CHAPTER X
THE ORIENT
Rain in torrents, under a heavy black sky. This was India. Sylvestre
had just set foot upon land, chance selecting him to complete the crew
of a whale boat. He felt the warm shower upon him through the thick
foliage, and looked around, surprised at the novel sight. All was
magnificently green; the leaves of the trees waved like gigantic
feathers, and the people walking beneath them had large velvety eyes,
which seemed to close under the weight of their lashes. The very wind
that brought the rain had the odour of musk and flowers.
At a distance, dusky girls beckoned him to come to them. Some happy
strain they sang, like the "Whist! here, you darling boy!" so often
heard at Brest. But seductive as was their country, their call was
imperious and exasperating, making his very flesh shudder. Their
perfect bosoms rose and fell under transparent muslin, in which they
were solely draped; they were glowing and polished as in bronze
statues. Hesitating, fascinated by them, he wavered about, following
them; but the boatswain's sharp shrill whistle rent the air with bird-
like trills, summoning him hurriedly back to his boat, about to push
off.
He took his flight, and bade farewell to India's beauties.
After a second week of the blue sea, they paused off another land of
dewy verdure. A crowd of yellow men appeared, yelling out and pressing
on deck, bringing coal in baskets.
"Already in China?" asked Sylvestre, at the sight of those grotesque
figures in pigtails.
"Bless you, no, not yet," they told him; "have a little more
patience."
It was only Singapore. He went up into his mast-top again, to avoid
the black dust tossed about by the breeze, while the coal was
feverishly heaped up in the bunkers from little baskets.
One day, at length, they arrived off a land called Tourane, where the
/Circe/ was anchored, to blockade the port. This was the ship to which
Sylvestre had been long ago assigned, and he was left there with his
bag.
On board he met with two mates from home, Icelanders, who were
captains of guns for the time being. Through the long, hot, still
evenings, when there was no work to be done, they clustered on deck
apart from the others, to form together a little Brittany of
remembrances.
Five months he passed there in inaction and exile, locked up in the
cheerless bay, with the feverish desire to go out and fight and slay,
for change's sake.
