Chapter XI. IN WHICH PHILEAS FOGG SECURES A CURIOUS MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AT A FABULOUS PRICE

The train had started punctually. Among the passengers were a number of officers, Government officials, and opium and indigo merchants, whose business called them to the eastern coast. Passepartout rode in the same carriage with his master, and a third passenger occupied a seat opposite to them. This was Sir Francis Cromarty, one of Mr. Fogg's whist partners on the Mongolia, now on his way to join his corps at Benares. Sir Francis was a tall, fair man of fifty, who had greatly distinguished himself in the last Sepoy revolt. He made India his home, only paying brief visits to England at rare intervals; and was almost as familiar as a native with the customs, history, and character of India and its people. But Phileas Fogg, who was not travelling, but only describing a circumference, took no pains to inquire into these subjects; he was a solid body, traversing an orbit around the terrestrial globe, according to the laws of rational mechanics. He was at this moment calculating in his mind the number of hours spent since his departure from London, and, had it been in his nature to make a useless demonstration, would have rubbed his hands for satisfaction. Sir Francis Cromarty had observed the oddity of his travelling companion—although the only opportunity he had for studying him had been while he was dealing the cards, and between two rubbers—and questioned himself whether a human heart really beat beneath this cold exterior, and whether Phileas Fogg had any sense of the beauties of nature. The brigadier-general was free to mentally confess that, of all the eccentric persons he had ever met, none was comparable to this product of the exact sciences.

Phileas Fogg had not concealed from Sir Francis his design of going round the world, nor the circumstances under which he set out; and the general only saw in the wager a useless eccentricity and a lack of sound common sense. In the way this strange gentleman was going on, he would leave the world without having done any good to himself or anybody else.

An hour after leaving Bombay the train had passed the viaducts and the Island of Salcette, and had got into the open country. At Callyan they reached the junction of the branch line which descends towards south-eastern India by Kandallah and Pounah; and, passing Pauwell, they entered the defiles of the mountains, with their basalt bases, and their summits crowned with thick and verdant forests. Phileas Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty exchanged a few words from time to time, and now Sir Francis, reviving the conversation, observed, "Some years ago, Mr. Fogg, you would have met with a delay at this point which would probably have lost you your wager."

"How so, Sir Francis?"

"Because the railway stopped at the base of these mountains, which the passengers were obliged to cross in palanquins or on ponies to Kandallah, on the other side."

"Such a delay would not have deranged my plans in the least," said Mr. Fogg. "I have constantly foreseen the likelihood of certain obstacles."

"But, Mr. Fogg," pursued Sir Francis, "you run the risk of having some difficulty about this worthy fellow's adventure at the pagoda." Passepartout, his feet comfortably wrapped in his travelling-blanket, was sound asleep and did not dream that anybody was talking about him. "The Government is very severe upon that kind of offence. It takes particular care that the religious customs of the Indians should be respected, and if your servant were caught—"

"Very well, Sir Francis," replied Mr. Fogg; "if he had been caught he would have been condemned and punished, and then would have quietly returned to Europe. I don't see how this affair could have delayed his master."

The conversation fell again. During the night the train left the mountains behind, and passed Nassik, and the next day proceeded over the flat, well-cultivated country of the Khandeish, with its straggling villages, above which rose the minarets of the pagodas. This fertile territory is watered by numerous small rivers and limpid streams, mostly tributaries of the Godavery.

Passepartout, on waking and looking out, could not realise that he was actually crossing India in a railway train. The locomotive, guided by an English engineer and fed with English coal, threw out its smoke upon cotton, coffee, nutmeg, clove, and pepper plantations, while the steam curled in spirals around groups of palm-trees, in the midst of which were seen picturesque bungalows, viharis (sort of abandoned monasteries), and marvellous temples enriched by the exhaustless ornamentation of Indian architecture. Then they came upon vast tracts extending to the horizon, with jungles inhabited by snakes and tigers, which fled at the noise of the train; succeeded by forests penetrated by the railway, and still haunted by elephants which, with pensive eyes, gazed at the train as it passed. The travellers crossed, beyond Milligaum, the fatal country so often stained with blood by the sectaries of the goddess Kali. Not far off rose Ellora, with its graceful pagodas, and the famous Aurungabad, capital of the ferocious Aureng-Zeb, now the chief town of one of the detached provinces of the kingdom of the Nizam. It was thereabouts that Feringhea, the Thuggee chief, king of the stranglers, held his sway. These ruffians, united by a secret bond, strangled victims of every age in honour of the goddess Death, without ever shedding blood; there was a period when this part of the country could scarcely be travelled over without corpses being found in every direction. The English Government has succeeded in greatly diminishing these murders, though the Thuggees still exist, and pursue the exercise of their horrible rites.

At half-past twelve the train stopped at Burhampoor where Passepartout was able to purchase some Indian slippers, ornamented with false pearls, in which, with evident vanity, he proceeded to encase his feet. The travellers made a hasty breakfast and started off for Assurghur, after skirting for a little the banks of the small river Tapty, which empties into the Gulf of Cambray, near Surat.

Passepartout was now plunged into absorbing reverie. Up to his arrival at Bombay, he had entertained hopes that their journey would end there; but, now that they were plainly whirling across India at full speed, a sudden change had come over the spirit of his dreams. His old vagabond nature returned to him; the fantastic ideas of his youth once more took possession of him. He came to regard his master's project as intended in good earnest, believed in the reality of the bet, and therefore in the tour of the world and the necessity of making it without fail within the designated period. Already he began to worry about possible delays, and accidents which might happen on the way. He recognised himself as being personally interested in the wager, and trembled at the thought that he might have been the means of losing it by his unpardonable folly of the night before. Being much less cool-headed than Mr. Fogg, he was much more restless, counting and recounting the days passed over, uttering maledictions when the train stopped, and accusing it of sluggishness, and mentally blaming Mr. Fogg for not having bribed the engineer. The worthy fellow was ignorant that, while it was possible by such means to hasten the rate of a steamer, it could not be done on the railway.

The train entered the defiles of the Sutpour Mountains, which separate the Khandeish from Bundelcund, towards evening. The next day Sir Francis Cromarty asked Passepartout what time it was; to which, on consulting his watch, he replied that it was three in the morning. This famous timepiece, always regulated on the Greenwich meridian, which was now some seventy-seven degrees westward, was at least four hours slow. Sir Francis corrected Passepartout's time, whereupon the latter made the same remark that he had done to Fix; and upon the general insisting that the watch should be regulated in each new meridian, since he was constantly going eastward, that is in the face of the sun, and therefore the days were shorter by four minutes for each degree gone over, Passepartout obstinately refused to alter his watch, which he kept at London time. It was an innocent delusion which could harm no one.

The train stopped, at eight o'clock, in the midst of a glade some fifteen miles beyond Rothal, where there were several bungalows, and workmen's cabins. The conductor, passing along the carriages, shouted, "Passengers will get out here!"

Phileas Fogg looked at Sir Francis Cromarty for an explanation; but the general could not tell what meant a halt in the midst of this forest of dates and acacias.

Passepartout, not less surprised, rushed out and speedily returned, crying: "Monsieur, no more railway!"

"What do you mean?" asked Sir Francis.

"I mean to say that the train isn't going on."

The general at once stepped out, while Phileas Fogg calmly followed him, and they proceeded together to the conductor.

"Where are we?" asked Sir Francis.

"At the hamlet of Kholby."

"Do we stop here?"

"Certainly. The railway isn't finished."

"What! not finished?"

"No. There's still a matter of fifty miles to be laid from here to Allahabad, where the line begins again."

"But the papers announced the opening of the railway throughout."

"What would you have, officer? The papers were mistaken."

"Yet you sell tickets from Bombay to Calcutta," retorted Sir Francis, who was growing warm.

"No doubt," replied the conductor; "but the passengers know that they must provide means of transportation for themselves from Kholby to Allahabad."

Sir Francis was furious. Passepartout would willingly have knocked the conductor down, and did not dare to look at his master.

"Sir Francis," said Mr. Fogg quietly, "we will, if you please, look about for some means of conveyance to Allahabad."

"Mr. Fogg, this is a delay greatly to your disadvantage."

"No, Sir Francis; it was foreseen."

"What! You knew that the way—"

"Not at all; but I knew that some obstacle or other would sooner or later arise on my route. Nothing, therefore, is lost. I have two days, which I have already gained, to sacrifice. A steamer leaves Calcutta for Hong Kong at noon, on the 25th. This is the 22nd, and we shall reach Calcutta in time."

There was nothing to say to so confident a response.

It was but too true that the railway came to a termination at this point. The papers were like some watches, which have a way of getting too fast, and had been premature in their announcement of the completion of the line. The greater part of the travellers were aware of this interruption, and, leaving the train, they began to engage such vehicles as the village could provide four-wheeled palkigharis, waggons drawn by zebus, carriages that looked like perambulating pagodas, palanquins, ponies, and what not.

