ini kat hozil
我走近一處鄒族小型部落，一隻大型白狗出來迎接。一位太太說，「牠不會咬人。」
我說，「牠不需要咬人，只要站起來就把人嚇死了！」

the gentle giant
I approached a small group of Tsou houses. A huge white dog came out to greet me.

"He doesn't bite," the lady assured me.

"He doesn't have to, all he has to do is stand up and he scares people to death."

南島語系，東起夏威夷、復活島，經南洋、紐西蘭、印尼，西及馬達加斯加，其源頭迺臺灣語：其中，泰雅、西夏、鄒殆最古，溯至六千年前，屬今日世界現存最古老語言之首。這活寶雖面臨絕滅，但一般臺灣民眾、政壇人物，冷淡視之，隨它去吧。大概太忙著愛臺灣，沒時間顧這些。

嘉義縣鄒域來吉村一位九十歲的婆婆幫我念一到十。依我極有限的了解，鄒人數不同類物、事，似用不同的數字。但這可作為入門教材。

The Austronesian language family stretches from Hawaii and Easter Island in the East, through Polynesia, New Zealand, and Indonesia, all the way across to Madagascar. The family originates in the aboriginal languages of Taiwan. Of these, Tayal, Saisyat, and Tsou (Cou) are probably the earliest, and among the oldest living languages in the world. If you count from Beowulf, English dates back about 1600 years; Russian, French, and Spanish probably about 1000 years; Chinese probably about 3,500 years. Tayal and Tsou are roughly 6,000 years old.

In Pnguu, a Tsou village in the mountains of central Taiwan, I asked a 90 year old lady to recite 1 through 10 for me. I don't know much about the language, but they seem to have different numbers for counting different things. This is the basic set.

今天農曆二月十二日是花朝節，百花的生日：click here:: 請疼惜一切花草樹木。

沒有它們，我們也不能活。

Today is All Flowers’ Birthday, the 12th day of the second lunar month. Be nice to a plant today.

Be nice to a plant every day.

昨天遇到這條小蛇，長不盈二十公分。本來頭在一片葉下，乍看來以為是一段青藤，再看好像是蛇，用小竹移葉，果然蛇也。本來以為青蛇的幼蛇，可是看到頸上有文，不知道幼蛇是否如此？

若有仁人君子知道這是何種蛇，請不吝指教！多謝。

Yesterday when I first saw this, one end was concealed by a leaf, so I thought it was a section of vine. It’s not twenty centimeters long, and no thicker than an average pencil. Then I wondered if it might be a snake, so I lifted the leaf with a small piece of bamboo, and the snake started moving into the grass.

I thought it might be a baby Taiwan Green Snake (Cyclophiops major), but it has marks on the back of its neck. Can anybody can identify this?

Last night, when we came home, we were steaming up the steps, eager to get in the house, when suddenly I realized that my next step would place my left foot squarely on a qimbahu, a 龜殼花 pit viper, poisonous enough to keep people it bites in the hospital for a couple weeks. It was not big, only about 70 cm, or say two feet long, but I felt happy I did not step on it. It was stretched out across the step. I pulled back and, to my surprise, the snake started striking at me. It was out of range, and, to my further surprise, it kept striking and moving towards me. The qimbahu has a reputation for being very aggressive, but I had never encountered anything like this before. I moved back and talked to it softly, but it kept striking. I wanted it to get off the stairs before the dogs came to greet us, especially Yumin, who feels duty bound to protect Byajing. In a moment Byajing came rushing down the steps, wagging happily, and ran right over the snake. I think she stepped on it. The snake probably decided it was not enjoying its evening, and pulled back. Tlahuy started coming down the stairs. I ordered him to stop, and when Byajing rushed back up the stairs, I ordered her to stop. The snake coiled at the trunk of a tree by the stairs, and I very quickly walked past it, then had Sabiy come up too. End of event.

As I say, I had never seen a qimbahu so aggressive. It must have struck at me six times. In post game analysis, Sabiy and I concluded that the snake was as surprised to see me as I was to see it. There it was, enjoying a nice slither across the concrete stairs, when suddenly this huge monster rushes up and almost stomps on it. No wonder it was upset! But notice that even though it had a clear shot at Byajing, and the qimbahu is lightning fast, it did not bite her.

Attitude counts.

qimbahu
Originally uploaded by Yugan Dali

Excellent coffee is grown in central Taiwan, but the supply is limited. Coffee trees bloom only three days a year, so we were lucky to see this today.

雲林慈光咖啡

Yumin has been climbing trees again. This always cracks me up. As you can probably guess, he was trying to get at a kitty cat perched high up in the tree. He didn't make it, but he sure did give it his best.

