0

The following is a part of Claire North's book, "Game House".

Her clothes are not so much worn as wrapped all about her, great twists and barrels of cloth in faded blue and brown, spun around her chest, her waist, her head, her feet, and we can feel perhaps a moment of sympathy for the man **who is on the receiving end of her tongue, as forked as her cargo, sympathetic as a fang.

'Her cargo' means snakes.

In this context, what is the meaning of receiving end of her tongue? I also wonder what the shape of her clothes is in the previous sentence...

Improve this question
1
  • Just to clarify the existing answer, "the receiving end" is often used of people who suffer unpleasant (verbal or physical) actions. "He was on the receiving end of a vicious tirade"; "I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of Federer's serve", etc.
    – legatrix
    Commented Dec 5, 2020 at 10:34

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

Her "tongue" is being used to mean the way she talks to people. We are told that her tongue is "as forked as her cargo and sympathetic as a fang". To understand this we need to know what her "cargo" is.... checking google books we find that she sells live snakes!

So her tongue is as forked as a snake's tongue. The means that she lies and deceives people. And it is as sympathetic as a snakes fang. That means she says cruel and poisonous things.

This is why we have pity for the man who receives her tongue. That man is being told cruel lies.

I discover on wikipeida that traditional Rattanakosin Thai clothes were wrapped, around the body, not stitched. In formal styles this was rather like an Sari in India, but this woman seems to be have twisted and folded the cloth around her body in a more practical but less stylish way.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .