Waltey
Harry Main: Zaklad in mačke
142 Harry Main: The Treasure and the Cats
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land · Charles M. SkinnerO besedilu
Harry Main: Zaklad in mačke
- Vir
- Myths and Legends of Our Own Land
- Avtor
- Charles M. Skinner
- Jezik branja
- Slovenščina
- Jezik izvirnika
- English
- Čas branja
- 2 min branja
- Obseg
- 2 strani
- Naslov izvirnika
- 142 Harry Main: The Treasure and the Cats
O izvirniku
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land
Obsežna zgodovinska zbirka ameriških legend, ki jih je Skinner zbral in avtorsko rekonstruiral. Bralni jezik je Slovenščina, izvirnik pa prihaja iz vira Myths and Legends of Our Own Land v jeziku English.
Besedilo
Harry Main: Zaklad in mačke
Ipswich je imel pravega hudiča v podobi Harryja Maina, človeka črne duše, ki je po letih piratstva, tihotapljenja, bogokletja in razuzdanosti postal ropar ladijskih razbitin ter z lažnimi lučmi zvabljal ladje v pogubo. Za svoje zločine je bil po smrti obsojen na pokoro na ipswiški peščeni plitvini, kjer je toliko ladij pognal na obalo; njegova kazen je bila spletati vrvi iz peska, čeprav nekateri verjamejo, da je moral z lopato odmetavati morje. Kadar koli se mu je vrv pretrgala, je zarjovel od besa in muk, da ga je bilo slišati milje daleč; otroci so tedaj stekli k svojim trepetajočim materam, možje pa so zaskrbljeno zmajevali z glavami. Ko je spletel in zvil že dobršen kos ladijske vrvi, je Harry dobil kratek oddih, ki ga je preživljal na otoku Plum Island, na grozo tamkajšnjih prebivalcev. Kadar plima narašča in obenem piha vse hujši vihar, ljudje ob stokanju, ki prihaja s plitvine, pravijo: »Stari Harry spet godrnja.«
Verjeli so, da je Harry Main — da o kapitanu Kiddu niti ne govorimo — svoje nepošteno pridobljeno bogastvo zakopal v Ipswichu, in neki mož je tri noči zapored sanjal, da je zakopano v mlinu. Prepričan, da mu je bilo dano razodetje, se je prvo mračno noč odpravil tja z lopato, svetilko in Svetim pismom — saj odkritja ni hotel deliti z nikomer — ter našel kraj, ki ga je prepoznal iz svojih sanj. Z vnemo je poprijel za lopato in kmalu odkopal ploščat kamen ter železen drog. Ravno je hotel privzdigniti kamen, ko je jamo obkolila cela vojska črnih mačk in vanjo zrla z ognjenimi očmi.
Nesrečnež je v navalu strahu in poguma zavrtel drog nad glavo in zavpil: »Šc!« Srhljivi čuvaji zaklada so pri priči izginili, v istem hipu pa se je kopač znašel do pasu v ledeni vodi, ki je ob njegovem vzkliku vdrla v jamo.
Nauk zgodbe je, da med iskanjem zaklada nikoli ne smeš govoriti. Premočen, prestrašen in potrt je mož zlezel iz jame ter se odpravil domov, za dokaz svoje dogodivščine pa odnesel gripo in železen drog. Iz slednjega je izdelal zapah, ki v tej obliki še danes služi na enih izmed vrat v Ipswichu.
Izvirnik
142 Harry Main: The Treasure and the Cats
Naslednje strani prikazujejo izvirno besedilo za primerjavo.
Ipswich had a very Old Harry in the person of Harry Main, a dark-souled being, who, after a career of piracy, smuggling, blasphemy, and dissipation, became a wrecker, and lured vessels to destruction with false lights. For his crimes he was sent, after death, to do penance on Ipswich bar, where he had sent many a ship ashore, his doom being to twine ropes of sand, though some believe it was to shovel back the sea. Whenever his rope broke he would roar with rage and anguish, so that he was heard for miles, whereon the children would run to their trembling mothers and men would look troubled and shake their heads. After a good bit of cable had been coiled, Harry had a short respite that he enjoyed on Plum Island, to the terror of the populace. When the tide and a gale are rising together people say, as they catch the sound of moaning from the bar, “Old Harry's grumbling again.”
Now, Harry Main--to say nothing of Captain Kidd--was believed to have buried his ill-gotten wealth in Ipswich, and one man dreamed for three successive nights that it had been interred in a mill. Believing that a revelation had been made to him he set off with spade, lantern, and Bible, on the first murky night--for he wanted no partner in the discovery--and found a spot which he recognized as the one that had been pictured to his sleeping senses. He set to work with alacrity and a shovel, and soon he unearthed a flat stone and an iron bar. He was about to pry up the stone when an army of black cats encircled the pit and glared into it with eyes of fire.
The poor man, in an access both of alarm and courage, whirled the bar about his head and shouted “Scat!” The uncanny guards of the treasure disappeared instanter, and at the same moment the digger found himself up to his middle in icy water that had poured into the hole as he spoke.
The moral is that you should never talk when you are hunting for treasure. Wet, scared, and disheartened, the man crawled out and made homeward, carrying with him, as proof of his adventure, a case of influenza and the iron bar. The latter trophy he fashioned into a latch, in which shape it still does service on one of the doors of Ipswich.
Nadaljuj z branjem
