Читать книгу Dado Island. The Superstitious Democracy - Саша Кругосветов - Страница 4

Once upon a time, when the ‘Fast Sails’ was on her way back to her native shores after a long journey, a large strip of land came into view, covering the entire horizon from North to South.

The Ship’s Boy, who had been the first to spot the shore, asked in amazement:

‘Is that Africa? I’d thought that we were still very far away from Africa.’

‘Don’t gawp, Boy,’ replied the Navigator. ‘That’s not Africa yet. That’s just a very large island, in fact a miniature continent. There are only two or three islands of this size. Some maps call it Maidan,[1] on others it is called Maidanscar.’

‘And what do the islanders themselves call it?’ the sailors asked the Navigator.

‘They also use several names. Its official name is Maidanscar. In the old times the animals living on the island used to assemble on a large clearing, the Maidan, in order to elect a leader. The leader would recruit a militia to stand up to the cruel and bloodthirsty Fossa, the only major predator on the island…’

‘And who is this Fossa?’

‘Fossa is a carnivorous animal the size of a large dog, resembling both a polecat and a large cat. It easily climbs trees and hunts mammals, birds and lizards.’

‘So, they elected a leader and recruited a militia on the Maidan. This is the origin of the island’s names – Maidanscar, Rock of the Maidans, or just Maidan – they mean ‘Island of Animal Sovereignty.’’

‘It has yet another name,’ said Captain Alexander, who had overheard them talking. ‘When we land on the island and get to know it, you will all agree that the most correct name is ‘Island of the Holy Dado.’ And all islanders say ‘Our Dado Island!’’

Nobody understood why it was the Island of the Holy Dado and who this Dado was. And nobody went to ask the Captain why this was the most correct name. Dado means Dado!

While the ship is approaching the shore I will tell you something about this unusual island.

At some point the island had been part of the ancient southern continent of Gondwana. 200 million years ago it broke off from Gondwana, together with Hindustan. Then Hindustan became separate and drifted northwards, until it collided with the Eurasian continent. The remaining part of Gondwana split and became the basis for Antarctica, Australia, Africa and South America. But our island kept its distance from all continents.

Dado Island amazes the traveller from the very first glance: against the backdrop of bright red earth, which looks as if it comes from Mars, you see the luxuriant green vegetation of savannahs and jungles. As you advance inland, you encounter a unique mini-continent with a multitude of different natural habitats. Tropical rainforests alternate with semi-arid steppes and impenetrable swamps. High-mountain plateaus and mountain masses with unique cosmic landscapes and geysers neatly give way to canyons with waterfalls and mountains lakes. Fertile grasslands change into the palisades of intricately weathered cliffs.

The ocean currents that wash the island’s shores, and the winds that blow over the ocean straits, are such that neither animals travelling on felled trees nor seeds released by plants on the continent can reach the island and settle on it. For this reason, nature on Dado Island has remained isolated from the rapidly developing planet for many millions of years. Thus it has been preserved in its original state, and today it represents a living fragment of the earth’s history. Only on this island can you still find forms of plant and animal life that died out long ago in all other parts of the world. Travellers find that Maidanscar is a real time machine transporting them into back into prehistory (the period that is 25 to 5 million years in the past).[2]

The baobabs, palm trees and bamboos that grow on this island you won’t find in any other place. Bottle trees are rising alongside jacarandas whose wood is violet, pink and black. There are many rubber plants. The trees in the forest are entwined with the gigantic liana entada, of the legume family, whose pods reach two metres in length. It is the only plant whose stalks withstand a termite attack. Gigantic ferns are growing alongside the ravenala, also called traveller’s tree, with its unusually beautiful fanned banana leaves that collect water in their base. The forest is blooming with garlands of sumptuous orchids. All this together creates the inimitable magic of Maidanscar’s forests.

The island’s animal world is just as unique. The majority of the animals of Maidan don’t live anywhere else on our planet. There are polecats, such as the fossa and the fanaloka. There are lemurs, endearing prosimeans with pointy little snouts that resemble a fox’s and huge round eyes that can see in the dark. Then there are chameleons that are so unusual that they appear to have come from another planet and exotic iguanas, some kinds of which have a third eye on the crown of their head. The island is home to the largest and most beautiful butterflies, as well as to brightly coloured tree frogs and tomato toads. You can also find birds of unusual colouring and appearance: crows with a white neck, red sparrows, green doves, crested nightingales, blue cuckoos, and black parrots. There are strange little animals called tenrecs that resemble a hedgehog, minute funny bats, spiders that spin a web with a diameter of more than one metre… we could continue this list for a very long time, and the island might just as well be called Lemur Island, or Chameleon Island, or Butterfly Island, or Orchid Island. But it is called Dado Island. Later we will see that not just the animals themselves that are unique. Their lives, too, are different from that of the animals living in the forests, prairies, steppes and mountains in other parts of our planet.