Short Fiction · Chapter
A Deal in Ostriches explained
A taxidermist recounts a story from his youth about a diamond swallowed by an ostrich aboard an East Indiaman.
What happens
A taxidermist recounts a story from his youth about a diamond swallowed by an ostrich aboard an East Indiaman. The gem belonged to Sir Mohini Padishah, a wealthy Hindu. A series of bids, sales, and dissections ensue as passengers gamble on which bird holds the diamond, culminating in a suspicious friendship between Padishah and the opportunistic Potter.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Inequality
The story contrasts the wealthy Padishah with the opportunistic Potter and the amused passengers, highlighting colonial and class tensions.
Artifice vs. Authenticity
The uncertainty over whether the diamond was ever swallowed, and the eventual camaraderie between Padishah and Potter, suggests deception and performance.
Ambition and Failure
Padishah's obsessive attempts to reclaim his diamond and the passengers' speculative bids end in ambiguous loss, underscoring the folly of greed.
Characters to notice
- Sir Mohini Padishah
The wealthy Hindu whose diamond is swallowed by an ostrich; he frantically tries to recover it through legal threats and bidding.
- Potter
A Eurasian gambler who buys all five ostriches and auctions them off, keeping one for himself.
- Mr. Jacoby Wace
The taxidermist and narrator of the story, who participates in the bidding.
Key passages
“Talking of the prices of birds, I’ve seen an ostrich that cost three hundred pounds.”
The narrator begins by mentioning an ostrich that sold for three hundred pounds.
Opening hook that sets up the story's financial stakes.
“The chap it got it off was Sir Mohini Padishah, a tremendous swell, a Piccadilly swell you might say up to the neck of him, and then an ugly black head and a whopping turban, with this diamond in it.”
The diamond belonged to Sir Mohini Padishah, a wealthy Indian man dressed in fashionable European style but with a turban.
Introduces the owner and the exotic/colonial contrast.
“He would not buy the birds; he would have his diamond. He demanded his rights as a British subject.”
Padishah insisted on recovering the diamond itself rather than accepting compensation.
Highlights Padishah's legalistic and emotional attachment to the gem.
“Potter said he’d be hanged if he parted with a feather of them—that he meant to kill them off one by one and find the diamond.”
Potter refused to sell the birds and planned to dissect them to find the diamond.
Shows Potter's speculative and ruthless approach.
“A week or so after landing I was down Regent-street doing a bit of shopping, and who should I see arm-in-arm and having a purple time of it but Padishah and Potter.”
Later, the narrator saw Padishah and Potter together in London, apparently on friendly terms.
Suggests the whole incident may have been a scam or that they reconciled.