Ebook PDF The Phonology of Mongolian The Phonology of The Worlds Languages Bilingual Edition PDF
Ebook PDF The Phonology of Mongolian The Phonology of The Worlds Languages Bilingual Edition PDF
Ebook PDF The Phonology of Mongolian The Phonology of The Worlds Languages Bilingual Edition PDF
We thank all those who helped us in various ways, especially the Mongolian speak-
ers Basbajar, Davaadorz, Hurelbaatar, Sarantujaa, Sarancacral, and several others,
who willingly let us do rather lengthy and sometimes boring tape recordings of
their language. Several teachers and students at the Mongolian State University
in Ulaanbaatar helped us with arranging recordings and in other ways, including
L. Lhagva, B. Sarantujaa, Ju. Monh-Amgalan, Francois Jacquesson, and Judith
Bertalan. We were helped with the acquisition of literature and visits to differ-
ent libraries by Tamara Esenova and Petr Bitkeev (Elista), Veronica Veil (Bonn),
Juha Janhunen (Helsinki), Saito Yoshio and Sakaedani Haruko (Tokyo), Kuriba-
yashi Hitoshi (Sendai), Coyijongjab, Kogjiltu, and Koke (Kokeqota), Secencogtu
(Peking), Tat'jana Skrynnikova (Ulan-Ude), and several others. Special thanks to
James Bosson who supported this project from its start and read parts of the man-
uscript at various stages, and to Saito Yoshio who read the entire manuscript and
gave many valuable comments, as did the series editor Jacques Durand and one
anonymous reviewer.
Part of the project was financed by the Swedish Research Council for the Human-
ities and Social Sciences (HSFR) and by the Swedish Institute. Travel grants to
Mongolia and other parts of the world were given also by Vetenskapssocieteten i
Lund, Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet i Lund, the Elisabeth Rausing
Memorial Foundation, and the Ido Foundation.
LIST OF TABLES
Grammatical forms (Halh and/or Old Mongolian forms of the suffixes are given)
ABL ablative (-Es; *-AchA)
ACC accusative (-G')g; *-0
AGNR agent nominalizer (-ch)
AR adjectivizer (various suffixes)
CAUS causative (-C%; *-kA)
COLL collective (-chGE, -£/§)
COM comitative (-thEi)
COND conditional (-/?§; *-pAsU)
COOP cooperative (-§CA)
A B B R E V I A T I O N S AND SYMBOLS xiii
Other abbreviations
A *a/*e (10.6.2)
[ATR] [advanced tongue root] (5.1)
C consonant (5.1)
E elaloh (5.2)
[F] [pharyngeal] (5.1)
G g/a (5.2.6)
H high tone (Chapter 7)
L low tone (Chapter 7)
O *o/*0 (10.6.2)
[O] [open] (5.1)
[P] [palatal] (5.1)
[R] [round] (5.1)
[RTR] [retracted tongue root]
U u/u or *ul*y (5.2; 10.6.2)
V vowel (5.1)
[V] [velar] (5.1)
Symbols
syllable boundary
graphic boundary in Written Mongolian (4.3; 8.1)
morpheme boundary
— morpheme and graphic boundary (8.1)
XIV A B B R E V I A T I O N S AND SYMBOLS
In this book the phonology of Mongolian is presented from two points of view,
synchronic and diachronic. In Chapters 1-7, basic instrumental phonetic data on
Standard Mongolian, the Halh (Khalkha) dialect as spoken in Ulaanbaatar, the cap-
ital of the Republic of Mongolia, is presented, and the phonology is analysed. The
first two chapters give acoustic data on vowels and consonants, respectively. In
Chapter 3, a phoneme analysis is given, and in Chapter 4, the two writing systems
used for Mongolian are presented and related to the phoneme analysis. In Chap-
ter 5, (morpho)phonological processes are presented, in particular vowel harmony,
which is unusually regular in Mongolian. In Chapter 6, syllable structure and syl-
labification is treated together with epenthesis of schwa vowels, which is shown
to depend on syllabification. Finally, intonation and stress is treated in Chapter 7,
again based on acoustic measurements. In this part of the book, the term Mongo-
lian normally refers to Ulaanbaatar Halh Mongolian.
Halh is a dialect of the Mongolian language, which forms the Mongolic lan-
guage group (or language family) together with ten rather closely related lan-
guages. From Chapters 8-10, we give an overview of the Mongolic languages
and their historical development. In Chapter 8, we reconstruct Old Mongolian, the
immediate ancestor of the languages of the oldest Mongolian written sources. In
Chapter 9, we give short sketches of the eleven modern Mongolic languages, and
in the final chapter we describe the phonological processes that shaped the mod-
ern languages from Old Mongolian. In this way we try to give a unified descrip-
tion of the main phonological features of the modern languages, using a historical
point of view, without going into the details of each language. We believe that this
approach, which is the traditional one in Mongolian studies, adds insights, and
gives a background, to the strictly synchronic analysis in previous chapters. Many
synchronic phonological phenomena in Halh Mongolian, for example, pharyngeal
vowel harmony and its relation to the distribution of palatalized consonants, can
be understood better if the historical background is kept in mind. Furthermore, the
Mongolic languages are close enough to make a simultaneous diachronic descrip-
tion of them meaningful. We focus on the phonological processes that shaped the
languages from their common ancestor rather than on separate developments in
* Several dictionaries were useful for finding examples, in particular the Mongolian-English diction-
ary by Bawden (1997), the two Mongolian-Chinese dictionaries Monggol Kitad toll (1999) and Xin
Meng—Han cidian (1999), and the Academic Mongolian-Russian dictionary (Bajarsajhan et al. 2001-
2). For some purposes, the reverse alphabetic dictionary by Vietze and Zenker (1976) was very valuable.
The official orthographic and morphological dictionary by Damdinsiiren and Osor (1983) was used as a
norm for the Cyrillic spelling. All examples taken from dictionaries were checked by Tsendina, and in
doubtful cases other native speakers of Ulaanbaatar Halh were consulted as well.
INTRODUCTION XV11
the individual languages. These processes, described in Chapter 10, taken together
with the description of Old Mongolian in Chapter 8 give a rather detailed picture
of the phonologies of the different modern Mongolic languages, with the detailed
synchronic description of Halh in the early part of the book as a kind of standard
of comparison.
The Mongolic language group is usually regarded as one of the three branches
of the Altaic language family. The others are the Turkic and Tungusic languages.
Some scholars are convinced that Korean, Japanese, and even Ainu also belong to
the Altaic family, while others are equally convinced that Altaic is not a valid gen-
etic grouping, so that Mongolic, Tungusic, and Turkic are separate language fam-
ilies, whose structural and lexical similarities are due to areal influence. Authors
who are in favour of the Altaic family include most Mongolists, John Ramstedt
(1957) and Nicholas Poppe (1965) among others. The existence of Altaic as a valid
genetic grouping is refuted by authors such as Gerard Clauson (1956) and Gerhard
Doerfer (1966). There have also been some attempts to connect Mongolian with
the Dravidian languages (see e.g. Vacek (1996)). However, the possible relations
of Mongolic to other language groups will not be treated here.
The first scientific study of the phonology of a Mongolic language was the
description of Halh by the Finland-Swedish scholar, John Ramstedt, published
in 1902. In accordance with the then current linguistic practice, he analysed Halh
phonology from an historical point of view, comparing it with Classical Written
Mongolian. His work became highly influential, especially in Russia, and was the
model for the phonological works of Boris Vladimircov, Nikolaj Poppe, and sev-
eral others.
The first instrumental phonetic investigation of a Mongolic language was made
in 1915-16 by the Helsinki phonetician, Jean Poirot, who measured Kalmuck seg-
ment durations. The results were not published until 1935, in Ramstedt's Kalmuck
dictionary (pp. xxi-xxvi). The Japanese Obata Juichi and Teshima Takehiko (1934;
1935) measured formant frequencies for Mongolian vowels and the duration of
some consonants. More substantial investigations were not made until the 1950s
in China and the Soviet Union. Ignatij Buraev and Valentin Zolhoev in Buriatia,
Dordzi Pavlov and Petr Bitkeev in Kalmuckia, as well as Surengijn Moomoo in
Mongolia made pioneering phonetic work on their respective languages. Younger
researchers, such as Tamara Esenova in Kalmuckia, have continued, but unfortu-
nately the economic situation in Russia and Mongolia has now almost put an end
to instrumental phonetic work in these countries. The most dynamic and interest-
ing work on Mongolian phonetics is no doubt being done by Mongol scholars in
China. Instrumental phonetic investigations had already been made in the 1950s by
Cenggeltei, Coyijongjab, and others, and they are now continued by scholars like
Koke and Bayarmendu. Recently, natural language processing of Mongolic lan-
guages has been undertaken by the researchers Koke and Dawa, both from China,
and by Ljubov' Radnaeva from Buriatia.
An impressive number of descriptions of dialects and of lesser-known Mongolic
languages have been made in the countries where they are spoken. In addition to
xviii INTRODUCTION
those already mentioned, the Kalmuck scholar Buljas Todaeva, Valentin Rassadin
in Buriatia, and Zavzangijn Coloo in Mongolia made important contributions to
this field. Again, this work is very strong in the Mongolic-speaking parts of China,
where detailed descriptions of all indigenous Mongolic languages have been pub-
lished by Boke, Engkebatu, Chen Naixiong, and several others. Phonological anal-
yses of Halh Mongolian were made by Sadavyn Luvsanvandan in Mongolia.
Comparatively little phonetic and dialectological work has been done by
researchers from outside the Mongolic-speaking countries, where the tradition has
been more historical and philological. The dominating scholar has undoubtedly
been Nikolaj Nikolaevic (Nicholas) Poppe, who was first working in the Soviet
Union but emigrated to the United States in 1949. He published extensively in
virtually all fields of Mongolian studies, in particular historical linguistics. Other
scholars with a broad and varied production are the Japanese Nomura Masayoshi
and Hattori Shiro. The Japanese tradition is continued by mongolists such as Joo
Hakutaro, Kuribayashi Hitoshi, and Saito Yoshio.
Mongolic historical phonology in the tradition of Ramstedt, Vladimircov, and
Poppe was revived recently by the increasing amount of data becoming available
from the lesser-known Mongolic languages. The most important work is done in
China and Mongolia by scholars as Jagunasutu, Kogjiltu, and Tomortogoo.
As this sketchy and subjective survey shows, the bulk of the research on Mon-
golic phonology is being done by scholars in the Mongolic-speaking countries, in
spite of difficulties created by economic factors and changing political situations.
Unfortunately, their research is often published in journals and books which, in
addition to the language barriers, are difficult to access in libraries outside these
countries. Although it has not been possible to describe all results and discus-
sions in this literature, we feel that it deserves to be better known among Western
scholars than is now the case, and we have tried to cite the relevant publications in
the proper places.
Although there are several specialized bibliographies on Mongolian studies, the
most important bibliographical tool for Mongolian linguistics is the annual Lin-
guistic bibliography (Bibliographie linguistique) (1939- ) which indexes most
publications about Mongolian linguistics even from China and Mongolia. Recent
issues can be accessed on the Internet, at http://www.kb.nl/kb/blonline/.
The state of Mongolian studies (ormore
ferent parts of the world is illustrated in Figure 0, where the number of publica-
tions appearing in the bibliography of this book (except works which do not deal
specifically with Mongolian) are shown broken down by country of origin (of the
main author) and year of publication. Several interesting observations can be made
from this graph, in particular the decline of Russian (and Mongolian) science in the
1990s, and the emergence of China as the most important country for Mongolian
studies in the 1980s and 1990s.
1
VOWELS
In this chapter we present briefly the results of our phonetic analyses of the Halh
Mongolian vowels. The consonants are treated in the following chapter, and a pho-
neme analysis is given in Chapter 3.
The acoustic phonetic investigation of Halh in Chapters 1 and 2 is based mainly
on recordings made by one of the authors (JOS) in Ulaanbaatar in May 1990, using
a portable cassette recorder of relatively high quality (Sony WM D6C). The main
recordings were made by three male speakers of Halh, Basbajar (BB), Davaadorz
(DD), and Hurelbaatar (HB). They were born, and had grown up, in Ulaanbaa-
tar, and were living there at the time of the recording. Their ages were twenty-
one, twenty-six, and thirty-six years, respectively. A list of words and sentences
illustrating various phonetic phenomena was recorded. Some of the words were
read in isolation, and some in a focused position in a carrier sentence. Each word
was read three to five times by each speaker. The recordings were analysed in the
ESPS/Waves+ environment on Sun workstations at the Department of Linguis-
tics, Lund University, or using the Praat speech analysis program written by Paul
Boersma and David Weenink (University of Amsterdam). Some of the figures were
made with the WaveSurfer analysis program written by Kare Sjolander and Jonas
Beskow (Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm).
There are seven long vowels [i:, e:, a:, u:, u:, o:, o:] and six short vowels [i, a, u, u,
o, o] in initial syllables (see below for the vowel transcribed [i]). In non-initial syl-
lables, there are full vowels [i, i, e, a, u, u, o, o] as well as phonetically reduced
vowels which we will write as [i, e, ii, u, u, 5, 5] in this chapter. In addition to the
monophthongs, there are also diphthongs, to be treated in section 1.2.
