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安徒生童話故事第151篇：海蟒The Great Sea-Serpent
引導語：海蟒是一種已滅絕的海洋蜥，大家是否了解過這種動物呢?下面是小編收集的安徒生的一篇相關(guān)的童話故事《海蟒》，有中英文版本，歡迎大家閱讀!
從前有一條家庭出身很好的小海魚，它的名字我記不清楚——只有有學問的人才能告訴你。這條小魚有一千八百個兄弟和姊妹，它們的年齡都一樣。它們不認識自己的父親或母親，它們只好自己照顧自己，游來游去，不過這是很愉快的事情。
它們有吃不盡的水——整個大洋都是屬于它們的。因此它們從來不在食物上費腦筋——食物就擺在那兒。每條魚喜歡做什么就做什么，喜歡聽什么故事就聽什么故事。但是誰也不想這個問題。
太陽光射進水里來，在它們的周圍照著。一切都照得非常清楚，這簡直是充滿了最奇異的生物的世界。有的生物大得可怕，嘴巴很寬，一口就能把這一千八百個兄弟姊妹吞下去。不過它們也沒有想這個問題，因為它們沒有誰被吞過。
小魚都在一塊兒游，挨得很緊，像鯡魚和鯖魚那樣。不過當它們正在水里游來游去、什么事情也不想的時候，忽然有一條又長又粗的東西，從上面墜到它們中間來了。它發(fā)出可怕的響聲，而且一直不停地往下墜。這東西越伸越長;小魚一碰到它就會被打得粉碎或受重傷，再也復元不了。所有的小魚兒——大的也不例外——從海面一直到海底，都在驚恐地逃命。這個粗大的重家伙越沉越深，越變越長，變成許多里路長，穿過大海。
魚和蝸牛——一切能夠游、能夠爬、或者隨著水流動的生物——都注意到了這個可怕的東酉，這條來歷不明的、忽然從上面落下來的、龐大的海鱔。
這究竟是一個什么東西呢?是的，我們知道!它就是無數(shù)里長的粗大的電纜。人類正在把它安放在歐洲和美洲之間。
凡是電纜落到的地方，海里的合法居民就感到驚惶，引起一陣騷動。飛魚沖出海面，使勁地向高空飛去。魴鮄在水面上飛過槍彈所能達到的整個射程，因為它有這套本領(lǐng)。別的魚則往海底鉆;它們逃得飛快，電纜還沒有出現(xiàn)，它們就已經(jīng)跑得老遠了。鰭魚和比目魚在海的深處自由自在地游泳，吃它們的同類，但是現(xiàn)在也被別的魚嚇慌了。
有一對海參嚇得那么厲害，它們連腸子都吐出來了。不過它們?nèi)匀荒芑钕氯ィ驗樗鼈冇羞@套本領(lǐng)。有許多龍蝦和螃蟹從自己的甲殼里沖出來，把腿都扔在后面。
在這種驚慌失措的混亂中，那一千八百個兄弟姊妹就被打散了。它們再也聚集不到一起，彼此也沒有辦法認識。它們只有一打留在原來的地方。當它們靜待了個把鐘頭以后，總算從開頭的一陣驚恐中恢復過來，開始感到有些奇怪。它們向周圍看，向上面看，也向下面看。它們相信在海的深處看見了那個可怕的東西——那個把它們嚇住，同時也把大大小小的魚兒都嚇住的東西。憑它們的肉眼所能看見的，這東西是躺在海底，伸得很遠，相當細，但是它們不知道它能變得多粗，或者變得多結(jié)實。它靜靜地躺著，不過它們認為它可能是在搗鬼。
“讓它在那兒躺著吧!這跟我們沒有什么關(guān)系!”小魚中一條最謹慎的魚說，不過最小的那條魚仍然想知道，這究竟是一個什么東西。它是從上面沉下來的，人們一定可以從上面得到可靠的消息，因此它們都浮到海面上去。天氣非常晴朗。
它們在海面上遇見一只海豚。這是一個耍武藝的家伙，一個海上的流浪漢：它能在海面上翻筋斗。它有眼睛看東西，因此一定看到和知道一切情況。它們向它請教，不過它老是想著自己和自己翻的筋斗。它什么也沒有看到，因此也回答不出什么來。它只是一言不發(fā)，做出一副很驕傲的樣子。
它們只好請教一只海豹。海豹只會鉆水。雖然它吃掉小魚，它還是比較有禮貌的，不過它今天吃得很飽。它比海豚知道得稍微多一點。
“有好幾夜我躺在潮濕的石頭上，朝許多里路以外的陸地望。那兒有許多呆笨的生物——在他們的語言中叫做‘人’。他們總想捉住我們，不過我們經(jīng)常逃脫了。我知道怎樣逃，你們剛才問起的海鱔也知道。海鱔一直是被他們控制著的，因為它無疑從遠古起就一直躺在陸地上。他們把它從陸地運到船上，然后又把它從海上運到另一個遙遠的陸地上去。我看見他們碰到多少麻煩，但是他們卻有辦法應(yīng)付，因為它在陸地上是很聽話的。他們把它卷成一團。我聽到它被放下水的時候發(fā)出的嘩啦嘩啦的聲音。不過它從他們手中逃脫了，逃到這兒來了。他們使盡氣力來捉住它，許多手來抓住它，但是它仍然溜走了，跑到海底上來。我想它現(xiàn)在還躺在海底上吧!”
“它倒是很細呢!”小魚說。
“他們把它餓壞了呀!”海豹說。“不過它馬上就可以復元，恢復它原來粗壯的身體。我想它就是人類常常談起而又害怕的那種大海蟒吧。我以前從來沒有看見過它，也從來不相信它。現(xiàn)在我可相信了：它就是那家伙!”于是海豹就鉆進水里去了。
“它知道的事情真多，它真能講!”小魚說。“我從來沒有這樣聰明過!——只要這不是說謊!”
“我們可以游下去調(diào)查一下!”最小的那條魚說。“我們沿路還可以向別人打聽打聽!”
“我什么都不想知道了，我連鰭都不愿意動一下，”別的魚兒說，掉轉(zhuǎn)身就走。
“不過我要去!”最小的魚兒說。于是它便鉆到深水里去了。但是這離開“沉下的那個長東西”躺著的地方還很遠。小魚在海底朝各方面探望和尋找。
它從來沒有注意到，它所住的世界是這樣龐大。鯡魚結(jié)成大隊在游動，亮得像銀色的大船。鯖魚在后回跟著，樣子更是富麗堂皇。各種形狀的魚和各種顏色的魚都來了。水母像半透明的花朵，隨著水流在前后飄動。海底上長著巨大的植物，一人多高的草和類似棕櫚的樹，它們的每一片葉子上都附有亮晶晶的貝殼。
最后小魚發(fā)現(xiàn)下面有一條長長的黑條，于是它向它游去。但是這既不是魚，也不是電纜，而是一艘沉下的大船的欄桿。因為海水的壓力，這艘船的上下兩層裂成了兩半。小魚游進船艙里去。當船下沉的時候，船艙里有許多人都死了，而且被水沖走了。現(xiàn)在只剩下兩個人：一個年輕的女人直直地躺著，懷里抱著一個小孩。水把她們托起來，好像在搖著她們似的。她們好像是在睡覺。小魚非常害怕;它一點也不知道，她們是再也醒不過來的。海藻像藤蔓似的懸在欄桿上，懸在母親和孩子的美麗的尸體上。這兒是那么沉靜和寂寞。小魚拼命地游——游到水比較清亮和別的魚游泳的地方去。它沒有游遠就碰見一條大得可怕的年輕的鯨魚。
“請不要把我吞下去，”小魚說。“我連味兒都沒有，因為我是這樣小，但是我覺得活著是多么愉快啊!”
“你跑到這么深的地方來干什么?為什么你的族人沒有來呢?”鯨魚問。
于是小魚就談起了那條奇異的長鱔魚來——不管它叫什么名字吧。這東西從上面沉下來，甚至把海里最大膽的居民都嚇慌了。
“乖乖!”鯨魚說。它喝了一大口水，當它跑到水面上來呼吸的時候，不得不吐出一根龐大的水柱。“乖乖!”它說，“當我翻身的時候，把我的背擦得怪癢的那家伙原來就是它!我還以為那是一艘船的桅桿，可以拿來當作搔癢的棒子呢!但是它并不在這附近。不，這東西躺在很遠的地方。我現(xiàn)在沒有別的事情可干，我倒要去找找它!”
于是它在前面游，小魚跟在后面——并不太近，因為有一股激流卷過來，大鯨魚很快地就先沖過去了。
它們遇見了一條鯊魚和一條老鋸鰩。這兩條魚也聽到關(guān)于這條又長又瘦的奇怪海鱔的故事。它們沒有看見過它，但是想去看看。
這時有一條鯰魚游過來了。
“我也跟你們一道去吧，”它說。它也是朝這個方向游來。“如果這條大海蟒并不比錨索粗多少，那么我一口就要把它咬斷。”于是它把嘴張開，露出六排牙齒。“我可以在船錨上咬出一個印跡來，當然也可以把那東西的身子咬斷!”
“它在那兒呢!”大鯨魚說，“我看見了!”
它以為自己看事情要比別人清楚得多。“請看它怎樣浮起來，怎樣擺動、拐彎和打卷吧!”
可是它卻看錯了。朝它們游過來的是一條龐大的海鰻，有好幾碼長。
“這家伙我從前曾經(jīng)看見過!”鋸鰩說。“它在海里從來不鬧事，也從來不嚇唬任何大魚的。”
因此它們就和它談起那條新來的海鱔，同時問它愿意不愿意一同去找它。
“難道那條鱔魚比我還要長嗎?”海鰻問。“這可要出亂子了!”
“那是肯定的!”其余的魚說。“我們的數(shù)目不少，倒是不怕它的。”于是它們就趕忙向前游。
正在這時候，有一件東西擋住了它們的去路——一個比它們?nèi)w加到一起還要龐大的怪物。
這東西像一座浮著的海島，而又浮不起來。
這是一條很老的鯨魚。它的頭上長滿了海藻，背上堆滿了爬行動物，一大堆牡蠣和貽貝，弄得它的黑皮上布滿了白點。
“老頭子，跟我們一塊來吧!”它們說。“這兒現(xiàn)在來了一條新魚，我們可不能容忍它。”
“我情愿躺在我原來的地方，”老鯨魚說。“讓我休息吧!讓我躺著吧!啊，是的，是的，是的。我正害著一場大病!我只有浮到海面上.把背露出水面，才會覺得舒服一點!這時龐大的海鳥就飛過來啄我。只要它們不啄得太深，這倒是蠻舒服的。它們有時一直啄到我的肥肉里去。你們瞧吧!有一只鳥的全部骨架還卡在我的背上呢。它把爪子抓得太深，當我潛到海底的時候，它還取不出來。于是小魚又來啄它。請看看它的樣子，再看看我的樣子!我病了!”
“這全是想象!”那條年輕的鯨魚說，“我從來就不生病。沒有魚會生病的!”
“請原諒我，”老鯨魚說，“鱔魚有皮膚病，鯉魚會出天花，而我們大家都有寄生蟲!”
“胡說!”鯊魚說。它不愿意再拖延下去，別的魚也一樣，因為它們有別的事情要考慮。
最后它們來到電纜躺著的那塊地方。它橫躺在海底，從歐洲一直伸到美洲，越過沙丘、泥地、石底、茫茫一片的海中植物和整個珊瑚林。這兒激流在不停地變動，漩渦在打轉(zhuǎn)，魚在成群結(jié)隊地游——它們比我們看到的無數(shù)成群地飛過的候鳥還要多。這兒有騷動聲、濺水聲、嘩啦聲和嗡嗡聲——當我們把大個的空貝殼放在耳邊的時候，我們還可以微微地聽到這種嗡嗡聲。現(xiàn)在它們就來到了這塊地方。
“那家伙就躺在這兒!”大魚說。小魚也隨聲附和著。它們看見了電纜，而這電纜的頭和尾所在的地方都超出了它們的視線。
海綿、水螅和珊蝴蟲在海底飄蕩，有的垂掛著，不時沉下來，垂落下來蓋在它上面，因此它一忽兒顯露，一忽兒隱沒。海膽、蝸牛和蠕蟲在它上面爬來爬去。龐大的蜘蛛，背上背著整群的爬蟲，在電纜上邁著步子。深藍色的海參——不管這種爬蟲叫什么，它是用整個的身體來吃東西的——躺在那兒，似乎在喚海底的這個新的動物。比目魚和鰭魚在水里游來游去，靜聽各方面的響聲。海盤車喜歡鉆進泥巴里去，只是把長著眼睛的兩根長腳伸出來。它靜靜地躺著，看這番騷動究竟會產(chǎn)生一個什么結(jié)果。
電纜靜靜地躺著，但是生命和思想?yún)s在它的身體里活動。人類的思想在它身體內(nèi)通過。
“這家伙很狡猾!”鯨魚說。“它能打中我的肚皮，而我的肚皮是最容易受傷的地方!”
“讓我們摸索前進吧!”水螅說。“我有細長的手臂，我有靈巧的手指。我摸過它。我現(xiàn)在要把它抓緊一點試試看。”
它把靈巧的長臂伸到電纜底下，然后繞在它上面。
“它并沒有鱗!”水螅說，“也沒有皮!我相信它永遠也養(yǎng)不出有生命的孩子!”
海鰻在電纜旁躺下來，盡量把自己伸長。
“這家伙比我還要長!”它說。“不過長并不是了不起的事情，一個人應(yīng)該有皮、肚子和靈活性才行。”
鯨魚——這條年輕和強壯的鯨魚——向下沉，沉得比平時要深得多。
“請問你是魚呢，還是植物?”它問。“也許你是從上面落下來的一件東西，在我們中間生活不下去吧?”
但是電纜卻什么也不回答——這不是它的事兒。它里面有思想在通過——人類的思想。這些思想，在一秒鐘以內(nèi)，從這個國家傳到那個國家，要跑幾千里。
“你愿意回答呢，還是愿意被咬斷?”兇猛的鯊魚問。別的大魚也都隨聲附和。“你愿意回答呢，還是愿意被咬斷?”
電纜一點也不理會，它有它自己的思想。它在思想，這是最自然不過的事情，因為它全身充滿了思想。
“讓它們把我咬斷吧。人們會把我撈起來，又把我聯(lián)結(jié)好。我有許多族人在較小的水道曾經(jīng)碰到過這類事情。”
因此它就不回答;它有別的事情要做。它在傳送電報;它躺在海底完全是合法的。
這時候，像人類所說的一樣，太陽落下去了。天空看上去像紅彤彤的火焰，天上的云塊發(fā)出火一般的光彩——一塊比一塊好看。
“現(xiàn)在我們可以有紅色的亮光了!”水螅說。“我們可以更清楚地瞧瞧這家伙——假如這是必要的話。”
“瞧瞧吧!瞧瞧吧!”鯰魚說，同時露出所有的牙齒。
“瞧瞧吧!瞧瞧吧!”旗魚、鯨魚和海鰻一起說。
它們一齊向前沖。鯰魚跑在前面。不過當它們正要去咬電纜的時候，鋸鰩把它的鋸猛力刺進鱔魚的背。這是一個嚴重的錯誤：鯰魚再也沒有力量來咬了。
泥巴里現(xiàn)在是一團混亂。大魚和小魚，海參和蝸牛都在橫沖直撞，互相亂咬亂打，亂擠亂壓。電纜在靜靜地躺著，做它應(yīng)該做的事情。
海上是一片黑夜，但是成千上萬的海中生物發(fā)出光來。不夠針頭大的螃蟹也在發(fā)著光。這真是奇妙得很，不過事實是如此。
海里的動物望著這根電纜。
“這家伙是一件東西呢，還是不是一件東西呢?”
是的，問題就在這兒。
這時有一頭老海象來了。人類把這種東西叫海姑娘或海人。這是一頭母海象，有一個尾巴、兩只劃水用的短臂和一個下垂的胸脯。她的頭上有許多海藻和爬行動物，而她因這些東西而感到非常驕傲。
“你們想不想知道和了解呢?”她說。“我是唯一可以告訴你們的人。不過我要求一件事情：我要求我和我的族人有在海底自由吃草的權(quán)利。我像你們一樣，也是魚，但在動作方面我又是一個爬行動物。我是海里最聰明的生物。我知道生活在海里的一切東西，也知道生活在海上的一切東西。那個讓你們大傷腦筋的東西是從上面下來的，凡是從上面放下來的東西都是死的，或者變成死的，沒有任何力量。讓它躺在那兒吧。它不過是人類的一種發(fā)明罷了!”
“我相信它還不止是如此!”小魚說。
“小鯖魚，住口!”大海象說。
“刺魚!”別的魚兒說;此外還有更加無禮的話。
海象解釋給它們聽，說這個一言不發(fā)的、嚇人的家伙不過是陸地上的一種發(fā)明罷了。她還作了一番短短的演講，說明人類是如何討厭。
“他們想捉住我們，”她說。“這就是他們生活的唯一目的。他們?nèi)鱿戮W(wǎng)來，在鉤子上安著餌來捉我們。那兒躺著的家伙是一條大繩子。他們以為我們會咬它，他們真傻!我們可不會這樣傻!不要動這廢物吧，它自己會消散，變成灰塵和泥巴的。上面放下來的東西都是有毛病和破綻的——一文不值!”
“一文不值!”所有的魚兒都說。它們?yōu)榱艘硎疽庖姡跃腿假澩Ｏ蟮囊庖姟?/p>
小魚卻有自己的看法：“這條又長又瘦的海蟒可能是海里最奇異的魚。我有這種感覺。”
“最奇異的!”我們?nèi)祟愐策@樣說，而且有把握和理由這樣說。
這條巨大的海蟒，好久以前就曾在歌曲和故事中被談到過的。它是從人類的智慧中孕育和產(chǎn)生出來的，它躺在海底，從東方的國家伸展到西方的國家去。它傳遞消息，像光從太陽傳到我們地球上一樣快。它在發(fā)展，它的威力和范圍在發(fā)展，一年一年地在發(fā)展。它穿過大海，環(huán)繞著地球;它深入波濤洶涌的水，也深入一平如鏡的水——在這水上，船長像在透明的空氣中航行一樣，可以朝下看，望見像五顏六色的焰火似的魚群。
這蟒蛇——一條帶來幸運的中層界①的蟒蛇——向極遠的地方伸展，它環(huán)繞著地球一周，可以咬到自己的尾巴。魚和爬蟲硬著頭皮向它沖來，它們完全不懂得上面放下來的東西：人類的思想，用種種不同的語言，無聲無息地，為了好的或壞的目的，在這條知識的蛇里流動著。它是海里奇物中一件最奇異的東西——我們時代的
海蟒。
①原文是Midgaard，按照宗教傳說，認為宇宙分天堂、人間和地獄三層。中間這層就是我們?nèi)祟惥幼〉氖澜纭?/p>
海蟒英文版：
The Great Sea-Serpent
THERE was a little fish—a salt-water fish—of good family: I don’t recall the name—you will have to get that from the learned people. This little fish had eighteen hundred brothers and sisters all just as old as he; they did not know their father and mother, and were obliged to look out for themselves at the very beginning, and swim round, but that was great sport. They had water enough to drink, the entire ocean; they thought nothing about their food, it came when they wanted it. Each did as it pleased, each was to make out its own story—ay, rather none of them thought at all about that. The sun shone down on the water that was light about them, so clear was it. It was a world with the strangest creatures, and some very horrid and big, with great gaping mouths that could gulp down all the eighteen hundred brothers and sisters, but neither did they think of that, for none of them as yet had been swallowed. The small ones swam side by side close together, as herrings and mackerel swim. But as they were swimming their prettiest in the water and thinking of nothing, there sank with prodigious noise, from above, right down through them, a long heavy thing that looked as if it never would come to an end; it stretched out farther and farther, and every one of the little fishes that scampered off was either crushed or got a crack that it could not stand. All the little fishes, and the great ones with them, from the level of the sea to the bottom, were thrown into a panic. The great horrid thing sank deeper and deeper, and grew longer and longer, miles and miles long. The fishes and snails, everything that swims, or creeps, or is driven by the current, saw this fearful thing, this enormous incomprehensible sea-eel which had come down upon them in this fashion.
What was the thing, anyway? ah, we know; it was the great interminable telegraph cable that people were laying between Europe and America.
There was a confusion and commotion amongst all the rightful occupants of the sea where the cable was laid. The flying fishes shot up above the surface as high as they could fling themselves; the blow-fish took a leap an entire gunshot in length over the water, for it can do that; the other fish made for the bottom of the sea, and went down with such haste that they reached it long before the telegraph was seen or known about down there; they poured in on the cod and flounders that lived peaceably at the bottom of the sea and ate their neighbors. One or two of the sea-anemones were so agitated that they threw up their stomachs, but they lived after it just the same, for they can do that. A good many lobsters and crabs got out of their excellent shells, and were obliged to wait for their bones to grow back again.
In all this fright and confusion, the eighteen hundred brethren and sisters became separated, and never agan met, or ever knew each other after that; only some ten of them remain ed still in the same place, and so in a few hours they got over the first fright and began to be curious about the affair. They looked about them, they looked up and they looked down, and down in the depths they fancied they saw the fearful thing that had scared them—yes, had scared all, great and small, lying on the bottom of the sea, as far as their eyes could reach; it was quite thin, but they did not know how thick it might be able to make itself, or how strong it was; it lay very quiet, but then that might be a part of its cunning, they thought.
“Let it lie; it does not come near us!” said the most cautious of the little fishes; but the smallest one of all would not give up trying to find out what the thing could be. It had come down from above, so it was up above that one could best find out about it. So they swam up to the surface. It was perfectly still. They met a dolphin there. The dolphin is a sprightly fellow that can turn somersaults on the water, and it has eyes to see with, so iht must have seen this and known all about it. They asked him, but he had only been thinking about himself and his somersaults, he’d seen nothing, had no answer for them, and only looked high and mighty.
Then they turned to the seal, which was just plunging in; it was more civil, for all that it eats small fish; but to-day it had had enough. It knew little more than the dolphin.
“Many a night have I lain upon a wet stone and looked far into the country, miles away from here; there are crafty creatures called in their speech men-folk. They plot against us, but usually we slip away from them; that I know well, and the sea-eel too, that you are asking about, he knows it. He has been under their sway, up there on the earth, time out of mind, and it was from there that they were carrying him off on a ship to a distant land. I saw what a trouble they had, Shut they could manage him, because he had become weak on the earth. They laid him in coils and circles. I heard how he ringled and rangled when they laid him down and when he slipped away from them out here. They held on to him with all their might—ever so many hands had hold of him, but he kept slipping away from them down to the bottom; there he is lying now—till further notice, I rather think.”
“He is quite thin,” said the small fishes.
“They have starved him,” said the seal, “but he will soon come to himself, and get his old size and corpulence again. I suppose he is the great sea-serpent that men are so afraid of and talk so much about. I never saw him before, and never believed in a sea-serpent; now I do. I believe he is the sea-serpent,” and with that down went the seal.
“How much he knew! how he talked!” said the small fishes; “I never was so wise before; if it only isn’t all an untruth.”
“We can, anyway, swim down and see for ourselves,” said the littlest fish; “on the way we can hear what the others think about it.”
“I wouldn’t make a stroke with my fins to get at something to know,” said the others, and turned away.
“But I would !“ said the littlest fellow, and put off down into deep water; but it was a good distance from the place where “the long thing that sank” lay. The little fish looked and hunted on all sides down in tne deep water. Never before had it imagined the world to be so big. The herrings went in great shoals, shining like a mighty ribbon of silver; the mackerel followed after, and looked even finer. There were fishes there of all fashions and marked with every possible color: jelly-fish, like half-transparent flowers, borne along by the currents. Great plants grew up from the floor of the ocean; grass, fathoms long, and palm-like trees, every leaf tenanted by shining shell-fish.
At last the little fish spied a long dark streak away down, and made his way toward it, but it was neither fish nor cable: it was the gunwale of a sunken vessel, which above and below the deck was broken in two by the force of the sea. The little fish swam into the cabin, where the people who perished when the vessel sank were all washed away, except two: a young woman lay there stretched out, with her little child in her arms. They seemed to be sleeping. The little fish was quite frightened, for it did not know that they never again could waken. Sea-weed hung like a net-work of foliage over the gun- wale above the two beautiful bodies of mother and babe. it was so quiet, so solitary: the little fish scampered away as fast as it could, out where the water was bright and clear, and there were fishes to see. It had not gone far before it met a whale, fearfully big.
“Don’t swallow me!” cried the little fish; “I am not even to be tasted, I am so small. and it is a great comfort to me to live.”
“What are you doing away down here, where your kind never come?” asked the whale.
So then the little fish told about the astonishingly long eel, or whatever the thing was, that had sunk down from above and produced such a panic amongst all the other creatures in the sea.
