Explore "The Junk and Dhow" by Rudyard Kipling on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Once a pair of savages found a stranded tree. / (_One-piecee stick-pidgin-two-piecee man. / Straddle-um-paddle-um-push-um off to sea. / That way Foleign Devil-boat began._[4]) / But before and before, and ever so long before / Any shape of sailing-craft was known, / The Junk and Dhow had a stern and a bow, / And a mast and a sail of their own-alone, alone! / As they crashed across the Oceans on their own!
Once there was a pirate-ship, being blown ashore- / (_Plitty soon pilum up, s'posee no can tack. / Seven-piecee stlong man pullum sta'boa'd oar. / That way bling her head alound and sailo back._) / But before, and before, and ever so long before / Grand Commander Noah took the wheel, / The Junk and the Dhow, though they look like anyhow, / Had rudders reaching deep below their keel-akeel-akeel! / As they laid the Eastern Seas beneath their keel!