SWEETLY picturesque2 as was their new steed, our lion-hunters had to give it up, purely3 out of consideration for the red cap, of course. So they continued the journey on foot as before, the caravan4 tranquilly5 proceeding6 southwardly by short stages, the Tarasconian in the van, the Montenegrin in the rear, and the camel, with the weapons in their cases, in the ranks.
The expedition lasted nearly a month.
During that seeking for lions which he never found, the dreadful Tartarin roamed from douar to douar on the immense plain of the Shelliff, through the odd but formidable French Algeria, where the old Oriental perfumes are complicated by a strong blend of absinthe and the barracks, Abraham and “the Zouzou” mingled7, something fairy-tale-like and simply burlesque8, like a page of the Old Testament9 related by Tommy Atkins.
A curious sight for those who have eyes that can see.
A wild and corrupted10 people whom we are civilising by teaching them our vices11. The ferocious12 and uncontrolled authority of grotesque13 bashaws, who gravely use their grand cordons14 of the Legion of Honour as handkerchiefs, and for a mere15 yea or nay16 order a man to be bastinadoed. It is the justice of the conscienceless, bespectacled cadis under the palm-tree, Maw-worms of the Koran and Law, who dream languidly of promotion17 and sell their decrees, as Esau did his birthright, for a dish of lentils or sweetened kouskous. Drunken and libertine18 cadis are they, formerly19 servants to some General Yusuf or the like, who get intoxicated20 on champagne21, along with laundresses from Port Mahon, and fatten22 on roast mutton, whilst before their tents the whole tribe waste away with hunger, and fight with the harriers for the bones of the lordly feast.
All around spread the plains in waste, burnt grass, leafless shrubs23, thickets24 of cactus25 and mastic —“the Granary of France!"— a granary void of grain, alas26! and rich alone in vermin and jackals. Abandoned camps, frightened tribes fleeing from them and famine, they know not whither, and strewing27 the road with corpses28. At long intervals29 French villages, with the dwellings30 in ruins, the fields untilled, the maddened locusts31 gnawing32 even the window-blinds, and all the settlers in the drinking-places, absorbing absinthe and discussing projects of reform and the Constitution.
This is what Tartarin might have seen had he given himself the trouble; but, wrapped up entirely33 in his leonine-hunger, the son of Tarascon went straight on, looking to neither right nor left, his eyes steadfastly34 fixed35 on the imaginary monsters which never really appeared.
As the shelter-tent was stubborn in not unfolding, and the compressed meat-cakes would not dissolve, the caravan was obliged to stop, morn and eve, at tribal36 camps. Everywhere, thanks to the gorgeous cap of Prince Gregory, our hunters were welcomed with open arms. They lodged37 in the aghas’ odd palaces, large white windowless farmhouses38, where they found, pell-mell, narghilehs and mahogany furniture, Smyrna carpets and moderator lamps, cedar39 coffers full of Turkish sequins, and French statuette-decked clocks in the Louis Philippe style.
Everywhere, too, Tartarin was given splendrous galas, diffas, and fantasias, which, being interpreted, mean feasts and circuses. In his honour whole goums blazed away powder, and floated their burnouses in the sun. When the powder was burnt, the agha would come and hand in his bill. This is what is called Arab hospitality.
But always no lions, no more than on London Bridge.
Nevertheless, the Tarasconian did not grow disheartened. Ever bravely diving more deeply into the South, he spent the days in beating up the thickets, probing the dwarf-palms with the muzzle40 of his rifle, and saying “Boh!” to every bush. And every evening, before lying down, he went into ambush41 for two or three hours. Useless trouble, however, for the lion did not show himself.
One evening, though, going on six o’clock, as the caravan scrambled42 through a violet-hued mastic-grove, where fat quails43 tumbled about in the grass, drowsy44 through the heat, Tartarin of Tarascon fancied he heard though afar and very vague, and thinned down by the breeze — that wondrous45 roaring to which he had so often listened by Mitaine’s Menagerie at home.
