THE week after Taffimai Metallumai (we will still call her Taffy, Best Beloved) made that little mistake about her Daddy's spear and the Stranger-man and the picture-letter and all, she went carp-fishing again with her Daddy. Her Mummy wanted her to stay at home and help hang up hides to dry on the big drying-poles outside their Neolithic Cave, but Taffy slipped away down to her Daddy quite early, and they fished. Presently she began to giggle, and her Daddy said, 'Don't be silly, child.'
Taffimai Metallumai：タフィマイ・メタルマイ（人名）。Taffy：タフィー（Taffimai／タフィマイの愛称）。Best Beloved：諸賢。daddy's spear：父さんの簎。stranger-man：見知らない人。picture-letter：絵文字。and all：等など。carp-fishing：鯉釣り。mummy：母さん。hides：獣皮。dry：干す。drying-poles：物干し竿。Neolithic Cave：新石器時代の洞窟。slipped away：こっそり去った。presently：間もなく。giggle：くすくす笑う。don't be silly：馬鹿をいうな（良い加減にしろ）。
'But wasn't it inciting!' said Taffy. 'Don't you remember how the Head Chief puffed out his cheeks, and how funny the nice Stranger-man looked with the mud in his hair?'
inciting：（怒りや好奇心を）起こさせる（駆り立てる）。Head Chief：主族長。puffed out：膨らませた。
'Well do I,' said Tegumai. 'I had to pay two deerskins—soft ones with fringes—to the Stranger-man for the things we did to him.'
Tegumai：テグマイ（人名／名前）。deerskins：鹿革。fringes：房飾り。
'We didn't do anything,' said Taffy. 'It was Mummy and the other Neolithic ladies and the mud.'
'We won't talk about that,' said her Daddy. 'Let's have lunch.'
Taffy took a marrow-bone and sat mousy-quiet for ten whole minutes, while her Daddy scratched on pieces of birch-bark with a shark's tooth. Then she said, 'Daddy, I've thinked of a secret surprise. You make a noise—any sort of noise.'
marrow-bone：髄入りの骨。mousy-quiet：（人や女児が鼠のように）大人しく静かな。scratched：引っ掻いた。birch-bark：樺の樹皮。shark's tooth：鮫の歯。make a noise：音を立てた。any sort of noise：どんな種類の音でも。
'Ah!' said Tegumai. 'Will that do to begin with?'
will that do：それで十分（大丈夫）だろうか。to begin with：最初から。
'Yes,' said Taffy. 'You look just like a carp-fish with its mouth open. Say it again, please.'
'Ah! ah! ah!' said her Daddy. 'Don't be rude, my daughter.'
don't be rude：失礼なことをするな。
'I'm not meaning rude, really and truly,' said Taffy. 'It's part of my secret-surprise-think. Do say ah, Daddy, and keep your mouth open at the end, and lend me that tooth. I'm going to draw a carp-fish's mouth wide-open.'
part：重要な部分。
What for?' said her Daddy.
'Don't you see?' said Taffy, scratching away on the bark. 'That will be our little secret s'prise. When I draw a carp-fish with his mouth open in the smoke at the back of our Cave if—Mummy doesn't mind—it will remind you of that ah-noise. Then we can play that it was me jumped out of the dark and s'prised you with that noise—same as I did in the beaver-swamp last winter.'
smoke：青みがかった灰色（青鈍色）。play：見做す。s'prise：驚き（surpriseの短縮形）。beaver-swamp：ビーバー（動物の一種）湿地。
'Really?' said her Daddy, in the voice that grown-ups use when they are truly attending. 'Go on, Taffy.'
grown-ups：大人たち。attending：注意する（良く聞く）。go on：続けろ。
'Oh bother!' she said. 'I can't draw all of a carp-fish, but I can draw something that means a carp-fish's mouth. Don't you know how they stand on their heads rooting in the mud? Well, here's a pretence carp-fish (we can play that the rest of him is drawn). Here's just his mouth, and that means ah.' And she drew this. (1.)
bother：嫌だ。all of：〜を十分に。rooting：（豚などが）鼻で地面を掘って食べ物を探す。pretence：見せかけ（pretenceの綴りは主にイギリス）。
'That's not bad,' said Tegumai, and scratched on his own piece of bark for himself; 'but you've forgotten the feeler that hangs across his mouth.'
feeler：触鬚。
'But I can't draw, Daddy.'
'You needn't draw anything of him except just the opening of his mouth and the feeler across. Then we'll know he's a carp-fish, 'cause the perches and trouts haven't got feelers. Look here, Taffy.' And he drew this. (2.)
perches：パーチ（ヨーロピアンパーチ：魚の一種）。trouts：鱒（魚の一種）。
'Now I'll copy it,' said Taffy. 'Will you understand this when you see it?' And she drew this. (3.)
'Perfectly,' said her Daddy. 'And I'll be quite as s'prised when I see it anywhere, as if you had jumped out from behind a tree and said "Ah!"'
quite as：〜も同然な。
'Now, make another noise,' said Taffy, very proud.
'Yah!' said her Daddy, very loud.
'H'm,' said Taffy. 'That's a mixy noise. The end part is ah-carp-fish-mouth; but what can we do about the front part? Yer-yer-yer and ah! Ya!
h'm：ふむ（humの短縮形／イギリス英語）。mixy：混合の。
'It's very like the carp-fish-mouth noise. Let's draw another bit of the carp-fish and join 'em,' said her Daddy. He was quite incited too.
'em：それら（themの短縮形）。
'No. If they're joined, I'll forget. Draw it separate. Draw his tail. If he's standing on his head the tail will come first. 'Sides, I think I can draw tails easiest,' said Taffy.
'sides：しかも（besidesの短縮形）。
'A good notion,' said Tegumai. 'Here's a carp-fish tail for the yer-noise.' And he drew this. (4.)
good notion：良い考え。
'I'll try now,' said Taffy. ''Member I can't draw like you, Daddy. Will it do if I just draw the split part of the tail, and the sticky-down line for where it joins?' And she drew this. (5.)
'member：覚えておいて（rememberの短縮形）。
Her Daddy nodded, and his eyes were shiny bright with 'citement.
nodded：頷いた。shiny bright：ぴかぴか明るい。'citement：興奮（excitementの短縮形）。
'That's beautiful,' she said. 'Now make another noise, Daddy.'
'Oh!' said her Daddy, very loud.
'That's quite easy,' said Taffy. 'You make your mouth all around like an egg or a stone. So an egg or a stone will do for that.'
'You can't always find eggs or stones. We'll have to scratch a round something like one.' And he drew this. (6.)
can't always：いつも〜できるとは限らない（わけではない）。
'My gracious!' said Taffy, 'what a lot of noise-pictures we've made,—carp-mouth, carp-tail, and egg! Now, make another noise, Daddy.'
my gracious：おや。
'Ssh!' said her Daddy, and frowned to himself, but Taffy was too incited to notice.
frowned：顔を顰めた。
'That's quite easy,' she said, scratching on the bark.
'Eh, what?' said her Daddy. 'I meant I was thinking, and didn't want to be disturbed.'
eh：えぇ。disturbed：邪魔される。
'It's a noise just the same. It's the noise a snake makes, Daddy, when it is thinking and doesn't want to be disturbed. Let's make the ssh-noise a snake. Will this do?' And she drew this. (7.)
'There,' she said. 'That's another s'prise-secret. When you draw a hissy-snake by the door of your little back-cave where you mend the spears, I'll know you're thinking hard; and I'll come in most mousy-quiet. And if you draw it on a tree by the river when you're fishing, I'll know you want me to walk most most mousy-quiet, so as not to shake the banks.'
there：ほら。hissy-snake：シューッという蛇。mend：修理する。come：なる。
'Perfectly true,' said Tegumai. 'And there's more in this game than you think. Taffy, dear, I've a notion that your Daddy's daughter has hit upon the finest thing that there ever was since the Tribe of Tegumai took to using shark's teeth instead of flints for their spear-heads. I believe we've found out the big secret of the world.'
game：企て。(have) a notion：考える。has hit upon：思い当たった。tribe：部族。took to：（習慣的に）〜し始めた。flints：燧石（鉱物の一種）。
'Why?' said Taffy, and her eyes shone too with incitement.
'I'll show,' said her Daddy. 'What's water in the Tegumai language?'
'Ya, of course, and it means river too—like Wagai-ya—the Wagai river.'
Wagai：ワガイ（川名）。
'What is bad water that gives you fever if you drink it—black water—swamp-water?'
'Yo, of course.'
'Now look,' said her Daddy. 'S'pose you saw this scratched by the side of a pool in the beaver-swamp?' And he drew this. (8.)
s'pose (that)：〜ならばどうだろう（supposeの短縮形）。
'Carp-tail and round egg. Two noises mixed! Yo, bad water,' said Taffy. ''Course I wouldn't drink that water because I'd know you said it was bad.'
'course：もちろん（of courseの短縮形）。
'But I needn't be near the water at all. I might be miles away, hunting, and still—'
miles：何マイルも（１マイルは１６０９．３４４メートル）。
'And still it would be just the same as if you stood there and said, "G'way, Taffy, or you'll get fever." All that in a carp-fish-tail and a round egg! O Daddy, we must tell Mummy, quick!' and Taffy danced all round him.
g'way：立ち去れ（get awayの短縮形）。
'Not yet,' said Tegumai; 'not till we've gone a little further. Let's see. Yo is bad water, but so is food cooked on the fire, isn't it?' And he drew this. (9.)
'Yes. Snake and egg,' said Taffy.
'So that means dinner's ready. If you saw that scratched on a tree you'd know it was time to come to the Cave. So'd I.'
so'd I：私もそうだろう（so would Iの短縮形）。
'
My Winkie!' said Tegumai. 'That's true too. But wait a minute. I see a difficulty.
So means "come and have dinner," but
sho means the drying-poles where we hang our hides.'
my winkie：まぁ（winkieはwinky：ウインクした顔の変形）。
'Horrid old drying-poles!' said Taffy. 'I hate helping to hang heavy, hot, hairy hides on them. If you drew the snake and egg, and I thought it meant dinner, and I came in from the wood and found that it meant I was to help Mummy hang the two hides on the drying-poles, what would I do?'
horrid：酷い。hairy：毛深い。
'You'd be cross. So'd Mummy. We must make a new picture for sho. We must draw a spotty snake that hisses sh-sh, and we'll play that the plain snake only hisses ssss.'
cross：腹を立てる。spotty：斑点のある。hisses：シューッと音を立てる。plain：無地の。
'I couldn't be sure how to put in the spot,' said Taffy. 'And p'raps if you were in a hurry you might leave them out, and I'd think it was so when it was sho, and then Mummy would catch me just the same. No! I think we'd better draw a picture of the horrid high drying-poles their very selves, and make quite sure. I'll put them in just after the hissy-snake. Look!' And she drew this. (10.)
p'raps：恐らく（perhapsの短縮形）。leave them out：それらを忘れる。just the same：やはり。
'P'raps that's safest. It's very like our drying-poles, anyhow,' said her Daddy, laughing. 'Now I'll make a new noise with a snake and drying-pole sound in it. I'll say shi. That's Tegumai for spear, Taffy.' And he laughed.
anyhow：何れにしても。
'Don't make fun of me,' said Taffy, as she thought of her picture-letter and the mud in the Stranger-man's hair. 'You draw it, Daddy.'
make fun of：〜揶揄う。
'We won't have beavers or hills this time, eh?' said her Daddy. 'I'll just draw a straight line for my spear.' And he drew this. (11.)
'Even Mummy couldn't mistake that for me being killed.'
mistake that for：それを〜と間違える。
'Please don't, Daddy. It makes me uncomfy. Do some more noises. We're getting on beautifully.'
uncomfy：気持ち悪い。
'Er-hm!' said Tegumai, looking up. 'We'll say shu. That means sky.'
Er-hm：えーふむ。
Taffy drew the snake and the drying-pole. Then she stopped. 'We must make a new picture for that end sound, mustn't we?'
'Shu-shu-u-u-u!' said her Daddy. 'Why it's just like the round-egg-sound made thin.'
'Then s'pose we draw a thin round egg, and pretend it's a frog that hasn't eaten anything for years.'
pretend：（遊びで）真似する。
'N-no,' said her Daddy. 'If we drew that in a hurry we might mistake it for the round egg itself. Shu-shu-shu! I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll open a little hole at the end of the round egg to show how the O-noise runs out all thin, ooo-oo-oo. Like this.' And he drew this. (12.)
runs out：なって行く（走り出る）。
'Oh, that's lovely! Much better than a thin frog. Go on,' said Taffy, using her shark's tooth. Her Daddy went on drawing, and his hand shook with excitement. He went on till he had drawn this. (13.)
'Don't look up, Taffy,' he said. 'Try if you can make out what that means in the Tegumai language. If you can, we've found the Secret.'
make out：理解する。
'Snake—pole—broken-egg—carp-tail and carp-mouth,' said Taffy. 'Shu-ya. Sky-water (rain).' Just then a drop fell on her hand, for the day had clouded over. 'Why, Daddy, it's raining. Was that what you meant to tell me?'
had clouded over：雲で覆われた。
'Of course,' said her Daddy. 'And I told it you without saying a word, didn't I?'
'Well, I think I would have known it in a minute, but that raindrop made me quite sure. I'll always remember now. Shu-ya means rain or "it is going to rain." Why, Daddy!' She got up and danced round him. 'S'pose you went out before I was awake, and drawed shu-ya in the smoke on the wall, I'd know it was going to rain and I'd take my beaver-skin hood. Wouldn't Mummy be surprised!'
Tegumai got up and danced. (Daddies didn't mind doing those things in those days.) 'More than that! More than that!' he said. 'S'pose I wanted to tell you it wasn't going to rain much and you must come down to the river, what would we draw? Say the words in Tegumai-talk first.'
'Shu-ya-las, ya maru. (Sky-water ending. River come to.) What a lot of new sounds! I don't see how we can draw them.'
'But I do—but I do!' said Tegumai. 'Just attend a minute, Taffy, and we won't do any more to-day. We've got shu-ya all right, haven't we? but this las is a teaser. La-la-la!' and he waved his shark-tooth.
teaser：難問。
'There's the hissy-snake at the end and the carp-mouth before the snake—as-as-as. We only want la-la' said Taffy.
'I know it, but we have to make la la. And we're the first people in all the world who've ever tried to do it, Taffimai!'
'Well,' said Taffy, yawning, for she was rather tired. 'Las means breaking or finishing as well as ending, doesn't it?'
yawning：欠伸しながら。
'So it does,' said Tegumai. 'Yo-las means that there's no water in the tank for Mummy to cook with—just when I'm going hunting, too.'
'And shi-las means that your spear is broken. If I'd only thought of that instead of drawing silly beaver pictures for the Stranger!'
silly：間抜けな。
'La! La! La!' said Tegumai, waving his stick and frowning. 'Oh bother!'
'I could have drawn shi quite easily,' Taffy went on. 'Then I'd have drawn your spear all broken—this way!' And she drew. (14.)
'The very thing,' said Tegumai. 'That's la all over. It isn't like any of the other marks, either.' And he drew this. (15.)
'Now for ya. Oh, we've done that before. Now for maru. Mum-mum-mum. Mum shuts one's mouth up, doesn't it? We'll draw a shut mouth like this.' And he drew. (16.)
now for：次は〜だ。
'Then the carp-mouth open. That makes Ma-ma-ma! But what about this rrrrr-thing, Taffy?'
'It sounds all rough and edgy, like your shark-tooth saw when you're cutting out a plank for the canoe,' said Taffy.
rough and edgy：粗くて鋭い。plank：厚板。canoe：カヌー（小舟）。
'You mean all sharp at the edges, like this?' said Tegumai. And he drew. (17.)
''Xactly,' said Taffy. 'But we don't want all those teeth: only put two.'
'xactly：正確に（exactlyの短縮形）。
'I'll only put in one,' said Tegumai. 'If this game of ours is going to be what I think it will, the easier we make our sound-pictures the better for everybody.' And he drew. (18.)
'Now we've got it,' said Tegumai, standing on one leg. 'I'll draw 'em all in a string like fish.'
'em：それら（themの短縮形）。string：一続き。
'Hadn't we better put a little bit of stick or something between each word, so's they won't rub up against each other and jostle, same as if they were carps?'
so's：〜のよう（so asの短縮形）。rub up：擦れ合う。jostle：競り合う。
'Oh, I'll leave a space for that,' said her Daddy. And very incitedly he drew them all without stopping, on a big new bit of birch-bark. (19.)
'Shu-ya-las ya-maru' said Taffy, reading it out sound by sound.
'That's enough for to-day,' said Tegumai. 'Besides, you're getting tired, Taffy. Never mind, dear. We'll finish it all to-morrow, and then we'll be remembered for years and years after the biggest trees you can see are all chopped up for firewood.'
chopped up：切り刻まれる。firewood：薪。
So they went home, and all that evening Tegumai sat on one side of the fire and Taffy on the other, drawing ya's and yo's and shu's and shi's in the smoke on the wall and giggling together till her Mummy said, 'Really, Tegumai, you're worse than my Taffy.'
'Please don't mind,' said Taffy. 'It's only our secret-s'prise, Mummy dear, and we'll tell you all about it the very minute it's done; but please don't ask me what it is now, or else I'll have to tell.'
or else：さもないと。
So her Mummy most carefully didn't; and bright and early next morning Tegumai went down to the river to think about new sound-pictures, and when Taffy got up she saw Ya-las (water is ending or running out) chalked on the side of the big stone water-tank, outside the Cave.
chalked：チョーク（白墨）で書かれる。
'Um,' said Taffy. 'These picture-sounds are rather a bother! Daddy's just as good as come here himself and told me to get more water for Mummy to cook with.' She went to the spring at the back of the house and filled the tank from a bark bucket, and then she ran down to the river and pulled her Daddy's left ear—the one that belonged to her to pull when she was good.
just as good as：〜と全く同じ（勝るとも劣らない）。spring：泉。belonged to her to：彼女に〜することが相応しかった（馴染んだ）。
'Now come along and we'll draw all the left-over sound-pictures,' said her Daddy, and they had a most inciting day of it, and a beautiful lunch in the middle, and two games of romps. When they came to T, Taffy said that as her name, and her Daddy's, and her Mummy's all began with that sound, they should draw a sort of family group of themselves holding hands. That was all very well to draw once or twice; but when it came to drawing it six or seven times, Taffy and Tegumai drew it scratchier and scratchier, till at last the T-sound was only a thin long Tegumai with his arms out to hold Taffy and Teshumai. You can see from these three pictures partly how it happened. (20, 21, 22.)
come along：一緒に来い。left-over：残り物。romps：騒々しい遊び。holding hands：手を繋ぐ。all very well to (but)：〜は誠に結構だ（構わない）が。Teshumai：テシュマイ（人名／名前）。
Many of the other pictures were much too beautiful to begin with, especially before lunch, but as they were drawn over and over again on birch-bark, they became plainer and easier, till at last even Tegumai said he could find no fault with them. They turned the hissy-snake the other way round for the Z-sound, to show it was hissing backwards in a soft and gentle way (23); and they just made a twiddle for E, because it came into the pictures so often (24);
made a twiddle：曲線（捻り線）を作った。came into：出て来た。
and they drew pictures of the sacred Beaver of the Tegumais for the B-sound (25, 26, 27, 28);
sacred：神聖な（有り難い）。Tegumais：テグマイ族。
and because it was a nasty, nosy noise, they just drew noses for the N-sound, till they were tired (29); and they drew a picture of the big lake-pike's mouth for the greedy Ga-sound (30); and they drew the pike's mouth again with a spear behind it for the scratchy, hurty Ka-sound (31);
nasty：汚らしい。nosy：煩い。lake-pike's：湖の川魣（魚の一種）の。greedy：貪欲な。scratchy：引っ掻いた（ガリガリ）。hurty：痛々しい。
and they drew pictures of a little bit of the winding Wagai river for the nice windy-windy Wa-sound (32, 33);
windy-windy：曲がりに曲がる（くねくねとした）。
and so on and so forth and so following till they had done and drawn all the sound-pictures that they wanted, and there was the Alphabet, all complete.
and so on and so forth：等など。
And after thousands and thousands and thousands of years, and after Hieroglyphics and Demotics, and Nilotics, and Cryptics, and Cufics, and Runics, and Dorics, and Ionics, and all sorts of other ricks and tricks (because the Woons, and the Neguses, and the Akhoonds, and the Repositories of Tradition would never leave a good thing alone when they saw it), the fine old easy, understandable Alphabet—A, B, C, D, E, and the rest of 'em—got back into its proper shape again for all Best Beloveds to learn when they are old enough.
