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Page 26
Then the four--Barnard, Pym, Peters, and the sailor Parker--have many
thrilling adventures. The brig is finally wrecked in a storm, and only
the inverted hull remains above water, to which the four cling for many
days. The party is at last rescued by a trading-vessel on its way to
discover new lands in the Antarctic Ocean. They reach 83 south latitude,
soon after which a landing is made on an island inhabited by a tribe of
strange black people. Here, through a trick of the islanders, the crew
lose their lives--all save Pym and Peters. Parker had already died, and
in a manner more entertaining to the reader in the perusal than to
Parker in the performance; and which, Peters said forty-nine years
later, the mere thought of, always made him willing to wait for his
supper when he had of necessity to forego a dinner.
Whilst escaping in a small boat from this island, Pym and Peters abduct
one of the male natives. Like his fellows, this native is black, even to
his teeth; in fact, there is nothing white on the whole island; even the
water has its peculiarities. And also like his fellows, he dreads the
color _white_; and whenever he sees anything white he becomes almost
frenzied or paralyzed with terror. The small boat with its three
occupants is carried on an ocean current, to the south. One day Pym, in
taking a white handkerchief from his pocket allows the wind to flare it
into the face of the black islander, who sinks in convulsions to the
bottom of the boat, later moaning (as had moaned the other islanders on
seeing white), "Tekeli-li, tekeli-li." He continued to breathe, and no
more. The following day the body of a white animal floats by, a body
similar to one which they had seen on the beach of the island last
visited. Then they see in the south a white curtain, which, after their
further progress in its direction, they observe reaches from the sky to
the water. The water of the ocean current which is hurrying them along
becomes hour by hour warmer, and finally hot. An ash-like material,
which seems to melt as it touches the water, falls all around and over
them. Gigantic white birds fly from beyond the white curtain, screaming
the eternal "Teke-li-li, tekeli-li"--a syllabication that dies away on
the lips of the islander as his soul finally, on that last terrible day,
leaves his body.
The last words of the last of Pym's entries in his journal are as
follows:
"And now we rushed into the embraces of the cataract, where a chasm
threw itself open to receive us. But there arose in our pathway a
shrouded human figure, very far larger in its proportions than any
dweller among men. And the hue of the skin of the figure was of the
perfect whiteness of the snow."
The following description of Dirk Peters as he appeared in the year
1827, or just fifty years before I saw him, apparently a man of
seventy-five years (though we finally concluded that he was nearer
eighty), is Pym's, quoted from Poe's narrative:
"This man was the son of an Indian woman of the tribe of Upsarokas, who
live among fastnesses of the Black Hills, near the source of the
Missouri. His father was a fur-trader, I believe, or at least connected
in some manner with the Indian trading-posts on Lewis River. Peters
himself was one of the most ferocious looking men I ever beheld. He was
short in stature, not more than four feet eight inches high, but his
limbs were of Herculean mould. His hands, especially, were so enormously
thick and broad as hardly to retain a human shape. His arms, as well as
his legs, were bowed in the most singular manner, and appeared to
possess no flexibility whatever. His head was equally deformed, being of
immense size, with an indentation on the crown (like that on the head of
most negroes) and entirely bald. To conceal this latter deficiency,
which did not proceed from old age, he usually wore a wig formed of any
hair-like material which presented itself--occasionally the skin of a
Spanish dog or American grizzly bear. At the time spoken of, he had on a
portion of one of these bear-skins; and it added no little to the
natural ferocity of his countenance, which betook of the Upsaroka
character. The mouth extended nearly from ear to ear; the lips were
thin, and seemed, like some other portions of his frame, to be devoid of
natural pliancy, so that the ruling expression never varied under the
influence of any emotion whatever. This ruling expression may be
conceived when it is considered that the teeth were exceedingly long and
protruding, and were never even partially covered, in any instance, by
the lips. To pass this man with a casual glance, one might imagine him
to be convulsed with laughter; but a second look would induce a
shuddering acknowledgment, that if such an expression were indicative of
merriment, the merriment must be that of a demon. Of this singular being
many anecdotes were prevalent among the seafaring men of Nantucket.
These anecdotes went to prove his prodigious strength when under
excitement, and some of them had given rise to a doubt of his sanity."
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