At first the hero feared he was dreaming; but in an instant further the roaring recommenced more distinct, although yet remote; and this time the camel’s hump shivered in terror, and made the tinned meats and arms in the cases rattle46, whilst all the dogs in the camps were heard howling in every corner of the horizon.
Beyond doubt this was the lion.
Quick, quick! to the ambush. There was not a minute to lose.
Near at hand there happened to be an old marabout’s, or saint’s, tomb, with a white cupola, and the defunct’s large yellow slippers47 placed in a niche48 over the door, and a mass of odd offerings — hems49 of blankets, gold thread, red hair — hung on the wall.
Tartarin of Tarascon left his prince and his camel and went in search of a good spot for lying in wait. Prince Gregory wanted to follow him, but the Tarasconian refused, bent50 on confronting Leo alone. But still he besought51 His Highness not to go too far away, and, as a measure of foresight52, he entrusted53 him with his pocket-book, a good-sized one, full of precious papers and bank-notes, which he feared would get torn by the lion’s claws. This done, our hero looked up a good place.
A hundred steps in front of the temple a little clump54 of rose-laurel shook in the twilight55 haze56 on the edge of a rivulet57 all but dried up. There it was that Tartarin went and ensconced himself, one knee on the ground, according to the regular rule, his rifle in his hand, and his huge hunting-knife stuck boldly before him in the sandy bank.
Night fell.
The rosy58 tint59 of nature changed into violet, and then into dark blue. A pretty pool of clear water gleamed like a hand-glass over the river-pebbles60; this was the watering-place of the wild animals.
On the other slope the whitish trail was dimly to be discerned which their heavy paws had traced in the brush — a mysterious path which made one’s flesh creep. Join to this sensation that from the vague swarming61 sound in African forests, the swishing of branches, the velvety-pads of roving creatures, the jackal’s shrill62 yelp63, and up in the sky, two or three hundred feet aloft, vast flocks of cranes passing on with screams like poor little children having their weasands slit64. You will own that there were grounds for a man being moved.
Tartarin was so, and even more than that, for the poor fellow’s teeth chattered65, and on the cross-bar of his hunting-knife, planted upright in the bank, as we repeat, his rifle-barrel rattled66 like a pair of castanets. Do not ask too much of a man! There are times when one is not in the mood; and, moreover, where would be the merit if heroes were never afraid?
Well, yes, Tartarin was afraid, and all the time, too, for the matter of that. Nevertheless, he held out for an hour; better, for two; but heroism67 has its limits. Nigh him, in the dry part of the rivulet-bed, the Tarasconian unexpectedly heard the sound of steps and of pebbles rolling. This time terror lifted him off the ground. He banged away both barrels at haphazard68 into the night, and retreated as fast as his legs would carry him to the marabout’s chapel-vault, leaving his knife standing69 up in the sand like a cross commemorative of the grandest panic that ever assailed70 the soul of a conqueror71 of hydras.
“Help! this Way, prince; the lion is on me!”
There was silence. “Prince, prince, are you there?”
The prince was not there. On the white moonlit wall of the fane the camel alone cast the queer-shaped shadow of his protuberance. Prince Gregory had cut and run with the wallet of bank-notes. His Highness had been for the month past awaiting this opportunity.