“Ho, ho!” said the whale, and he drew in such a rush of water that he was ready to make a prodigious spout when he came to the surface for a breath. “Ho, ho! so that was the thing that tickled me on the back when I was turning round. I thought it was a ship’s mast, that I could break up into clothes-pins. But it was not here that it was; no, a good deal farther out lies the thing. I’ll go with you and look for it, for I have nothing else to do;” and so it swam off, and the little fish behind it, not too near, because there was a tearing stream, as it were, in the wake of the whale.
They met a shark and an old saw-fish; they, too, had heard of the famous sea-eel, so long and so thin; they had not seen it, but now they would.
“I’ll go with you,” said the shark, who was on the same road; “if the great sea-serpent is no thicker than a cable, then I can bite through it in one bite,” and he opened his mouth and showed his six rows of teeth—” I can bite dents in a ship’s anchor, and certainly can bite off the shank.”
“There it is!” said the great whale ; “I see him.” He thought he saw better than the others. “See how it rises, how it bends and bows and curves!”
But it was not the sea-serpent, but an extraordinarily great eel, ever so many ells long, that drew near.
“Why, I have seen him before!” said the saw-fish. “He never has made a hullabaloo in the sea or frightened any big fish out of his wits.” And so they talked to him of the new eel, and asked him if he would go with them on their voyage of discovery.
“If that eel is longer than I am,” said the sea-eel, “there will be something disagreeable happening.”
“Ay, that there will,” said the others; “there are enough of us not to tolerate him!” and so they shot ahead. But then there came right in their way a great monster, bigger than all of them put together; it looked like a floating island, that could not stop itself. It was a venerable whale. Its head was grown over with sea-weed, its back covered with barnacles, and such innumerable oysters and mussels, that its black skin was altogether whitened.
“Come with us, old fellow!” said they. “Here is a new fish come, and we won’t stand it.”
“I would rather lie where I am lying,” said the whale. “Leave me alone; leave me alone. O ah, 0 ah! I suffer from a dreadful disease! My only relief is to get up toward the surface and get my back up higher; then the great sea-fowl can come and pick at me. That feels so good! only when they do not drive their beaks in too far; sometimes they go in too deep, quite into my blubber. You can see now how a complete skeleton of a fowl is fixed in my back; she struck her claws in too deep, and could not get them out when I went down to the bottom. And now the little fishes have picked at her. See how she looks, and how I look. I am all diseased!”
“That is all imagination!” said the shark. “I am never sick. No fish is ever sick.”
“Pardon me,” said the whale. “The eel suffers from headache, the carp has the smallpox, and we all have intestinal worms.”
“Nonsense!” said the shark, and refused to hear any further, and the others also would rather not; they had something else to attend to.
At last they came to the place where the telegraph cable lay. It has a pretty long bed on the floor of the sea from Europe to America, over sand-banks and sea-mud, rocky ground and weedy places, entire forests of coral. The currents down there, too, change, whirlpools eddy, and fishes swarm in greater masses than the countless flocks of birds that men see when birds of passage take their flight. There is a stir, a splashing there, a humming and rushing; the rushing still haunts a little the great empty conch-shells when we hold them to our ears.
“There lies the fellow!” cried all the great fishes and the little one with them. They saw the cable, the beginning and end of which vanished beyond the reach of their eyes. Sponges and polyps swayed from the ground, rose and fell over it, so that now it was hidden, now came to view. Sea-porcupines, snails, and worms moved over it. Gigantic crabs, that had a complete fringe of creeping things, stalked about it. Dark sea-anemones, or whatever the creature is called that eats with its entire body, lay beside it and smelled of the new creature that had stretched itself on the bottom of the sea. Flounders and codfish turned over in the water so as to get an idea about it from all sides. The star-fish, that always bores down into the mud and can keep its eyes outside, lay and stared to see what was to come of all this bustle.
The telegraph cable lay without stirring, but life and thought were in it. Human thought went through it. “The thing is crafty,” said the whale; “it is able to strike me in the stomach, and that is my weak point.”
“Let us grope along,” said the polyps. “I have long arms and limber fingers; I have been moving by the side of it; now I’ll go a little faster,” and so it stretched its most flexible, longest arms down to the cable and round about it. “It has no scales!” said the polyps; “it has no skin at all. I do believe it never feeds its own young.”
The sea-eel laid itself by the side of the telegraph cable and stretched out as far as it could. “The thing is longer than I am,” it said; “but it is not length that does anything; one must have skin, stomach, and flexibility.”