Mr. Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty, after searching the village from end to end, came back without having found anything.

"I shall go afoot," said Phileas Fogg.

Passepartout, who had now rejoined his master, made a wry grimace, as he thought of his magnificent, but too frail Indian shoes. Happily he too had been looking about him, and, after a moment's hesitation, said, "Monsieur, I think I have found a means of conveyance."

"What?"

"An elephant! An elephant that belongs to an Indian who lives but a hundred steps from here."

"Let's go and see the elephant," replied Mr. Fogg.

They soon reached a small hut, near which, enclosed within some high palings, was the animal in question. An Indian came out of the hut, and, at their request, conducted them within the enclosure. The elephant, which its owner had reared, not for a beast of burden, but for warlike purposes, was half domesticated. The Indian had begun already, by often irritating him, and feeding him every three months on sugar and butter, to impart to him a ferocity not in his nature, this method being often employed by those who train the Indian elephants for battle. Happily, however, for Mr. Fogg, the animal's instruction in this direction had not gone far, and the elephant still preserved his natural gentleness. Kiouni—this was the name of the beast—could doubtless travel rapidly for a long time, and, in default of any other means of conveyance, Mr. Fogg resolved to hire him. But elephants are far from cheap in India, where they are becoming scarce, the males, which alone are suitable for circus shows, are much sought, especially as but few of them are domesticated. When therefore Mr. Fogg proposed to the Indian to hire Kiouni, he refused point-blank. Mr. Fogg persisted, offering the excessive sum of ten pounds an hour for the loan of the beast to Allahabad. Refused. Twenty pounds? Refused also. Forty pounds? Still refused. Passepartout jumped at each advance; but the Indian declined to be tempted. Yet the offer was an alluring one, for, supposing it took the elephant fifteen hours to reach Allahabad, his owner would receive no less than six hundred pounds sterling.

Phileas Fogg, without getting in the least flurried, then proposed to purchase the animal outright, and at first offered a thousand pounds for him. The Indian, perhaps thinking he was going to make a great bargain, still refused.

Sir Francis Cromarty took Mr. Fogg aside, and begged him to reflect before he went any further; to which that gentleman replied that he was not in the habit of acting rashly, that a bet of twenty thousand pounds was at stake, that the elephant was absolutely necessary to him, and that he would secure him if he had to pay twenty times his value. Returning to the Indian, whose small, sharp eyes, glistening with avarice, betrayed that with him it was only a question of how great a price he could obtain. Mr. Fogg offered first twelve hundred, then fifteen hundred, eighteen hundred, two thousand pounds. Passepartout, usually so rubicund, was fairly white with suspense.

At two thousand pounds the Indian yielded.

"What a price, good heavens!" cried Passepartout, "for an elephant."

It only remained now to find a guide, which was comparatively easy. A young Parsee, with an intelligent face, offered his services, which Mr. Fogg accepted, promising so generous a reward as to materially stimulate his zeal. The elephant was led out and equipped. The Parsee, who was an accomplished elephant driver, covered his back with a sort of saddle-cloth, and attached to each of his flanks some curiously uncomfortable howdahs. Phileas Fogg paid the Indian with some banknotes which he extracted from the famous carpet-bag, a proceeding that seemed to deprive poor Passepartout of his vitals. Then he offered to carry Sir Francis to Allahabad, which the brigadier gratefully accepted, as one traveller the more would not be likely to fatigue the gigantic beast. Provisions were purchased at Kholby, and, while Sir Francis and Mr. Fogg took the howdahs on either side, Passepartout got astride the saddle-cloth between them. The Parsee perched himself on the elephant's neck, and at nine o'clock they set out from the village, the animal marching off through the dense forest of palms by the shortest cut.

Chapter XII. IN WHICH PHILEAS FOGG AND HIS COMPANIONS VENTURE ACROSS THE INDIAN FORESTS, AND WHAT ENSUED
Chapter X. IN WHICH PASSEPARTOUT IS ONLY TOO GLAD TO GET OFF WITH THE LOSS OF HIS SHOES

Footnotes

  1. Fogg is happily two days ahead of his projected timetable because of earlier than excepted arrival times.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  2. A deterrent to his route and timetable; a change in plans or circumstances that would require additional time and cost to surmount.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  3. Moving rapidly round and round.