hieroglyphics：象形文字（古代エジプトの文字の一種）。demotics：民衆文字（古代エジプトの文字の一種）。Nilotics：ナイル諸語（アフリカのナイル川上流のスーダン南部からタンザニアまで広い地域に居住するナイロート族が話す同系統の言語）。cryptics：難読文字。cufics：クーフィー体（アラビア文字の最古の書体）。runics：ルーン文字（ゲルマン人がゲルマン諸語を表記した古い文字体系）。Dorics：（古代ギリシャの）ドリス地方の言葉。Ionics：（古代ギリシャの）イオニア地方の言葉。ricks and tricks：堆積と秘訣。woons：ウーン（ビルマの行政官）。neguses：ネグス（エチオピアの統治範囲が狭い皇帝の称号）。akhoonds：アホン（イスラム教の宗教的な指導者）。Repositories of Tradition：伝統の貯蔵庫。understandable：分かる。got back into：戻って来た。
But I remember Tegumai Bopsulai, and Taffimai Metallumai and Teshumai Tewindrow, her dear Mummy, and all the days gone by. And it was so—just so—a little time ago—on the banks of the big Wagai!
Bopsulai：ボプスライ（人名／名前）。Tewindrow：テウィンドロウ（人名／名前）。gone by：過ぎ去った。
One of the first things that Tegumai Bopsulai did after Taffy and he had made the Alphabet was to make a magic Alphabet-necklace of all the letters, so that it could be put in the Temple of Tegumai and kept for ever and ever. All the Tribe of Tegumai brought their most precious beads and beautiful things, and Taffy and Tegumai spent five whole years getting the necklace in order. This is a picture of the magic Alphabet-necklace. The string was made of the finest and strongest reindeer-sinew, bound round with thin copper wire.
magic：（不思議な）魅力のある（素敵な）。get the necklace in order：首飾りを纏めた。reindeer-sinew：馴鹿の腱。thin copper wire：細い銅線。
Beginning at the top, the first bead is an old silver one that belonged to the Head Priest of the Tribe of Tegumai; then come three black mussel-pearls; next is a clay bead (blue and gray); next a nubbly gold bead sent as a present by a tribe who got it from Africa (but it must have been Indian really); the next is a long flat-sided glass bead from Africa (the Tribe of Tegumai took it in a fight); then come two clay beads (white and green), with dots on one, and dots and bands on the other; next are three rather chipped amber beads; then three clay beads (red and white), two with dots, and the big one in the middle with a toothed pattern. Then the letters begin, and between each letter is a little whitish clay bead with the letter repeated small. Here are the letters—
head priest：祭主。black mussel-pearls：紫貽貝の真珠。clay：土の。nubbly：織物の。Africa：アフリカ（大陸）。Indian：インド（国名）人。flat-sided：平らな面を持った（平べったい）。dots：点。bands：筋。chipped：欠けた。amber：琥珀。toothed pattern：鋸歯状模様。whitish：白っぽい。
A is scratched on a tooth an—elk-tusk I think.
elk-tusk：箆鹿（動物の一種／イギリス英語）の牙。
B is the Sacred Beaver of Tegumai on a bit of old glory.
a bit of：僅かな〜（の欠片）。
C is a pearly oyster-shell—inside front.
pearly：真珠のような。oyster-shell：牡蠣の貝殻。inside front：（表から見た）内側。
D must be a sort of mussel-shell—outside front.
outside front：（表から見た）外側。
E is a twist of silver wire.
silver wire：銀線。
F is broken, but what remains of it is a bit of stag's horn.
stag's horn：（専ら五歳以上の雄の）赤鹿の角。
G is painted black on a piece of wood. (The bead after G is a small shell, and not a clay bead. I don't know why they did that.)
H is a kind of a big brown cowrie-shell.
cowrie-shell：宝貝の貝殻。
I is the inside part of a long shell ground down by hand. (It took Tegumai three months to grind it down.)
ground down：擦り砕かれた。
J is a fish hook in mother-of-pearl.
fish hook：釣り針。mother-of-pearl：真珠層（貝の真珠のように輝く内側の部分）。
L is the broken spear in silver. (K ought to follow J of course, but the necklace was broken once and they mended it wrong.)
K is a thin slice of bone scratched and rubbed in black.
M is on a pale gray shell.
pale gray：薄灰。
N is a piece of what is called porphyry with a nose scratched on it. (Tegumai spent five months polishing this stone.)
porphyry：斑岩（鉱物の一種）。
O is a piece of oyster-shell with a hole in the middle.