点击收听单词发音
1 grove | |
n.林子,小树林,园林 | |
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2 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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3 purely | |
adv.纯粹地,完全地 | |
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4 caravan | |
n.大蓬车;活动房屋 | |
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5 tranquilly | |
adv. 宁静地 | |
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6 proceeding | |
n.行动,进行,(pl.)会议录,学报 | |
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7 mingled | |
混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
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8 burlesque | |
v.嘲弄,戏仿;n.嘲弄,取笑,滑稽模仿 | |
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9 testament | |
n.遗嘱;证明 | |
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10 corrupted | |
(使)败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 ); (使)腐化; 引起(计算机文件等的)错误; 破坏 | |
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11 vices | |
缺陷( vice的名词复数 ); 恶习; 不道德行为; 台钳 | |
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12 ferocious | |
adj.凶猛的,残暴的,极度的,十分强烈的 | |
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13 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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14 cordons | |
n.警戒线,警戒圈( cordon的名词复数 ) | |
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15 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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16 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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17 promotion | |
n.提升,晋级;促销,宣传 | |
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18 libertine | |
n.淫荡者;adj.放荡的,自由思想的 | |
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19 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
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20 intoxicated | |
喝醉的,极其兴奋的 | |
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21 champagne | |
n.香槟酒;微黄色 | |
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22 fatten | |
v.使肥,变肥 | |
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23 shrubs | |
灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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24 thickets | |
n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 );丛状物 | |
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25 cactus | |
n.仙人掌 | |
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26 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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27 strewing | |
v.撒在…上( strew的现在分词 );散落于;点缀;撒满 | |
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28 corpses | |
n.死尸,尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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29 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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30 dwellings | |
n.住处,处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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31 locusts | |
n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 );贪吃的人;破坏者;槐树 | |
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32 gnawing | |
a.痛苦的,折磨人的 | |
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33 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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34 steadfastly | |
adv.踏实地,不变地;岿然;坚定不渝 | |
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35 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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36 tribal | |
adj.部族的,种族的 | |
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37 lodged | |
v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 );暂住;埋入;(权利、权威等)归属 | |
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38 farmhouses | |
n.农舍,农场的主要住房( farmhouse的名词复数 ) | |
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39 cedar | |
n.雪松,香柏(木) | |
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40 muzzle | |
n.鼻口部;口套;枪(炮)口;vt.使缄默 | |
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41 ambush | |
n.埋伏(地点);伏兵;v.埋伏;伏击 | |
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42 scrambled | |
v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 );攀登;争夺;(军事飞机)紧急起飞 | |
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43 quails | |
鹌鹑( quail的名词复数 ); 鹌鹑肉 | |
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44 drowsy | |
adj.昏昏欲睡的,令人发困的 | |
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45 wondrous | |
adj.令人惊奇的,奇妙的;adv.惊人地;异乎寻常地;令人惊叹地 | |
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46 rattle | |
v.飞奔,碰响;激怒;n.碰撞声;拨浪鼓 | |
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47 slippers | |
n. 拖鞋 | |
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48 niche | |
n.壁龛;合适的职务(环境、位置等) | |
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49 hems | |
布的褶边,贴边( hem的名词复数 ); 短促的咳嗽 | |
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50 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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51 besought | |
v.恳求,乞求(某事物)( beseech的过去式和过去分词 );(beseech的过去式与过去分词) | |
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52 foresight | |
n.先见之明,深谋远虑 | |
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53 entrusted | |
v.委托,托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54 clump | |
n.树丛,草丛;vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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55 twilight | |
n.暮光,黄昏;暮年,晚期,衰落时期 | |
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56 haze | |
n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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57 rivulet | |
n.小溪,小河 | |
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58 rosy | |
adj.美好的,乐观的,玫瑰色的 | |
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59 tint | |
n.淡色,浅色;染发剂;vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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60 pebbles | |
[复数]鹅卵石; 沙砾; 卵石,小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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61 swarming | |
密集( swarm的现在分词 ); 云集; 成群地移动; 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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62 shrill | |
adj.尖声的;刺耳的;v尖叫 | |
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63 yelp | |
vi.狗吠 | |
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64 slit | |
n.狭长的切口;裂缝;vt.切开,撕裂 | |
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65 chattered | |
(人)喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 ); 唠叨; (牙齿)打战; (机器)震颤 | |
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66 rattled | |
慌乱的,恼火的 | |
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67 heroism | |
n.大无畏精神,英勇 | |
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68 haphazard | |
adj.无计划的,随意的,杂乱无章的 | |
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69 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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70 assailed | |
v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 );困扰;质问;毅然应对 | |
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71 conqueror | |
n.征服者,胜利者 | |
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