    A metaphor making a visual play on the imagery of train wheels literally spinning round and round.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  4. Fogg isn't a holidaymaker nor a sight seer. He is only following a prescribed route around the circumference of the world so he takes as little interest in his companion as in his surroundings.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  5. noun: segments or divisions of time

    Sir Francis's trips back to England occurred very seldom and only after widely spaced segments of time had passed.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  6. Rebellion staged by the native Indians in military service in Britain's armed forces.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  7. The shortest route; the shortest way through or across something.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  8. Elephants are driven by the driver who sits in the crook (the bend) of the elephant's neck with legs astride each side of its neck.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  9. Passepartout rode atop the elephant seated, with legs on either side, on the rug, or saddle-cloth (perhaps a fabric rug, perhaps a thatch-woven rug) draped over the elephant's back.

    astride, preposition (prepositions come before a noun, pronoun, or gerund): meaning (1) with one leg on each side of something; (2) on both sides of some physical feature (e.g., river, path, stone)

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  10. Side-slung sedan chair palanquins, howdahs, as opposed to a top-strapped palanquin, howdah.

    Sir Francis and Fogg were riding on either side of the elephant rather than both riding on top of the elephant.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  11. One who drives or rides elephants; one who gets elephants to go where they are wanted to go.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  12. The last village on the completed Great Indian Peninsula Railway line going northward, then eastward, from Bombay.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  13. noun: all supplies for the journey such as food, equipment, drinks, bedding, clothing, etc.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  14. noun phrase (adjective + noun): mild euphemism to substitute for "elephant"

    euphemism, noun

    1. another word or phrase to say something too harsh or too offensive to say outright
      2. a word or phrase to substitute for the word or phrase previously used(Cambridge Dictionary)

    gigantic, adjective
    huge; enormous; of greatly large size

    beast, noun
    animal; large, possibly dangerous, four-footed animal

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  15. verb (infinitive form): cause to feel exhausted or excessively tired; to strain physically to exhaustion

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  16. seemed to deprive (intransitive verb + "to" infinitive): appeared to take away from

    his vitals (noun phrase): one's vital organs, especially heart etc.

    Implied analogy: implied as if/as though.

    Paraphrase: appeared to take away from Passepartout his heart as if/as though it were in the carpet-bag instead of money.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  17. noun: a course or manner of action; something in particular the is done or acted on

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  18. Paraphrase: took out from inside the carpet-bag that Passepartout carried and that he told Detective about (this is why the carpet-bag is now "famous": its contents have been discussed and have been the subject of some surprise and interest).

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  19. British pound notes that are issued by the Bank of England and used as currency.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  20. Dress the elephant for a pack carrier, load hauler, or for carrying a rider.

    Back rug: reduces friction of pack or sedan chair (palanquin).

    Saddle mat (plant fibres): over the rug; also reduces friction and distributes pressure.

    Palanquin (howdah): covered sedan chair affixed atop the elephant's back; covering protects from rains, heat and branches.

    Auricle: allows for a leash for leading the elephant from the front.

    Abdominal strap: around the underside; steadies the pack or palanquin (also called howdah).

    Harness: tied across the elephant breast; allows for dragging loads.

    Bell: bells help to find elephants, as they are quiet creatures, who were free to graze over night.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  21. Paraphrase: significantly increase his enthusiasm for being the guide

    materially, adverb
    considerably; significantly; substantially

    stimulate, verb
    increase; raise the level of; encourage the existence of

    zeal, noun
    great enthusiasm, great enthusiasm in a cause or in pursuit of a goal

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  22. Fogg promised to make the young Parsee a high payment in return for his services as guide.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  23. A Persian who is an adherent of the religion of Zoroastrianism.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  24. Easy to do in comparison to something else that was difficult to do, specifically, getting the elephant by one means or another and at a high price.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  25. noun: a person familiar with territory that is treacherous, difficult or dangerous to travel

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  26. verb (past tense): to give way to arguments; to surrender; to give up and give in

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  27. noun: a state of heightened anxiety and  agitation over an uncertain outcome

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  28. adjective: having a healthy red coloring; healthy rosy complexion

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  29. verb (past participle for): to unintentionally reveal; to unknowingly give evidence of

    Unbeknownst to himself, the Indian's eyes showed his extreme craving for money.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  30. Paraphrase: shinning with greed.

    glisten, verb (present participle form)
    shine moistly; glitter moistly

    avarice, noun
    extreme greed; extreme selfish desire

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  31. noun: actual worth of a thing; actual monetary equivalent of something

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  32. verb: in the sense of to obtain; to capture; to keep safely

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  33. adjective: hastiness; boldness; acting quickly without proper consideration

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  34. To move to a spot a little distanced from the original spot to speak privately.

