Tintin Forums

Hello.
Firstly I'd like to remark upon how great this site is, its wonderful to have the opportunity to chat with other Tintin fans!

Since childhood I fell in love with The Adventures of Tintin, I collected every book - including 'The Lake of Sharks' which I was not terribly fond of.

Not too long ago I foolishly lent most of my collection to an overseas traveller whom I took pity on. He dissapeared overseas after defiling them with grease & stains. Poor, poor Tintin!!

Anyway I digress:
I've since begun re-establishing the collection & have noticed the old publishers are no longer responsible for Tintin. The new publishers are Egmont (2003) and I could be mistaken but it seems there have been some changes made. I cannot be certain of the suspected changes to some of Snowy's lines, however I'm pretty sure about one line in particular.

Near the end of 'The Cigars of The Pharaoh' the cult members have a password fiasco after they suspect they've been infiltrated. If my memory serves me the original password which is shouted out by the forgetful member is 'The dogs bark and the camels pass'. Yet in this new edition the password is 'KIH-OSKH and GAIPAJAMA'.

I sincerely hope I'm mistaken, however if anyone has a pre-Egmont version and the time to check I'd be very grateful.

Once again, great site :)

Thanks

Hello prof,

My Magnet version says KIH-OSKH and GAIPAJAMA! My Facsimile (French) edition says KIH-OSKH et RAWHAJ-POUTALAH!

I wonder if you're remembering a line from another book? I'm a bit out of practice of actually reading my Tintin books, but that othe rline sounds familiar to me...

I believe "the dog's bark ..." was in The Red Sea Sharks, when the guide takes Tintin and Haddock to the temple where the Emir is in hiding - the guards demand the password.

Ahhh excellent, that is quite a relief!

Thankyou Tybaltstone & Richard

Incidentally, I recently discovered that “the dogs bark...” is really an idiomatic expression in quite a few languages (although I've never heard it used in English) meaning “let the world say what it will.” The French version is “les chiens aboient, la caravane passe” and is probably Arabic in origin. It's proper translation would be “the dogs bark and the caravan moves on.”

I've always liked this particular scene in the English edition of The Red Sea Sharks (page 28), where the guide gets his password in a muddle (“the camels bark... er, no...”). I don't actually have the French edition to compare but perhaps someone with a copy would be kind enough to transcribe the French text of the guide's mistake?

Most certainly, Chris!

"Les chameaux aboient... euh! non... Les chiens aboient, la caravane passe."

Ed

Cheers Ed!

So, it's the same in French - “the camels bark...” In a way it probably works better in English just because the camels aren't actually mentioned by name in the original French expression (OK, ‘caravans’ refers indirectly to camels...).

P.S. If nobody objects I thought it better to change the title of this thread to “Passwords used in the adventures of Tintin”.

In the same Red Sea Sharks (original version, p.60), a 'password' is revealed in a newspaper:

Officiellement aboli depuis 1815
L'esclavage existe encore!
Le mot de passe des marchands de chair humaine: "Coke en stock"

namely:

Officially abolished since 1815
Slavery still exists!
The human flesh traders' password is "Coke en Stock"

i.e. the original album's title itself...

Please could someone give here the English rendering of that passage?

yamilah wrote: 'Officially abolished since 1815 Slavery still exists! The human flesh traders' password is "Coke en Stock"' ... could someone give here the English rendering of that passage?

The same headline in the English language edition* reads:
New revelations shock the world
Slavery - It still exists
Traffickers in human lives use code-word "COKE"

*page 60, frame 1. Mammoth edition, 1990.