Tintin and the Broken Ear

Author : Hergé

Language : English

The story begins when a fetish which originally belonged to a tribe of South American Indians is stolen from the Museum of Ethnography in Brussels. The following day it is back in the museum, along with a note apologizing for the inconvenience caused, saying that the reason for the theft had been a bet. Tintin, who is among the reporters looking into the story, realizes that the replacement is a fake, the distinction being an ear broken on the original but intact on the replacement.

He peruses a book from his own library with an image of the fetish, drawn by an explorer: it confirms that one of the ears is damaged, while the one back in the museum is not. Tintin then reads that a wood carver called Balthazar has died. Suspecting that Balthazar made a duplicate of the fetish and was murdered, Tintin tries to obtain the man's parrot in order to get a clue to the killer's identity. But he soon discovers that a pair of South Americans — Alonso Perez and Ramon Bada — are also on the trail of the fetish, following the same clues and employing more ruthless methods. The parrot eventually repeats the last words of his owner, naming a man called Tortilla as his killer. Perez and Ramon know Tortilla, and Tintin, having tracked them down, overhears their conversation. This takes the three men, and their attempts to outwit each other, to South America, where the plot thickens.

During the journey by ship, Perez and Ramon murder Tortilla. It was he who stole the fetish from the museum and murdered Balthazar after getting him to produce the copy that Tortilla placed in the museum. Among his luggage is yet another replica of the stolen fetish. Tintin, who was also on the ship in disguise, has Perez and Ramon arrested as they dock in the main port of the republic of San Theodoros. But when soldiers arrive on board to take them away, they are led by a colonel who knows Ramon and Perez and, once ashore, lets them go. He then helps them to lure Tintin to shore where he is framed for terrorism and sentenced to death.

In San Theodoros General Alcazar and his rebels are fighting against the ruling General Tapioca. Just as Tintin finds himself at the gun tips of the firing squad, General Alcazar's rebels save him. Unusually, Tintin has been drinking heavily (aguardiente, the national drink) and in a drunken state proclaims his support for Alcazar in front of a firing squad. Now in command of the country, General Alcazar honours Tintin by making him Colonel and aide-de-camp.

Tintin's new position of power is not without its problems. For one thing his humiliated predecessor swears revenge and makes several bungled attempts to kill him and Alcazar. Perez & Ramon also continue in their attempts to get rid of him and recover the genuine fetish. The idol found in Tortilla's possession has turned out to be yet another fake, and they are erroneously convinced that Tintin knows the location of the original fetish.

To add to this, two rival oil companies, General American Oil and British South-American Petrol, manipulate the governments of San Theodoros and the neighbouring state of Nuevo-Rico, pushing both countries to war in order to get control of some profitable oil fields. When Tintin attempts to prevent war, J.W. Trickler, a representative of General American Oil, arranges for him to be killed by a man named Pablo. Pablo's attempt fails, due to a simultaneous assassination attempt by Ramon. Tintin captures Pablo, who begs for mercy, and lets him go.

Trickler then frames Tintin for espionage and the young man is soon sentenced to death. Pablo, grateful that Tintin spared his life, assembles a gang of men, breaks into the prison and frees Tintin and Snowy. They escape by car to the border with Nuevo-Rico, but come under fire by border guards. The incident is exaggerated in the press and used by the belligerent governments of both countries as justification for the war that Tintin tried to prevent.

Tintin escapes the Nuevo-Ricans and discovers that he is not far from the Arumbaya River. The Arumbayas, who live isolated in the rainforest, were the original owners of the fetish. The fetish itself is of no real value and Tintin has been wondering why so many people have been willing to steal and kill for it. He believes that the Arumbayas hold the answer and convinces a reluctant native to take him to them.

In the rainforest Tintin meets Ridgewell, a British explorer living with the Arumbayas, and he learns that the fetish was offered to a previous explorer called Walker (who also happens to be the author of the book "Travels in the Americas" (London, 1875) Tintin had read earlier) as a token of friendship during his stay with the tribe. But as soon as the explorers left, the Arumbayas discovered that a sacred diamond had disappeared. Lopez, a half-caste interpreter to the explorers, had stolen it. The Arumbayas were furious and pursued Walker's expedition, massacring almost all the explorers. Walker himself managed to escape with the fetish while a wounded Lopez barely got himself out of the jungle. Tintin believes that Lopez hid the diamond in the fetish so that he could retrieve the stone later.

In the original French edition, Hergé made up an artificial language for the Arumbaya tribe and their sworn enemies, the Rumbabas, based on Marols or Marollien, a Flemish dialect spoken in the city of Brussels. Although Hergé was Francophone, he may have heard this dialect from his grandmother. For the English edition, the translators made use of an accurate phonetic transcription of Cockney, transmogrified into an Indian-looking language by adding idiosyncratic punctuation and an exotic-looking morphology. Ridgewell is the only living white man that is able to speak this lingo, and act as an interpreter. When one of the Rumbabas shows them three shrunken heads on sticks, the native comments "Ahw wada lu'vali bahn chaco conats!" (p. 50 of the Magnet edition), which means "Oh, what a lovely bunch of coconuts!". When Tintin is hit by a golf ball, Ridgewell shouts "Ai tolja tahitta ferlip inbaul intada oh'l! Andatdohn meenis ferlip ineer oh'l!", which stands for "I told ya to hit the flippin' ball into the 'ole! And that don't [sic] mean 'is flippin' ear-'ole!" (p. 52). Funnily enough, the tribes speak proper English amongst themselves and when addressing Snowy.

Tintin leaves the Arumbayas only to come across Perez and Ramon who have deserted from the San Theodoran Army. Tintin manages to capture them. In Perez's wallet he finds a note which confirms that the diamond is in the fetish. The note used to belong to Rodrigo Tortilla, the man who originally stole the fetish from the museum (whom they killed earlier in the book). How Tortilla is connected to Lopez is not revealed. Perez and Ramon later escape from Tintin.

With no leads to follow, Tintin and Snowy return to Belgium only to find copies of the fetish being sold in numerous shops. They go to the factory that produces them and meet Balthazar's brother, who had found the fetish among his late brother's affairs. However he has sold the original fetish to a rich man called Samuel Goldbarr, who has left for America. Using a plane Tintin manages to catch the ship, only to find that Perez and Ramon are already aboard and have finally got hold of the fetish. During the confrontation, the fetish falls and breaks revealing the diamond. All three of them try to save it but fall into the ocean. Tintin is saved by the crew. However, Alonso Perez and Ramon Bada drown (and are subsequently shown briefly in Hell).

The original fetish (without the diamond in it) is glued and tied back together and returned to the museum. Courtesy: wikipedia.org

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