The Jolly Roger Tales: 60+ Pirate Novels, Treasure-Hunt Tales & Sea Adventures. Лаймен Фрэнк Баум

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ he was provided with a firstrate cook and proper assistant, 1 although his table was regularly supplied with every delicacy of the season, yet he confessed to my friend, that by some uncommon depravity of the palate, everything which he ate lasted of porridge. This peculiarity, of course, a-ose from the poor man being fed upon nothing else, and because his stomach was not so easily deceived as his other senses.

      Note XV. p. 357. — Birds of Prey So favourable a retreat does the island of Hoy afford for birds of prey, that instances of their ravages, which seldom occur in other parts of the ccuntry, are not unusual there. An individual was living in Orkney not long since, whom, while a child in its swaddling clothes, an eagle actually transported to its nest in the hill of Hoy. Happily the evry being known, and tae bird instantly pursued, the child was found uninjured, playing with the young, eagles. A story of a more ludicrous transportation was told me by the reverend clergyman who is minister of the island. Hearing one day a strange grunting, he suspected his servants had permitted a sow and pigs, wh ch were tenants of his’farmyard, to get among his barley crop. Having in vain looked tor the transgressors upon solid earth, he at length cast his eyes upward, when he discovered one of the litter in the talons of a large eagle, which was soaring away with the unfortunate pig (squeaking all the while with terror) towards her nest in the crest of Hoy.

      Note XVI. p. 411. — The Standing Stones of Stennis The Standing Stones of Stennis, as by a little pleonasm this remarkable monument is termed, furnishes an irresistible refutation of the opinion of such antiquaries as hold that the circles usually called Druidical, were peculiar to that race of priests. There is every reason to believe, that the custom was as prevalent in Scandinavia as in Gaul or Britain, and as common to the mythology of Odin as to Druidical superstition. There is even reason to think, that the Druids never occupied any part of the Orkneys, and tradition, as well as history, ascribes the Stones of Stennis to the Scandinavians. Two large sheets of water, communicating with the sea, are connected by a causeway, with openings permitting the tide to rise and recede, which is called the Bridge of Broisgar. Upon the eastern tongue of land appear the Standing Stones, arranged in the form of a half circle, or rather a horseshoe, the height of the pillars being fifteen feet and upwards. Within this circle lies a stone, probably sacrificial. One of the pillars, a little to the westward, is perforated with a circular hole, through which loving couples are wont to join hands when they take the Promise of Odin, as has been repeatedly mentioned in the text. The enclosure is surrounded by barrows, and on the opposite isthmus, advancing towards the Bridge of Broisgar, there is another monument of Standing Stones, which, in this case, is completely circular. They are less in size than those on the eastern side of the lake, their height running only from ten 01 twelve to fourteen feet. This western circle is surrounded by a deep trencb drawn on the outside of the pillars; and I remarked four tumuli, or moundi of earth, regularly disposed around it. Stonehenge excels1 this Orcadiar monument; but that of Stennis is, I conceive, the only one in Britain which can be said to approach it in consequence. All the northern nations marked by those huge enclosures the places of popular meeting, either for religiou.’ worship or the transaction of public business of a temporal nature. Tht Northern Popular Antiquities contain, in an abstract of the Eyrbiggia Saga a particular account of the manner in which the Helga Feis, or Holy Rock was set apart by the Pontiff Thorolf for solemn occasions.

      I need only add, that, different from the monument on Salisbury Plain, thi stones which were used in the Orcadian circle seem to have been raised from I quarry upon the spot, of which the marks are visible.

      Blackbeard:

       Buccaneer

      (Ralph D. Paine)

       Table of Contents

       Chapter I: That Courteous Pirate, Captain Bonnet

       Chapter II: The Merchant Trader, Plymouth Adventure

       Chapter III: Held as Hostages to Blackbeard

       Chapter IV: The Captive Seamen in the Forecastle

       Chapter V: Releasing a Fearful Weapon

       Chapter VI: The Voyage of the Little Raft

       Chapter VII: The Mist of the Cherokee Swamp

       Chapter VIII: The Episode of the Winding Creek

       Chapter IX: Blackbeard's Errand Is Interrupted

       Chapter X: The Sea Urchin and the Carpenter's Mate

       Chapter XI: Jack Journeys Afoot

       Chapter XII: A Private Account to Settle

       Chapter XIII: Our Heroes Seek Seclusion

       Chapter XIV: Blackbeard Appears in Fire and Brimstone

       Chapter XV: Mr. Peter Forbes Mourns His Nephew

       Chapter XVI: Ned Rackham's Plans Go Much Amiss

       Chapter XVII: The Great Fight of Captain Teach

       Chapter XVIII: The Old Buccaneer Is Loyal

       Chapter XIX: The Quest for Pirates' Gold

      Chapter I.

       That Courteous Pirate, Captain Bonnet

       Table of Contents

      The year of 1718 seems very dim and far away, but the tall lad who sauntered down to the harbor of Charles СКАЧАТЬ