Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 27, 2025
A little Highlander in his tartans stood on a whisky-barrel in the middle, making his bagpipes squeal away; a Chinese with a bald head and long pigtail beat a gong, and capered with a solemn face; a Norwegian herd-boy blew a monstrous bark cow-horn; an Indian juggler twisted snakes round his neck to the sound of the tom-tom; and Lucy found herself and Leonidas whirling round with a young Dutch planter between them, and an Indian with a crown of feathers upon the other side of her.
Finally he raised it and said in a resolute voice: "We all have our time to go, and when the Great Mystery calls us we must answer as cheerfully as at the call of one of our own war-chiefs here on earth. No one replied. Presently the last tom-tom was heard and the dancers rallied once more.
Ill-fed, dirty, unkempt men as our sailors were, we got to like them all, from the elderly dignified Mohammed, who thought he knew more about navigation than the captain, to Ahmet Faraj, the buffoon who played the tom-tom and made everybody laugh; this worthy individual was the recognised leader of all the festivities with which they regaled us from time to time, consisting of very ugly songs and a yet uglier dance, the chief art in which consisted in wagging their elastic tails with an energy which mortals further removed from monkey origin could never hope to approach.
This, as our guide informed us, was to propitiate the god of fire, and to avert all possible catastrophes from that much dreaded source. When we passed out of the grounds, some hours later, this priest was still busy with his chips and the noisy tom-tom, though there was no audience present except our little party.
Suppose the king, if there was one, and the priest, if there was one, at the time this gentleman floated in the dug-out, and charmed his ears with the music of the tom-tom, had said: "That dug-out is the best boat that ever can be built by man; the pattern of that came from on high, from the great god of storm and flood, and any man who says that he can improve it by putting a mast in it, with a sail upon it, is an infidel, and shall be burned at the stake;" what, in your judgment honor bright would have been the effect upon the circumnavigation of the globe?
And then, really, my child, you must adapt yourself to the words." "I will," Emilia promised; "only, not if they're like iron to the teeth." "My belief is," said Tracy savagely, "that music's a fashion, and as delusive a growth as Cobbett's potatoes, which will go back to the deadly nightshade, just as music will go back to the tom-tom." "What have you called out when I sang to you!"
One after the other, the whole of the women, with partners, took a part in the performance; I could scarcely follow their dark figures, except by the ornaments they wore, as they moved in eccentric courses within the hut, the tom-tom beating louder and louder, and the people moving faster.
The wailing of the raïta mingled with the heavy throbbing of the tom-tom, and filled the girl's heart with a vague foreboding, a yearning for something she had not known, and did not understand. Yet it seemed that she must have both known and understood long ago, before memory recorded anything perhaps in some forgotten incarnation.
The anchor was hardly let go, when the monotonous sound of a tom-tom gave notice of the approach of some chief; and shortly afterwards, a boat, carrying a huge Dutch flag, was seen pulling towards the brig, with a great many round-bladed paddles. Seated in state, in the stern sheets, was an old man dressed in a long black serge coat and trousers, with a white shirt and handkerchief.
Anthony still wiggled and tried to free himself, protesting his innocence. Uncle Teddy pounded on the tom-tom. "Will somebody please tell me," he said, "what's the matter with you boys and girls. There's been something going on under the surface for the last week. Just now one of you mentioned a 'Dark of the Moon Society. Will whoever it is please tell?"
Word Of The Day
Others Looking