![]() ![]() He tells himself that he will no longer dream of palm trees and sunshine. On his last visit to the frigid metropolis, he had felt an odd creature, neither fish nor fowl, smirked at by elegant ladies, his skin chaffed, fingers stiff and unable to determine between fish and salad fork. ![]() ![]() The Englishman contemplates the meaning of this word, “home,” remembers decades of waving palms, soft sarongs against his thighs, the quick fingers and lithe embraces of burnt brown bodies. Such a nice little place.”Īnd she, only recently having left Manchester for the colony and now returning in triumph, a husband successfully hunted and captured, says, “But so hot! And the mosquitoes! It will be such a comfort to be home again.” On board one such vessel, the captain’s log includes the tusks and legs of elephant herds rubies, emeralds, topaz fragrant mountains of cinnamon, cardamom, mustard seeds forests of ebony, teak, and sandalwood screeching peacocks caged and pacing leopards ten-foot-long monitor lizards whipping their razor tails barrels of fermented coconut toddy the jewel-encrusted thrones of Kandyan kings the weapons of Chola warriors priceless texts in Pali and Sanskrit, Sinhala and Tamil.Īt the foam-drenched stern, a blue-eyed, walnut-burnt sahib searches for the vanishing island and says to his pale young wife, “A shame, really. ![]() It is 1948 and the last British ships slip away from the island of Ceylon, laboring and groaning under the weight of purloined treasure. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |