equinoctial gales - 11/26/03 04:24 PM
Dickens mentions "equinoctial gales" which reminds me of September hurricanes in New England.
I first encountered the word "equinox" in Kipling's Elephant's Child:
"One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes this 'satiable Elephant's Child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before. He asked, 'What does the Crocodile have for dinner?' Then everybody said, 'Hush!' in a loud and dretful tone, and they spanked him immediately and directly, without stopping, for a long time. "
"That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the Equinoxes, because the Precession had preceded according to precedent, this 'satiable Elephant's Child took a hundred pounds of bananas (the little short red kind), and a hundred pounds of sugar-cane (the long purple kind), and seventeen melons (the greeny-crackly kind), and said to all his dear families, 'Goodbye. I am going to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the Crocodile has for dinner.' And they all spanked him once more for luck, though he asked them most politely to stop."
When I read this in bed, with the covers over my head to hide my light, the mysterious words added to the appeal of
the story. It was a long time before I learned what "equinox" meant, and longer still before I read an explantion of the "precession of the equinoxes" and learned it was not some kind of a parade.
I first encountered the word "equinox" in Kipling's Elephant's Child:
"One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes this 'satiable Elephant's Child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before. He asked, 'What does the Crocodile have for dinner?' Then everybody said, 'Hush!' in a loud and dretful tone, and they spanked him immediately and directly, without stopping, for a long time. "
"That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the Equinoxes, because the Precession had preceded according to precedent, this 'satiable Elephant's Child took a hundred pounds of bananas (the little short red kind), and a hundred pounds of sugar-cane (the long purple kind), and seventeen melons (the greeny-crackly kind), and said to all his dear families, 'Goodbye. I am going to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the Crocodile has for dinner.' And they all spanked him once more for luck, though he asked them most politely to stop."
When I read this in bed, with the covers over my head to hide my light, the mysterious words added to the appeal of
the story. It was a long time before I learned what "equinox" meant, and longer still before I read an explantion of the "precession of the equinoxes" and learned it was not some kind of a parade.