triremes. The helm was very long, which gives the advantage of a long

arm of leverage, but the disadvantage of a small arc of effort. Two

wheels in two pulleys at the end of the rudder corrected this defect,

and compensated, to some extent, for the loss of strength. The compass

was well housed in a case perfectly square, and well balanced by its two

copper frames placed horizontally, one in the other, on little bolts, as

in Cardan's lamps. There was science and cunning in the construction of

the hooker, but it was ignorant science and barbarous cunning. The

hooker was primitive, just like the praam and the canoe; was kindred to

the praam in stability, and to the canoe in swiftness; and, like all

vessels born of the instinct of the pirate and fisherman, it had

remarkable sea qualities: it was equally well suited to landlocked and

to open waters. Its system of sails, complicated in stays, and very

peculiar, allowed of its navigating trimly in the close bays of Asturias

(

which are little more than enclosed basins, as Pasages, for instance),

and also freely out at sea. It could sail round a lake, and sail round

the world--a strange craft with two objects, good for a pond and good

for a storm. The hooker is among vessels what the wagtail is among

birds--one of the smallest and one of the boldest. The wagtail perching

on a reed scarcely bends it, and, flying away, crosses the ocean.

These Biscay hookers, even to the poorest, were gilt and painted.

Tattooing is part of the genius of those charming people, savages to

some degree. The sublime colouring of their mountains, variegated by

snows and meadows, reveals to them the rugged spell which ornament

possesses in itself. They are poverty-stricken and magnificent; they put

coats-of-arms on their cottages; they have huge asses, which they

The Man Who Laughs