A list of disyllabic words (1) illustrating each combination of monophthong-
ic vowels in the first and second syllable was recorded by the three Ulaanbaa-
tar speakers. The material does not contain palatalized or alveopalatal consonants
which may affect the vowel quality. The words were read in the sentence frame [pi:
gisarj] 611 racan 'I said '. Two recordings of each word from each speaker
were analysed. The duration and the first three vowel formants were measured from
spectrograms and waveform displays, using the ESPS/Waves+ environment.
1
For sources and notes on Acoustic properties of monophthongs, see App. B on p. 218.
2 VOWELS
The mean durations for each vowel are shown in (2). The results are summarized in
Figure 1.1, and they are illustrated for speaker DD in Figure 1.2.
These measurements show that the duration of a short vowel in the initial syl-
lable is almost exactly half (on average 48 per cent) of the duration of a long vowel.
The duration of a full non-initial vowel is, on average, 61 per cent of the duration
I.I ACOUSTIC PROPERTIES OF M O N O P H T H O N G S 23
of a long initial vowel, and reduced non-initial vowels have a duration which is 34
per cent of the duration of a long initial vowel. Although full vowels in non-initial
syllables developed historically from long vowels (10.5), their duration in modern
Halh is closer to the duration of a short vowel in the initial syllable than to the dur-
ation of a long vowel. This supports the analysis of full non-initial vowels as short
in section 3.1.1. As seen in (2) and in Figure 1.2, the usual intrinsic duration rela-
tion obtains, so that open vowels have longer duration than closed vowels.
The first three formant frequencies of each vowel were measured at a point where
the influence of the surrounding consonants was judged to be minimal, usually
FIGURE 1.1 Mean vowel duration (ms) for the three speakers. LI = long initial vowel,
S1 = short initial vowel, F2 = full non-initial vowel, R2 = reduced non-initial vowel.
4 VOWELS
FIGURE 1.2 Duration of long and short initial vowels (Speaker DD). The boxes contain 50%
of the values, with the point inside showing the median. The upper and lower marks show
the maxima and minima.
close to the middle of the vowel. The formant tracking facility of Waves was used.
The results are shown in Table 1.1.
The qualities of corresponding long and short initial vowels are approximate-
ly the same, but the short ones are usually slightly centralized, as illustrated in
Figure 1.3. The only major exception is [o], whose long and short versions have
rather different qualities, although they function phonologically and historically as
a long ~ short pair, and are written with the same Cyrillic letter (ee and e). In a nar-
row phonetic transcription they could be written as [o:] and [e].
FIGURE 1.3 Mean formant frequencies (Fl and F2) for short initial vowels compared to
long initial vowels (circled). Speaker DD.
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CHAPTER XIX
IN THE HANDS OF THE TRIBE
With one bound Bomba was across the room and looking at the
picture with all his soul in his eyes.
Yes, it was the same beautiful face, girlish and appealing, the soft
hair waving back from the broad forehead, the half-smiling lips, the
eyes that were dark and melting. And the eyes looked down at him
now as they had looked at him in the hut of Sobrinini, full of love and
tenderness, while the lips seemed ready to murmur words of
endearment.
What chords of memory did that face stir in Bomba’s heart? What
recollections, faint and dim as some far off strains of music, were
tugging at his consciousness? What vague memory told that
desolate lad that he was looking at the pictured face of his mother?
His mother! The mother who perhaps had sung to him the lullaby
that Sobrinini had crooned, who once perhaps had caressed him,
kissed him, called him Bonny, her Bonny!
A passion of tears welled to the boy’s eyes. His heart was stirred to
its depths.
But he dashed the tears away. A native might enter at any minute
and might attribute them to weakness, to fear at the situation in
which he found himself. Above everything, he must remain master of
himself.
How came that picture in the dwelling of Japazy, the half-breed?
Why had a similar picture been in the hut of Sobrinini? What
mysterious link was there between the lovely original of that picture
and Sobrinini, the witch woman, Japazy, the master of Jaguar Island,
Jojasta, the medicine man of the Moving Mountain, and Casson, his
friend and former protector? Somewhere, some time, those residents
of the Amazonian jungle had known the mysterious Bartow, his wife,
Laura, and perhaps the little child named Bonny. How had fate
brought them together? And how had fate torn them apart?
The door of his room opened, and a boy appeared, bringing a tray of
food. It was savory and abundant, and Bomba ate it with a relish.