    Often done by taking the person's arm and gesturing they move a little distance from there location, hence "took" aside (took the arm of someone and stepped aside with them).

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  35. To buy something directly for the full price rather than negotiate a deal.

    Fogg offers to pay the full price of the elephant and take ownership of it since the owner will not rent it to him for traveling.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  36. adjective: agitated; nervous; anxious; fretful that what is aimed at will not come to be

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  37. adjective: powerfully attractive; interesting and appealing in a mysterious way (an out of the normal way)

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  38. The owner of the elephant refused every offer and was not even tempted to consider any offer: He wants to keep his elephant.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  39. "Jumped at" is a variation of the idiom "jump out of." To jump out of something (especially one's skin) is to react excessively, to be frightened.

    Passepartout is reacting excessively at each sum of money that Fogg offers for the rental of the elephant.

    This** indicates** Passepartout is not accustomed to large sums of money being negotiated with such lack of concern for the value of them money or of the object in sight.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  40. Large amount of money, an amount well beyond what is reasonable.

    excessive, adjective
    more than is necessary of desirable; immoderately large

    sum, noun
    a particular amount of money

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  41. verb: continue firmly in a course of action; continue steadfastly in an opinion

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  42. verb phrase (verb + adverb): to decline to do something abruptly and without explanation of or reason for it

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  43. Elephants were hunted for ivory but were also captured for circuses and zoos.

    Deforestation and overpopulation of formerly sparsely settled lands was driving the elephant into declining populations.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  44. verb (past participle form): decide; firmly choose a course of action

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  45. Train them to be warlike.

    It is hard to tell yet whether Fogg and Jules Verne condone or reject training elephants for unnatural warlike behavior. Perhaps we'll see clues as the elephant adventure progresses.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  46. To give the elephant qualities that it does not naturally have: elephants are naturally gentle, peaceful, joyful and devoted to affection.

    Elephants are among the most "exuberantly expressive of creatures [with] joy, anger, grief, compassion, love ... elephants are capable of complex thought and deep feeling." ("Unforgettable Elephants," PBS Nature)

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  47. To make him warlike to be used in attacks and defensive actions.

    ferocity, noun
    the state of being savagely fierce; violent; cruel

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  48. Part of elephant taming (sometimes called elephant crushing) included depriving the elephant of adequate food and water while "irritating" it with beatings with bamboo poles. This both angered the elephant and made it dependent on the tamer who would focus its anger on war aggressions.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  49. noun phrase (adverb + adjective + pronoun): frequently teasing, punishing, poking, annoying and angering

    The Indian owning the elephant, who was "domesticating" (i.e., training) it for defensive and offensive attacks, often used annoyance and unpleasant irritations to annoy and anger the elephant to drive it to a warlike mentality.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  50. adjective phrase (complement of Subject): meaning partially tamed and partially wild; tamed to a certain level; different from full domestication of animals born into existing domestication

    Verne uses "domesticated" here in the sense of "creating a dependency" on a human so the elephant cannot survive without that contact.

    This is a different sense from the familiar "domesticated cow," meaning the animal breed is tamed across time to provide work for humans, or the equally familiar "domesticated cat and dog," meaning the animal breeds are tamed across time to provide companionship and love to humans.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  51. noun phrase (adjective + noun): reasons of use related to war, hostility, defensive aggression

    The elephant was being trained to be used in offensive or defensive actions to protect or invade villages.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  52. noun phrase (prepositional post-modifier): an animal used for carrying heavy loads: a pack donkey, mule, yak, llama, camel, water buffalo, elephant etc

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  53. verb, (past participle form): predicted; thought of beforehand; planned for earlier

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  54. noun: an enclosed area; specifically, the area closed off by the palings; the area within the palings

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  55. noun (plural): sharply pointed tall wooden stakes that, when bound side-by-side, make a tall surrounding fence

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  56. The Indian slipper with the fake pearls he purchased to replace his lost shoes.