Who knows, with practice, maybe some day…

Overheard on the MRT
很高的男生： 妳不需要減肥，妳需要長高。
很矮的女生： 我想，可是就是長不高。
很高的男生： 要不要去看演唱會？
很矮的女生： 不想。
很高的男生： 為甚麼？
很矮的女生： 甚麼都看不到。

Very tall boy: You don't need to diet, you need to grow taller.

Very short girl: I would if I could.

VTB: Do you want to go to the concert?

VSG: I don't go to concerts.

VTB: Why not?

VSG: I can never see anything.

好可惜，元宵節過了我才想出一個很棒的謎題：

頭上有鼻子，腳下也有鼻子，我是誰？

謎底請看本blog 三月一日:here::

Today is the birthday of my favorite composer, Georg Philipp Telemann. He would be 329 years old today, and improves with age every year. Baroque is my favorite music, and Telemann wrote a lot for my favorite instrument, the recorder, which especially endears him to me.

According to Wikipedia, "The Guinness Book of World Records lists Telemann as the most prolific composer of all time with more than 800 credited works. More recent studies, for example the thematic catalogues of his works published in the 1980s and 1990s, have shown that Telemann actually wrote over 3,000 compositions, many of which are now lost."

If you haven't started your commemoration yet, please begin with these three pieces:

念師大國文系，我們散文課上兩年，細讀古文觀止。畢業幾十年後，我還時常拿出來抽一篇兩篇看看。好文章，越看越好看。

古文觀止，蒐兩千年文章的精華；從兩千年的文獻收這幾篇，實在很少。所以前幾天到書店，看到有人把古文觀止削去了八九成，留幾篇為『典藏』；更甚者，有一本「古文觀止一百句」；我不懂，讀古文觀止是為著甚麼？

論語，讀了幾十年，到現在每翻閱必有奇獲。這本書，再加小戴禮記，真是出很多課題，讓人思索、掙扎。果然，顏淵喟然歎曰：「仰之彌高，鑽之彌堅；瞻之在前，忽焉在後。夫子循循然善誘人，博我以文，約我以禮。欲罷不能，既竭吾才，如有所立卓爾。雖欲從之，末由也已。」曠世作品，不經一番折騰，是不會輕易讓你入門的。所以子貢曰：「譬之宮牆，賜之牆也及肩，窺見室家之好。夫子之牆數仞，不得其門而入，不見宗廟之美，百官之富。得其門者或寡矣。」看到書店架子上「輕鬆讀論語」之類的書，愕然。輕鬆讀會有甚麼收穫？一分錢一分貨的道理：付出多少，才有多少收穫。

現代人為甚麼那麼怕接受挑戰？

Doesn't compassionate conservatism just warm the cockles of your heart? Former House majority leader Tom Delay (R-Tex) has announced that people are unemployed because they want to be. Click here if you think I'm making this up.

Mr Delay, do you also believe that girls get raped because they ask for it? and that all those nasty black people wanted to get lynched?

Let Delay spend some time trying to get by on unemployment benefits and see how much he savors the experience.

Jane Fonda taught me this: it is immoral to advocate a form of government that you would not be willing to live under as an average citizen. Now Delay has taught me to expand that: it is immoral to advocate a policy that you would not be willing to live by as an average citizen.

Yesterday I wrote that there was no harm done by the morning's 6.4 earthquake down south. I wrote that an hour after the quake; later there were reports of some damage and injuries, but overall, we got off very lightly.

Not all earthquake injuries go reported. About twenty years ago, I had a friend called Banana. She was deathly afraid of earthquakes. In one mild quake, she was responsible for the only earthquake related injury in Taiwan, and it never got reported until now. When the building started to shake, she shoved her ten year old daughter under the dining room table with such force and anxiety that she rammed her daughter's head into the leg of the table. No damage from the earthquake, just her daughter rolling on the floor clutching her forehead and screaming bloody murder.

After that, her three children drew the line. They said they would take their chances with earthquakes, but they told Banana to leave them alone and fend for herself.

From then on, whenever there was a tremor, the kids would gather around to laugh at Banana huddling underneath the dining room table.

You know what? After a while, they cured her of her phobia. She figured getting squashed by falling debris was preferable to getting jeered at by her kids.

And they were right, too. In an earthquake, you should never take refuge under a table or car. Lie next to it, and let it take the weight of whatever is falling.

We've had an earthquake, thank you. It registered 6.4 Richter at the epicenter, down south, much lighter here, up north. Fortunately, there appears to have been no damage.

The earthquake didn't hurt. What hurt was a sentence the article written by Reuters:
One of Taiwan's worst-recorded quakes occurred in September 1999.
Please! Do you mean it was one of the worst quakes ever recorded, or that it was the most poorly recorded quake?

三月十五日的謎底：
頭上有鼻子，腳下也有鼻子，我是臺灣：北端有鼻頭角，南端就是鵝鑾鼻。

說有多無聊….