The Naulahka – IV

Notes on the text

by Sharad Keskar

[Heading] This eighteen-line verse is to be found in The Definitive Edition of Kipling’s Verse (1940). The ‘burnt mountain’ is Mount Etna, in Sicily.

Sula stands for Topaz.[P.H.]

Prey to the galleys of the Algerine Algiers was the home of the notorious Barbary pirates, who infested the Mediterranean for centuries.[P.H.]

For love of her for love of Kate: the necklace, the Naulahka, is in Rhatore, the Indian city where Kate is going as a nurse. Tarvin can use it both to get the railroad to Topaz and as an excuse to follow Kate.[P.H.]

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[Page 40, line 21] a capital of a million a company with a nominal capital of a million dollars (then £200,000) with only £400 paid up, was not evidence of great prosperity.

[Page 40, line 31] town lots plots of land in the town for which he was agent for sale.

[Page 42, line 25] flux a substance or mixture used to promote the fusion of metals.

[Page 42, line 33] the Gulf of Mexico is at least 500 miles away from Topaz.

[Page 43, line 3] crystalline transparent.

[Page 44, line 3] stalled unable to progress further.

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[Page 45, line 15] Easterner a person from one of the states of the U.S.A. on the Atlantic seaboard.

[Page 49, line 33] There’s a cry from Macedonia ‘Come over and help us’ (see Acts 16,9).

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[Page 53, line 24] little air of spectacle pretence of doing something impressive.

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[S.K.]