    Thus the cause of Passepartout's wry grimace is not his dread of physical exercise but his dread of ruining his beautiful slippers that stir his vanity.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  57. noun phrase: an unpleasant facial expression conveying disgust, pain, or disappointment

    wry, adjective
    annoyed, disappointed, or disgusted facial expression

    grimace, noun
    twisted facial expression typical of disgust or pain

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  58. adverb (postpositive position following verb): on or by foot; walking

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  59. noun: a chair in a chamber, called a sedan, that is elevated and carried on two long poles born by four human bearers

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  60. noun: a many tiered tower, either rounded or with distinct corners, that is a temple of prayer and worship in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  61. verb (formal) (present participle form): to walk around a place in a casual way

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  62. noun (palki hari) (plural): similar in construction to a palanquin that was carried by human bearers holding two long poles under a "sedan" chair in a chamber, the difference between the palkigharis and palanquins being that the palkigharis had four wheels and no human bearers

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  63. adjective (following a linking verb): done before the due time; occurring before the expected or acceptable time

    The newspapers had announced the completion of the railway before the due and acceptable time.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  64. noun: a crew member of a railway who is responsible for managing smoothly the operational and safety duties on the train (not the same as the engineer who drives the train)

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  65. A forest comprised of date palm trees, from which come the sweet fruit of the date, and acacia trees, a thorny short tree bearing white or yellow blossoms.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  66. noun: a natural open space in a forest (a "clearing" is a man-made open space in a forest)

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  67. noun: a belief held firmly to despite contradicting fact or reality

    Passepartout held the belief that he could know the correct time by keeping his watch set to London (Greenwich) time despite the fact that the reality of the sun's location did not match the time on his timepiece.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  68. In order to keep correct sun-related local time, the watch needed to be advanced to match the earlier rising of the sun at the crossing of each longitudinal meridian line.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  69. Passepartout's watch was set to Greenwich Mean Time, in correspondence to the Greenwich meridian, and was, as a result, behind the correct time by at least four hours (the sun had risen on them four hours earlier than it had on Greenwich and London).

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  70. Their journey had taken them 77 longitudinal degrees to the east of the Greenwich meridian, hence the meridian was "westward" as they had traveled eastward away from it.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  71. The longitudinal meridian line defined as zero degrees separating East from West and the home of the Royal Observatory that marks zero longitude meridian time from which all other time zones are derived.

    The observatory is in Greenwich, England, and is associated with both the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time, now officially called Universal Time since it is the referential time from which all other time zones are calculated.

    It was navigation of the 17th through early 19th centuries that set the Greenwich meridian as the universal navigational reference point, the zero degree East-West divide and the universal time meridian.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  72. Referring to Fogg's having paid the Captain of the Magnolia to go at all possible speed.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  73. noun: words or phrases uttered in the spirit of a magical curse (though not literally); intended to visit trouble upon someone or something for not doing what is desired

    Passepartout is blaming the train for all its stops and whispering imaginary curses upon it if it doesn't get them to the destination on time. Is this foreshadowing of upcoming trouble caused by Passepartout?

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  74. compound adjective: calm; not easily worried; not excitable

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  75. verb (past participle form): to signify, specify, designate, assign

    Refers to the appointed, specified time at which Fogg must return to London.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  76. verb phrase (past participle form with prepositional phrase post-modifier): planned and executed with sincerity and serious effort

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  77. A reference to Passepartout's introduction to Fogg during which he listed his former occupations, such as circus performer, tightrope walker and gymnastics instructor, along with an enumeration of the various places he had traveled to.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  78. noun: daydream; pleasant musings; aimless thoughts of a pleasant kind

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  79. A inlet that opens off the Arabian Sea and that is situated on the west coast of India. Now called Gulf of Khambhat. The recent site of archaeological findings of a submerged civilization dating from before 53000 BC.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  80. verb (present participle form): to move along the edge of something

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  81. Worshipers of the cult of thugs honoring Kali with human sacrifices, with the victim's unconsciousness induced by the drug Datura.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  82. The goddess Kali, also called Bowanee, and also the goddess of rebirth (necessitating death first), destruction and disorder. [See Aliens in the Backyard: Plant and Animal Imports Into America, "Psychedelic Gardens," by John Leland.] 

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  83. A fictional character first appearing in an 1839 novel by Philip Meadows Taylor, then borrowed by Verne. The character is drawn from a real life Thug who was called Ameer Lee by name of the ultra-secret cult of the goddess Kali and who was captured by William Sleeman.

    The ultra-secret Kali (or Bowanee) cult ritualistically drugged, strangled and buried travelers as sacrifices to Kali. Sleeman estimated the cult made forty thousand human sacrifices of travelers a year for three hundred years.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  84. The location of the Ellora Caves, the site of 34 monastery communities and temples of worship for Buddhism, Brahminism and Jainism (very different religious philosophies) carved into mountain rock (think of temples carved into mountains like in Indiana Jones movies).

