty belly (the word looks amusingly like a biological term of Latin origin)

the product of an unhappy home-life – a cliché of modern sociological writings, here used ironically

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melee ['melei] (Fr.) - a confused fight air-pocket – a seeming vacuum in the air causing the aircraft to drop some distance; it produces a very unpleasant sensation of sinking stomach nifty (U.S. slang) - here quick, nimble to qualify for – to give a right to

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a diaphanous garment – a transparent one, one through which the contours of the body are clearly seen mammary development (cf. below chest expansion) - ironical paraphrases for size of the bust a companion piece – the second of a pair, a thing that matches or complements another (here the author means a picture whose subject would match that of the one he discusses)

to be out to do something (colloq.) - to seek, to aim at doing something, taking great pains with it

much of a muchness (colloq.) - very nearly the same mate (Sp.) – an aromatic beverage prepared in South America from the leaves of the Paraguay tea plant via – by way of, through, as in "from Exeter to York via London"; here used jocularly

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breath-taking – so striking as to take one's breath away, make one breathless with astonishment and admiration boleadoras (Sp.) - a form of weapon used by the Paraguay Indians, the Patagonians, and others in South America. It consists of a rope or thong with balls of stone or metal attached to it. When used, it is swung round the head by one end and then hurled at an animal so as to entangle its limbs.

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passing – here disappearance

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Margate – the favorite seaside resort of London holiday-makers left-overs (Amer.) - remains esto, una (Sp.) - here's one

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to pull somebody's leg – to make fun of somebody to get one's own back on somebody – to take one's revenge

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armadillo [ama'dilou] – a burrowing animal of South America, with a body encased in bony armour, and a habit of rolling itself up into a ball when in danger castanetted their beaks – made a sound like a pair of castanets with their beaks thumb-smudges of cloud – the author compares the clouds visible here and there in the sky with smudges of paint left on a canvas by a careless painter's thumb

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to shrug something off – to dismiss it with a shrug of the shoulders

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back-breaking potholes – holes in a road fit to break one's back when driving over them had played me false – had failed me, had deceived me

what I took to be the male of the herd – the animal I took for the male guanaco (a guanaco herd consists of a male, several females and some baby guanacos)