The Beagle Diary

Well, while I’m pointing the way to famous diaries online, here compliments of Heraclitean Fire, is Charles Darwin’s Beagle Diary.

As of this writing, nothing posted for August 12^th. On August 11^th, Orwell’s party seems to have encountered a version of the world tree:

Shortly after passing the first spring we came in sight of the famous tree, which the Indians reverence as a God itself, or as the altar of Walleechu. It is situated on a high part of the plain & hence is a landmark visible at a great distance. As soon as a tribe of Indians come in sight they offer their adorations by loud shouts. The tree itself is low & much branched & thorny, just above the root its apparent diameter is 3 feet. It stands by itself without any neighbour, & was indeed the first tree we met with; afterwards there were others of the same sort, but not common.

Being winter the tree had no leaves, but in their place were countless threads by which various offerings had been suspended. Cigars, bread, meat, pieces of cloth &c &c., poor people only pulled a thread out of their ponchos.

Possibly related posts:

Orwell’s Diaries

Seriously Dangerous

Samuel Shepard #2

W. H. Auden

Poetry Out Loud

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