Around the World in Eighty Days, Chapters Twenty-Three to Twenty-Five

In which Passepartout's nose is lengthened enormously; is accomplished the voyage across the Pacific Ocean; a slight glimpse of San Francisco is had--a political meeting; and after which our narrator, having reached American soil, can finally rest the "terrible accents" tag for a while, as long as Passepartout doesn't speak again, or Mrs. Aouda, or any of the four principals, really.



The illustrations get distributed rather oddly here, having three in Chapter 23 and none in Chapter 24. Maybe an uneventful ocean voyage was not high on the list to illustrate, while funny Japanese clothes and circus outfits were?

2:24 - Passepartout came out wrapped in an old Japanese robe.

The "god Tingou" that Batulcar's long-nosed performers purport to honor actually refers not to a specific god, but to mythical creatures called tengu from Japanese folk religion, which are also a type of god in Shintoism. They were originally considered as demons or bringers of war, portrayed as large birds of prey, but they eventually were viewed more as protective but unpredictable nature spirits. Their image was also anthropomorphized, and the bird beaks became the very long noses we see here in the circus.

The "Car of Juggernaut" that the long-nosed performers recreate in their human pyramid is a Hindu temple car, a large wooden chariot used to transport representations of Hindu gods during festivals. This specific one transported the Lord Jagannath during the festival of Ratha-Yatra, and its supposed reputation for accidentally crushing people under its wheels gave us, of course, the English word "juggernaut."

Now, why these performers are using mythical creatures from Japanese folklore, presented as a specific individual god, to recreate an image from a Hindu festival, is an open question. Perhaps Verne is making some statement about how American showmen such as Mr. Batulcar present foreign cultures.

Sure, let's go with that.

11:04 - The monument fell like a house of cards.

11:04 - Followed by Passepartout with his wings on his back.

23:28 - When he fell upon the wharf, the planks
of which were worm-eaten, he almost fell through.

31:11 - Fix, throwing himself in the way, received the blow in his place.

If you would like to read along, my translation by Stephen W. White can be found courtesy of Choptank Press on Google Books. If you prefer one of the other options, the George Towle translation can be found at Zvi Har’El’s Jules Verne Collection, which is also where I got the illustrations, or the more accurate but rather fusty Henry Frith translation can be found at Project Gutenberg. No reading ahead, though!