The whale dove down deeper than it ever had been. “Art thou fish or art thou plant?” it asked, “or art thou only some piece of work made up above that cannot thrive down here amongst us?”
The telegraph cable did not answer; it has no power for that. Yet thoughts go through it, men’s thoughts, that rush in one second miles upon miles from land to land.
“Will you answer, or will you take a crack?” asked the fierce shark, and all the other great fishes asked the same thing.
The cable did not stir, but it had its private thought, and such a one it had a right to have when it was full of thoughts. “Let them only give me a crack! then I shall be hauled up and be myself again; that has happened to others of my race in shallower waters.” So it gave no answer; it had something else to attend to; it telegraphed and lay in its lawful place at the bottom of the ocean.
Up above, the sun now went down, as men say. It became like flaming fire, and all the clouds glowed with fiery color, each more splendid than the other. “Now we shall get the red light,” said the polyps, “and can see the thing better, if need be.”
“At it! at it!” shouted the shark. “At it! at it!” said the sword-fish and the whale and the eel. They rushed forward, the shark foremost. But just as it was about to grip the wire, the sword-fish, out of pure politeness, ran his saw right into the back of the shark. It was a great mistake, and the shark lost all his strength for biting. There was a hubbub down in the mud. Great fishes and small, sea-anemones and snails rushed at one another, ate each other, mashed and squeezed in. The cable lay quietly and attended to its affairs, and that one ought to do.
The dark night brooded over them, but the ocean s millions upon millions of living creatures lighted it; craw-fish, not so big as a pin-head, gave out light. Some were so small that it took a thousand to make one pin-head, and yet they gave light. It certainly is wonderful, but that’s the way it is.
These sea creatures looked at the telegraph wire. “What is that thing?” they asked, “and what isn’t it?” Ay, that was the question.
Then there came an old sea-cow. Folks on the earth call its kind a mermaid, or else a merman. This was a she, had a tail and two short arms to splash with, hanging breasts, and sea-weed and sponges on her head, and that was what she was proud of.
“Will you have the society of intelligent people?” said she. “I’m the only one down here that can give it. But I ask in return for it perfectly secure pasturage on the bottom of the sea for me and mine. I am a fish, as you see, and I am also an amphibious animal—with practice. I am the wisest cow in the sea. I know about everything that goes on down here, and all that goes on above. That thing you are pondering over is from above, and whatever plumps down from up there is either dead or comes to be dead and powerless; let it lie there for what it is; it’s only some invention of man.”
“Now I think there is something more to it,” said the little fish.
“Hold your tongue, mackerel !” said the great sea-cow.
“Stickleback!” said the rest, and that was even more insulting.
And the sea-cow explained to them that this terrible thing, which, to be sure, had not given out a single mutter, was only some invention from the dry land. And it delivered a little oration upon the rottenness of men.
“They want to get hold of us.” said she. “That’s all they live for. They stretch nets for us, and come with bait on a hook to catch us. That thing there is some kind of big string which they think we are going to bite at. They are such stupids! We are not. Only do not touch it, and it will shrivel up and all turn to dust and mud. Everything that comes down from up there is full of cracks and breaks—it’s good for nothing.”
“Good for nothing!” said all the creatures in the sea, and held fast to the sea-cow’s opinion, so as to have an opinion. The little fish had its own thoughts. “That exceedingly long, thin serpent is perhaps the most wonderful fish in the ocean. I have a feeling it is.”
“The very most wonderful,” say we human folks, and say it with knowledge and assurance. It is the great sea-serpent, long ago the theme of song and story. It was born and nourished and sprang forth from men’s cunning and was laid upon the bottom of the sea, stretching from the Eastern to the Western land, bearing messages, quick as light flashes to our earth. It grows in might and in length, grows year by year through all seas, round the world, beneath the stormy waves and the lucid waters, where the skipper looks down as if he sailed through the transparent air, and sees the swarming fish, brilliant fireworks of color. Down, far down, stretches the serpent, Midgard’s snake, that bites its own tail as it encircles the earth. Fish and shell beat upon it with their heads—they understand not the thing—it is from above. Men’s thoughts in all languages course through it noiselessly. “The serpent of science for good and evil, Midgard’s snake, the most wonderful of all the ocean’s wonders, our—GREAT SEA-SERPENT!”
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