    Ellora Caves are now UNESCO World Heritage sites and pictures can be seen at the UNESCO World Heritage website under a search for "Ellora Caves."

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  85. This is an allusion to the worship of Hindu gods and goddesses, such as the goddess Kali (Durga), that in former times required human sacrifice. It is debated as to whether or not human sacrifice was practiced in the 19th century (1800s) when Verne's story is set.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  86. verb phrase with prepositional phrase post-modifier: looked steadily and intently, with purposefulness, at the train

    Verne is suggesting the mental and emotional characteristics that are attributed to elephants by many people.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  87. adjective: denoting deep and serious thought and/or reflection within one's mind

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  88. figure of speech, phrasal verb (past participle + by): meaning to be persistently present in a place where the expectation is that there would be no further presence (elephants still lived in the forest even though trains had disturbed their habitat; they had not run away as other animals had)

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  89. phrasal verb (past participle + by): to force a way into and/or through (the train forced a way into the thick forest)

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  90. phrasal verb (past participle + by): to follow something (something else comes first, then comes this)

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  91. prepositional phrase (part of a present participle post-modifier of "tracts"): meaning as far as the eye can see

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  92. noun phrase (adjective + noun): large extents of land of any type of terrain, any type of ecosystem

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  93. noun phrase (adjective + noun): architectural decorations that were applied in profusion, without sparing, in proliferation (many many many architectural decorations)

    ornamentation, noun
    the state of being or having been decorated, embellished, adorned

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  94. noun: low house, usually with no upper storey or with upper rooms with dormer windows set into the roof (thus rooms with sloping walls)

    dormer window: projecting from a sloping roof, often with an inverted-V top-piece

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  95. noun: a large farming estate for coffee, tobacco, sugar, bananas, pineapples, etc

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  96. literary device, personification of the locomotive: to disperse and dispel in large amounts; to be discharged with great force

    personification: giving human attributes, like the ability to throw, to non-human objects, like a train engine

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  97. Imported into India at an enormous cost from English coal mines to fuel English steamships and locomotives.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  98. A river in south-central India that starts in and has tributaries in western India and that empties in the south-central area into the Bay of Bengal (below Calcutta). Now spelled Godavari.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  99. noun: rivers or streams feeding into a larger body of water

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  100. adjective: not clouded by anything that darkens or obscures light

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  101. adjective: (of soil) highly productive of good vegetation and crops

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  102. Prayer towers of temples, suggesting Muslim sacred pagoda temples.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  103. Villages that appear in a helter-skelter fashion, here and there with no regular pattern.

    straggling, adjective
    spreading out in irregular directions; unplanned; irregularly appearing locations

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  104. compound adjective: farmland that is tilled and ploughed and planted thoroughly and with great success tending toward producing a good harvest

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  105. verb: in this instance, the opposite of "revived"--the conversation ceased again and the two men were silent again.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  106. Referring to himself in perhaps archaic terms as Passepartout's employer.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  107. Used metaphorically and ironically: he is neither having a dream of being talked about nor could he have suspected that anybody was talking about him since he was asleep.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  108. Pasepartout's entry to the Hindu temple that was not open to him and at which he was attacked by the priests and where he lost his hat, shoes, and bundle of purchases. Is this foreshadowing of trouble ahead for Passepartout, possibly from Detective Fix's new scheme?

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  109. Referring to Passepartout, who was also traveling in the compartment with Fogg and Sir Frances.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  110. Referring to possible legal difficulties about the sanctity of Indian temples.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  111. noun: that which blocks or interferes with; impediments to smooth operation

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  112. noun: the state of probable occurrence; the quality of being expected

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  113. verb (past participle form): planned for; predicted; taken into account beforehand

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  114. verb, past tense: thrown into confusion; interrupted; interfered with

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  115. noun: a chair with a chamber, called a "litter," resting on two long poles that are carried by four humans

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  116. When railway lines are incomplete across an expanse of countryside, passengers are required to leave the train and take other, alternative, means of travel.

    This is the case in the present day on the railway route between Central California in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California into Los Angeles.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  117. Referring to an interruption in railway service that existed in the past at that particular point in the itinerary (i.e., planned route and timetable).

