18. Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon, pp. 554-596

Two: America; 56-60

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In his field journal, Mason notes that "Cycles, or if you like, Segments of eleven Days recur again and again," which he ascribes to "the famous Eleven Missing Days of the Calendar Reform of '52." And to Dixon he tells a fantastic tale about being caught up in a time vortex, "finding myself in September third, 1752, a date that for all the rest of England, did not exist."

During their winter break, Dixon and Mason swap the direction they took on their previous break, Dixon going north to New York, where he encounters the same crew that abducted Mason on the last trip, this time more open about their revolutionary activities. In fact, he meets them "at Montagne's Tavern, upon Broad-Way, near Murray Street, which proves to be Head-quarters of the local Sons of Liberty, as well as thick with Intrigue, regardless of the Hour." He also meets up with some who figured earlier in the novel: "Foretopman Bodine, once of the Seahorse," and Philip Dimdown, who is no longer a fop but now "a serious young man upon a Mission whose end may not be predicted." Dixon is questioned by Dimdown as to his sympathies as a Quaker toward the Americans' impending struggle for independence.

"''Tis not how British treat Americans,' Dixon amiably rubescent, ''tis how both of You treat the American Slaves, and the Indians Native here, that engages the Friends more closely, -- an old and melancholy History.... My allegiance, as a Quaker born, would lie, above all, with Christ, -- withal, as a Geordie, for reasons unarguably Tribal, I can have no sympathy for any British King, -- not even one who's paid my wages, bless 'im.'" 

Mason's journey southward takes him to Williamsburg, while along the way he finds an equivalent nascent rebelliousness. In Williamsburg he is invited to play billiards with Col. Washington. The tavern is filled with smoke, and Mason and Washington overhear an argument over someone's use of the word "nigger," in which Washington is surprised to hear the voice of Gershom. "Half the Company seem to believe this is a white Customer, impersonating an African. Others, having caught Gershom's act before, recognize him right away." They began asking him for particular jokes they've heard him tell.

Then Mason recognizes another voice in the crowd, that of "Baby-Phiz Nathe McClean, or I'm a Sailor." McClean has returned to his studies at William and Mary. He tells Mason that he left the surveying party "just in time.... I should have been crazy as Captain Zhang, had I remained a week more." But he also says that "the Captain wasn't just Pipe-Smoaking in the Article of that Sha. We all felt it, as, to Appearance, did you and Mr. Dixon. Surveying a Property Line, that may be one thing, -- clearing and marking a Right Line of an Hundred Leagues, into the Lands of Others, cannot be a kindly Act."

At the end of March, the surveyors go back to work, where they find an uproar over "the great Scandal over the winter involving Tom Hynes, Catherine Wheat, and their Baby." The story of the scandal, which takes up a chapter, owes as much to Mark Twain as it does to the 18th-century novelists like Smollett and Sterne who inform the rest of Pynchon's novel.

Returning to work, Dixon encounters a suspicion that the surveyors may be spies by saying, "'Tis a gormless Spy indeed, who'd lurk where there are no more Secrets to steal. ... What is there that has not been visited, intentionally and not, an hundred times?" Captain Shelby, with whom they left the instruments for the winter, observes that "There is a love of complexity, here in America, ... pur Space waits the Surveyor, -- no previous Lines, no fences, no streets to constrain polygony however extravagant."

Dixon begins trying to learn how to use Zhang's luopan, and notes that Britain is in "the Terrestrial Sign of Draco, the Dragon." But he explains to Zhang that where he comes from, in Durham, dragons "are not at all the Chinese Variety. Some, like the Lambton Worm, lacking Wings and a fire-breathing Capacity, may indeed be of a distinct Species." And he proceeds to tell his version of the legend of the Lambton Worm. Afterward, Captain Shelby alludes to a serpentine mound on the other side of the Ohio which the Indians claim predate their inhabiting the region. He proposes that they investigate some mounds nearer to where they are.

9. Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon, pp. 257-288

Two: America; 26-28

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Mason and Dixon arrive in Philadelphia, which Cherrycoke informs his audience was "second only to London, as the greatest of English speaking cities." It is mid-November and "a rousing Evangelist" has just visited the city, leaving a wave of religious enthusiasm behind him. "Even Quakers are out in the Street, bargaining with unexpected pugnacity, for a share of this Population suddenly turn'd into Christliness." Cherrycoke recalls when Whitefield visited and Philadelphia was "delirious with Psalms." This somehow turns the talk of his audience to music, and Ethelmer performs a song "the fellows sing at University": "To Anacreon in Heaven," noting a phrase that ascends "like a Sky-Rocket" and observing

"'Tis ever the sign of Revolutionary times, that Street-Airs become Hymns, and Roist'ring-Songs Anthems, -- just as Plato fear'd, -- hast heard the Negroe Musick, the flatted Fifths, the vocal portamenti, -- 'tis there sings your Revolution.... Is it not the very Rhythm of the Engines, the Clamor of the Mills, the Rock of the Oceans, the Roll of the Drums in the Night, why if one wish'd to give it a Name, --"

"Surf Music!" DePugh cries. 

Cherrycoke resumes his narrative with the encounter of Mason and Dixon with Benjamin Franklin in an apothecary where they have gone to order medicines for their journey into the wilderness. Franklin helps them stock up on laudanum and save money, too: "Strangers, heed my wise advice, -- Never pay the Retail Price." They then adjourn to Franklin's favorite pub, The Blue Jamaica, where, when Dixon goes to relieve himself, Franklin questions Mason about his partner's "Calvert connections," noting that the Jesuit Le Maire "is native to Durham and a particular friend of Dixon's teacher, William Emerson." Mason is shocked to infer that Franklin is asking him to spy on Dixon: "I am sorry the Politics here have become so, as one would say, Italian, in their intricacies."

Dixon returns, and when Mason exits for the same need, Franklin starts to work on Dixon about Mason's "East India Company Connections" and particularly Sam Peach, whose name Dixon feigns not to recognize: "One of thoase lads in The Beggar's Opera...?" Franklin fails in his mission to set the surveyors on each other, but introduces him to some women, Molly and Dolly, and invites them to hear him play the glass armonica at The Fair Anchor that evening. There they meet a Mr. Tallihoe of Virginia, who wants to arrange for them to visit Col. Washington.

So the next day they are off to Mount Vernon, where George Washington "turns out to be taller than Dixon, by about as much as Dixon rises over Mason." Washington is not "the incompetent Fool depicted in the London press, and he smiles when he hears Dixon's northern accent, "though owing to the state of his teeth he is reluctant to do so when in company, -- a smile from Col. Washington, however tentative, is said to be a mark of favor." He notes that he has relatives who talk the way Dixon does. Washington has surveyed the West himself, and they discuss the political and legal conflicts and pitfalls involved.

Washington calls for Gershom to bring them "some Pipes, and a Bowl of the new-cur'd Hemp. And another gallon of your magnificent Punch." Gershom is "An African servant with an ambiguous expression" whom Washington calls, quoting John 1:47, "an Israelite in whom there is no guile." Dixon takes mild offense: the Earl of Darlington used to call Dixon's great-uncle George, who was his steward, the same thing. But Gershom tells him not to take offense "about that Israelite talk" because he is "of the Hebrew faith." And he bends his head to display his yarmulke. When Washington asks for some hog jowls, Mason is surprised that Gershom should be asked to serve pork, but Gershom says "the Sect I belong to, is concern'd scarce at all with Dietary Rules." And Washington observes, "Yet if a Jew cooking pork is a Marvel, what of a Negroe, working a Room?" Gershom, he explains, is a stand-up comedian working "a circuit of Coaching-inns" and earning "an income per annum which creeps dangerously close to that of his nominal Master, me."

Martha Washington, "a diminutive woman with a cheerful rather than happy air, who seems to bustle even when standing still," joins them. Mason and Dixon divide their attention between the Washingtons, Mason discussing astronomy with Martha while Dixon talks with Washington about the history of the Ohio Company, in which Washington's brothers are investors. Washington talks about the expedition of Céléron de Bienville in the Ohio Valley, in which he buried lead plates to mark the claim of the French to the territory. This attracts Mason's attention too, and there is much discussion about the electrical possibilities of lead plates. Washington says he dug up a few, and when Dixon sees them he is startled to see markings in Chinese on them. Washington then grows suspicious of Dixon and asks him for the Masonic password, which Dixon fortunately has learned. Washington is put at ease, and explains that Jesuits from Quebec sometimes show up "to work some mischief down here -- so a fellow has to be extra vigilant, is all."

Later, Franklin explains that the Jesuits are believed to have a form of telegraphy that involves balloons and mirrors, and that there are Telegraph Squads composed of "elite teams of converted Chinese... The Sino-Jesuit conjunction may prove a greater threat to Christendom than ever the Mongols or the Moors. Pray that more than the Quarrel over Feng Shui divides them."