The boy, who seemed to be about twelve years old, stood by,
watching him with black, beadlike eyes. Curiosity was in the eyes
and awe, awe of this bold stranger, only a little older than himself in
years, but vastly older in strength and experience, who had dared to
take his life in his hands and come to ask questions of the dreaded
Japazy, the lord of life and death on Jaguar Island.
“What is your name?” asked Bomba, who took a liking to the
youngster.
“Thy servant’s name is Solani,” answered the boy. “He is the son of
Abino.”
“Solani has a good father,” said Bomba diplomatically.
“Yes,” answered the boy proudly. “There is no one so wise on the
island of the big cats as Abino, except Japazy himself.”
“Has Solani ever seen ghosts or demons?” asked Bomba. “It is said
that there are many on the island.”
The boy looked about fearfully.
“There are many here,” he answered. “They keep Japazy from harm.
But no one can see them except Japazy. His eyes see everything.”
“Bomba saw some lights on the river,” said the jungle boy,
determined to draw Solani out, for he saw that he was in a
responsive mood. “Bomba did not know but what the lights were the
campfires of the ghosts.”
“The lights are burning brushwood,” explained Solani. “They are
thrown out from the earth when Tamura, the mountain, is angry and
his anger breaks great holes in the ground.”
“Is Tamura often angry?” asked Bomba.
“Many times he speaks in thunder and throws out rocks and rivers of
fire that eat up whatever they touch,” replied Solani. “Tamura has
killed many of our people. The old men say that he will not be silent
until some stranger is offered up to him. Then he will be satisfied and
make no more thunder.”
As Bomba, as far as he knew, was the only stranger at that time on
the island, there was something decidedly uncomfortable in this
information.
At this moment Abino entered, followed by several old men whom
Bomba took to be the chief advisers of the tribe.
Abino motioned to his son to take away the empty dishes and what
food remained, and then he and his companions squatted on their
haunches in a semicircle and gazed fixedly at Bomba.
They said nothing, and their stare persisted so long that Bomba
became restless and himself broke the silence.
“It was good of Abino to send Bomba food,” he said. “There was
much food and it was good.”
“The stranger must not starve until Japazy hears what words the
stranger has to say to him,” replied Abino.
“They will not be many words,” replied Bomba. “They will not make
Japazy shoot lightnings from his eyes. Bomba comes in peace and
his words are good words.”
“What are the words that the stranger would speak with Japazy?”
asked one of the most aged and wizened of his visitors.
Bomba hesitated. Would Japazy resent his confiding his mission to
any one but himself?
On the other hand, he had already gotten some useful information
from Solani. The mention of human sacrifices, for instance, had put
him on his guard, if, in the future, any such thing should be
attempted. Perhaps in conversation with these elders of the tribe he
might learn something else that might be of value to him.
Moreover they had asked him the question, and any lack of
frankness on his part might deepen the suspicion they already
entertained as to his motives.
He decided to answer.
“Bomba would ask Japazy who are the father and mother of Bomba
and how he can find them if they are still alive,” the lad stated.
Bomba caught the quick glances that passed between the Indians at
this announcement, and he was not unaware of the look that Abino
flashed at the picture of the lovely woman on the wall.
“Why does the stranger think that Japazy can tell him who his father
and mother are?” asked Abino, after a pause.
“Sobrinini told Bomba that Japazy knew,” returned Bomba.
“Sobrinini!” exclaimed one of his auditors. “She is the witch woman
who dwells on the island of snakes. To go to that island is death.
How, then, does the stranger say that he has had speech with
Sobrinini?”
“Bomba’s tongue is not forked,” replied the lad. “Bomba went to the
island of snakes and had speech with the witch woman. Then he
took her away from the island and gave her shelter in the hut of
Bomba and the good white man, Casson.”
“Why did not Sobrinini tell the stranger of his father and mother?”
asked his questioner incredulously.
“Sobrinini tried to tell, but the gods had put clouds on her mind and
she could not see through them,” answered Bomba. “But she could
see Japazy through the clouds and she said he would know. So
Bomba is here.”
The promptness and sincerity of his answers evidently had some
effect on his visitors. They looked at each other uncertainly. Then the
eldest of them spoke.
“There is much gold on the island of the big cats,” he said slowly.
“Strangers have come here before, and their words were as smooth
as the skin of the baby and as sweet as honey in the comb. But they
said one thing with their tongue and another in their heart. The
demons that guard Japazy told him what word was in the stranger’s
heart; and that word was gold. The strangers did not go away again
from the island of the big cats.”
“Bomba has not two ways of speaking,” answered the lad. “The
words from his lips are the same as the words in his heart. Bomba
does not care for the gold of Japazy. He would not know what to do
with it if Japazy gave it to him. May the gods lay their curse on
Bomba if he is not speaking from a clean heart!”
Another long pause ensued.
“Is it true that the stranger does not even know the name of his
father or that of his mother?” asked one of the group.
“Bomba does not surely know,” returned the lad. “But when Sobrinini
saw Bomba she called him Bartow. And Jojasta of the Moving
Mountain called him Bartow. They thought Bomba was Bartow or
Bartow’s ghost. So if Bomba looked so much like Bartow, it may be
that Bartow was Bomba’s father. And Sobrinini spoke of Laura. And
Casson spoke of Laura. It is in Bomba’s heart that that may have
been the name of his mother.”
Was it fancy, or did Abino again steal a glance at that picture on the
wall?
“It is well,” said the oldest of the group as he rose to his feet, an
example followed by the others. “We will think over what the stranger
has said.”
The old men went out of the room silently, in single file. But the
silence persisted only until they had gone some distance down the
corridor that led to the large hall. Then they broke out into excited
speech.
Bomba would have given a great deal to know what they were
saying, but they were too far away for him to hear them distinctly.
After they had gone out of the door of the building, however, their
way led them under his window. They were still talking excitedly,
and, as he strained his ears, these words floated up to him:
“Bartow! Was not that the name of the man Japazy killed?”
CHAPTER XXII
THE CREEPING DEATH
Bomba, his head in a whirl, staggered back from the window when
he heard the sinister words:
“Was not that the name of the man Japazy killed?”
Was it possible that the father whom he had sought so long was
really dead? Had all his search been futile?
But the despair that this thought brought him was quickly swallowed
up by another emotion. Rage, blinding rage, at the man who had
killed his father, at Japazy, the half-breed, the arrogant, heartless
monster who lorded it over this ignorant people.
If this should prove true—that Japazy was really his father’s
murderer—Bomba then and there vowed vengeance. Let Japazy
look to himself! Let him gather all his ghosts and demons to protect
him! They would be of no avail. Bomba’s arrow or Bomba’s knife
would find the black heart of the half-breed! His father’s murder
should be avenged!
Bomba knew nothing of the Christian law of forgiveness. He had
been brought up in the jungle, whose first law was self-preservation,
whose second law was vengeance for evil received. If Japazy had
taken Bartow’s life, Japazy’s life must pay the forfeit.
Oh, if Japazy were only here! Oh, if Bomba could meet him face to
face and wrest the truth from him! The lad paced the room, gnashing
his teeth with impatience.
His restless pacings brought him beneath the lovely pictured face on
the wall. He gazed at it yearningly. If she were his mother, perhaps
she still lived, even if his father was dead.
Then another thought came to him and his rage flamed up anew.
Perhaps she, too, had fallen a victim to Japazy. The hand that slew
the one might also have slain the other. In that case, Bomba would
owe a double debt of vengeance. And he would pay that debt!
Oh, if he only knew!
But there was nothing he could do until Japazy returned.
Suppose, however, that Japazy did not return? What if any one of
the thousand perils of the jungle should cut short his life? Then
perhaps Bomba could never get the knowledge for which his soul
panted. He would be cheated, too, of his vengeance—supposing it
were true that Japazy had indeed slain his father.
Even while immersed in these gloomy reflections, a gleam of hope
came to Bomba.
Abino!
Perhaps Abino knew. He was the chosen counselor of Japazy as far
as that haughty despot permitted any one to advise him. Perhaps he
was also the repository of Japazy’s secrets. Those quick and furtive
glances that Abino had cast at the picture on the wall! What did they
mean? What did Abino know?
Tired out finally by these ponderings and questionings, Bomba at
last threw himself on the floor and slept. And for this he chose a
place directly beneath the picture, where those lovely, tender eyes
could look down upon him.
It was dark when he woke, and the immediate occasion of his
waking was the entrance of Solani, bringing his supper.
The boy lighted a torch and thrust it into a holder against the wall. By
its light, Bomba noted that the boy looked disturbed and frightened.
“Solani is sad to-night,” observed Bomba, as he prepared to eat the
meal that the lad had set on the table. “What is it that makes the
heart of Solani heavy?”
The boy looked about him carefully, and when he answered, it was
almost in a whisper.