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  118. verb (present participle form): to restore interest in; to bring back into consideration; to bring upagain

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  119. The custom is to address titled individuals, such as Sir Frances Cromarty, by their title honorific (Sir) and first name.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  120. verb phrase (verb + noun phrase complement): to talk briefly in a casual way about nothing of importance; brief small talk

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  121. noun: a mountain's or hill's highest point; crowning point

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  122. noun: the foundational bottom of something; the foundation of mountain sides

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  123. noun: the steep-sided, narrow gorges or passages through mountain ranges

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  124. The island of Salcette (now Salsette) was connected by arched bridges with roads or railways atop to the mainland of India at Bombay in 1803 by the East India Company to enable merchant traffic between the two sites, particularly railway traffic after 1853 when the first stretch of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway line was opened. The advantage of arched viaducts is that boats are still able to travel rivers or channels that the viaducts span (go over).

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  125. Cromarty's speculation (opinion) that Fogg's strange reliance on scientific precision and on Newton's laws of rational mechanics would lead him to live a wasted life without contributing anything good to society or to any individual person or persons.

    Is Cromarty correct in his speculation about Fogg? We don't know, we can't know yet.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  126. figure of speech, noun phrase with prepositional post-modifier: meaning the absence of the state of having reasonable perceptions of and judgements about facts and situations

    lack, noun
    the state of being without something; the state of existing with the absence of something

    sound, adjective
    based on reason; competent, reliable

    common sense, noun phrase
    competent judgement; accurate perception of facts or situations; ability to think reasonably and to make good judgements and decisions

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  127. Referring to the wager made between members of the Reform Club and the monetary stipulations thereunto attached (the sums of money bet).

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  128. noun: purpose, plan, intention

    Fogg's planned intention of going round the world in eighty days.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  129. A negative way, employing negation and an antithetical concept, of saying Fogg had confided his intentions: "not concealed" equals "had confided."

    Using antithesis and negation adds to Verne's characterization of Fogg as a contrary, inexplicable sort of eccentric person.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  130. figure of speech, noun phrase (noun + prepositional post-modifiers): allusion to Fogg's obsession with science, particularly Newton's laws "rational mechanics," laws of mechanical action in a frame of reference

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  131. adjective: unconventional and strange; peculiar in the extreme

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  132. verb phrase (adverb + verb): say to himself about Fogg what he would not say aloud to Fogg or anyone else

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  133. noun phrase with adverbial post-modifiers, figure of speech: questioning the human quality of Fogg's emotionless nature (suggesting he might have psychological derangement of some sort)

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  134. noun: the quality of being strange or peculiar; someone who is strange or peculiar

    Cromarty has noticed that Fogg is well ordered and disinterested in externalities (landscapes, emotions, new experiences, etc) in the extreme.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  135. A gesture showing one is happy about attaining an expectation, a goal, wish or need. The gesture demonstrates pleasurable attainment of something desired.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  136. Display of actions showing emotion, both of which, the action and the emotion, Fogg considers to be wasted motion and wasted energy.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  137. The branch of mechanical science attributed to Isaac Newton that deals with "the motion of bodies in a frame of reference" (Wordnet, Princeton). The investigation of and application of the laws of physical mechanics to objects and end results in the physical world.

    Fogg applies Newton's laws of mechanics to his goal of traveling round the world in the appointed time.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  138. This describes Fogg as one engaged upon a task, not as a tourist or any other standard type of traveler: he is not interested, as we have seen, in landscape, culture, people, traditions or anything else associated with travel but only in attaining his goal of rounding the world in eighty days.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  139. In the northeast of India, below central Nepal and to the east of Allahabad. Now called Varanasi.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  140. noun, military designation: two or more divisions of a military unit stationed in the field; subdivision of an army or other national military force

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  141. A fictional character, not one with a real life identity as with Verne's other characters and allusions to persons.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  142. noun: extract of poppy plants that was originally used as a pain killer and sleep inducer in insomnia or illness (addictive and psychological effects were discovered and exploited later)

    The use of opium from poppy plants is first recorded in Mesopotamia (Babylon, Iran) in 3,400 BCE (i.e., before the common era). The Sumerians of Mesopotamia introduced it to the Assyrians who introduced it to the Egyptians.

    During the Silk Road import/export era corresponding to the British colonization period, opium was exported from India to China (where it incited Chinese opposition to British importation of opium and resulted in the Opium Wars, which China lost).

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  143. The eastern coast of India; the Calcutta (Kolkata) and Bay of Bengal side of India.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  144. noun: tropical plant used to produce a dark blue dye through an extremely hazardous and toxic procedure (a task given to colonized indigenous peoples in the Caribbean and India especially)

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  145. adjective: at the proper time; prompt as to appointed time or timetable

    — Karen P.L. Hardison