P and Q are missing. They were lost a long time ago, in a great war, and the tribe mended the necklace with the dried rattles of a rattlesnake, but no one ever found P and Q. That is how the saying began, 'You must mind your P's and Q's.'
rattles：ガラガラと鳴るもの（ガラガラヘビの尾の先）。rattlesnake：ガラガラヘビ。saying：いい回し。you mind your P's and Q's：貴方はPとQのものに気を付ける（十八世紀にフランスの舞踊教師が生徒にpieds／足取りとqueues／弁髪に気を付けろといったことに由来するか）。
R is, of course, just a shark's tooth.
S is a little silver snake.
T is the end of a small bone, polished and shiny.
U is another piece of oyster-shell.
W is a twisty piece of mother-of-pearl that they found inside a big mother-of-pearl shell, and sawed off with a wire dipped in sand and water. It took Taffy a month and a half to polish it and drill the holes.
sawed off：（鋸などで）切り落とされた。wire：針金。drill：穴を開ける。
X is silver wire joined in the middle with a raw garnet. (Taffy found the garnet.)
raw garnet：ガーネット（鉱物の一種）の原石。
Y is the carp's tail in ivory.
ivory：象牙。
Z is a bell-shaped piece of agate marked with Z-shaped stripes. They made the Z-snake out of one of the stripes by picking out the soft stone and rubbing in red sand and bee's-wax. Just in the mouth of the bell you see the clay bead repeating the Z-letter.
bell-shaped：釣鐘型の。agate：メノウ（鉱物の変種）。soft stone：軟石。bee's-wax：蜜蝋。
These are all the letters.
The next bead is a small round greeny lump of copper ore; the next is a lump of rough turquoise; the next is a rough gold nugget (what they call water-gold); the next is a melon-shaped clay bead (white with green spots). Then come four flat ivory pieces, with dots on them rather like dominoes; then come three stone beads, very badly worn; then two soft iron beads with rust-holes at the edges (they must have been magic, because they look very common); and last is a very very old African bead, like glass blue, red, white, black, and yellow. Then comes the loop to slip over the big silver button at the other end, and that is all.
greeny：緑がかった。lump：塊。copper ore：銅鉱石。rough turquoise：粗削りのターコイズ（鉱物の一種）。rough gold nugget：粗削りの金塊。domino：ドミノ（遊びの一種）牌。worn：摩滅した。soft iron：軟鉄。rust-holes：錆びた穴。loop：（釦の）輪。slip over：（滑らせて）引っかける。
I have copied the necklace very carefully. It weighs one pound seven and a half ounces. ( … )
pound：パウンド（０．４５４キログラム）。ounces：オンス（１６分の１パウンド／２８．３４９グラム）。
Of all the Tribe of Tegumai
Who cut that figure, none remain—
On Merrow Down the cuckoos cry—
The silence and the sun remain.
cut that figure：その印象を与えた。Merrow Down：メロウダウン（イングランドの村の一部）。cuckoos：郭公（鳥の一種）。
But as the faithful years return
And hearts unwounded sing again,
Comes Taffy dancing through the fern
To lead the Surrey spring again.
faithful：事実通りの（正確な）。unwounded：傷付かない。fern：羊歯（植物の一種）。lead：（人生を）送る。Surrey：サリー（イングランドの州）。
Her brows are bound with bracken-fronds.
And golden elf-locks fly above;
Her eyes are bright as diamonds
And bluer than the skies above.
bracken-fronds：蕨（植物の一種）の羽葉。elf-locks：縺れ髪。
In moccasins and deer-skin cloak,
Unfearing, free and fair she flits,
And lights her little damp-wood smoke
To show her Daddy where she flits.
moccasins：モカシン（北米インディアンの踵なしの靴）。cloak：クローク（袖なし外套）。free and fair：気儘な色白の。flits：（人が）軽やかに過ぎる。damp-wood：湿気た木材。
For far—oh, very far behind,
So far she cannot call to him,
Comes Tegumai alone to find
The daughter that was all to him.
原文の出典：How the Alphabetwas Made
単語や熟語の意味は文意に相応しいものを一つだけ選んだ。作品の趣向に合うかどうか、つまり訳語として充分かどうかはさほど考慮しない。英語で理解するための最低限の意味が分かるように努めた。
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