The day broke wild and gray, with clouds scudding3 low over the sea, and squalls of rain. Since we had left Mangaia, the day before, it had blown heavily from the southeast; a big sea was running, but in spite of sixty tons of copra the schooner4 was reeling off the knots in racing5 style, running almost free, with the wind well aft of the beam, rising interminably on the back of each passing sea, and taking the following slope with a swoop6 and a rush. We had no log; it was difficult to guess our position within a dozen miles; the low driving clouds, surrounding us like a curtain, made it impossible to see more than a few hundred yards. Until an observation could be obtained, the landfall was a matter of luck and guesswork. Our course had been laid almost due north-northeast—to 87 pass a little to the west of Mauké—which gave us the chance of raising Mitiaro or Atiu if we missed the first island; but ocean currents are uncertain things, and with a horizon limited to less than half a mile, nothing would be easier than to slip past the trio of low islands and into the stretch of lonely ocean beyond. Every trading skipper is accustomed to face such situations; one can only maintain a sharp lookout7 and hold on one's course until there is an opportunity to use the sextant, or until it becomes obvious that the land has been passed.
A squall of rain drove down on us; for five minutes, while we shivered and the scuppers ran fresh water, our narrow circle of vision was blotted8 out. Then suddenly, with the effect of a curtain drawn9 aside, the clouds broke to the east, flooding the sea with light. A shout went up. Close ahead and to starboard, so near that we could see the white of breakers on the reef, was Mauké—densely wooded to the water's edge, a palm top rising here and there above the thick bush of ironwoods. Next moment the curtain descended10; gray clouds and rearing seas surrounded us; it was as though we had seen a vision of the land, unreal as the blue lakes seen at midday on the desert. But the skipper was shouting orders in harsh Mangaian; the schooner was swinging up into the wind; the blocks were clicking and purring as half a dozen boys swayed on the mainsheet.
Presently the land took vague form through the mist of squalls; we were skirting the reef obliquely11, drawing nearer the breakers as the settlement came in view. A narrow boat passage, into which an ugly surf was breaching12, had been blasted through the hard coral 88 of the reef; a path led up the sloping land beyond, between a double row of canoe houses to the bush. A few people were gathering13 by the canoe houses; it was evident that we had just been sighted, and that it would be some time before a boat could put out, if, indeed, the boatmen were willing to risk the surf. Meanwhile we could only stand off and on until they came out to us, for the skipper had no intention of risking his ship's boat and the lives of his men on such a forbidding shore. "Arari!" he sang out, dwelling14 long on the last syllable15 of this Cook Island version of "hard alee." The schooner rounded into the wind with a ponderous16 deliberation calculated to make the nerves of a fair-weather sailor twitch17; she seemed to hesitate, like a fat and fluttering grandmother; at last, after an age of bobbing and ducking into the head sea, while boom tackles were made fast and headsails backed, she made up her mind, and filled away on the port tack18.
Riley, the American coconut19 planter, who was recruiting labor20 for the season on his island, turned to me with a wink21. "If this old hooker was mine," he remarked in a voice meant to reach the skipper's ears, "I'd start the engine every time I came about; she can't sail fast enough to keep steerageway!"
The skipper sniffed22 a British sniff23; they are old friends. "If this damn fine schooner was yours," he observed, without turning his head, "she'd have been piled up long ago—like as not in broad daylight, on an island a thousand feet high."
Riley chuckled24. "Too early for an argument," he said. "Let's go below and have a drink."
I have not often run across a more interesting man 89 than Riley. Thrown together, as he and I have been, in circumstances which make for an unusual exchange of confidence, I have learned more of him in two months than one knows of many an old acquaintance at home. At thirty-five years of age he is a living object lesson for those who bewail the old days of adventure and romance, and wish that their lives had been cast in other times. His blood is undiluted Irish; he has the humor, the imagination, the quick sympathy of the race, without the Irish heritage of instability. Born in South Boston and reared with only the sketchiest27 of educations, he set out to make his way in the world at an age when most boys are playing marbles and looking forward with dread28 to the study of algebra29. For fifteen years he wandered, gathering a varied30 background of experience. He worked in mills; he drifted west and shipped as cabin boy on vessels32 plying33 the Great Lakes; he drifted farther west to become a rider of the range. Finally he reached San Francisco and took to the sea. He has been a sealer, an Alaska fisherman, an able-bodied seaman34 on square-riggers sailing strange seas. He has seen Cape35 Horn and the Cape of Good Hope; he speaks of the ports of India, China, Africa, the Java Sea, as you would speak of Boston or New York.
In the days when a line of schooners36 ran from San Francisco to Tahiti, touching37 at the Marquesas on the way, he felt a call to the South Seas, and shipped for a round trip before the mast. When he returned to San Francisco a change seemed to have come over him; the old, wandering life had lost its charm—had gone flat and stale. Like many another, he had eaten of the wild plantain unaware38. The evenings of carousal39 90 ashore40 no longer tempted41 him; even the long afternoons of reading (for reading has always been this curious fellow's chief delight), stretched on his bed in a sailor's boarding house, had lost their flavor—the print blurred42 before his eyes, and in its place he saw lands of savage43 loveliness rising from a warm blue sea; shadowy and mysterious valleys, strewn with the relics45 of a forgotten race; the dark eyes of a girl in Tai-o-Hae.
Remember that Riley was both a sailor and an Irishman—a rough idealist, keenly susceptible46 to beauty and the sense of romance. It is stated that the men who live romance are seldom aware of it; this may be true, though I doubt it—certainly in Riley's case the theory does not work out. He is the most modest of men, untainted by a trace of egoism; in his stories, superbly told with the Irish gift for circumstantial detail and dramatic effect, the teller's part is always small. And yet as one listens, thrilled by the color and artistry of the tale, one is all the while aware that this man appraises47 his memories at their full value—reviews them with a ripened48 gusto, an ever-fresh appreciation49. In short, he is one of those fortunate, or unfortunate, men for whom realities, as most of us know them, do not exist; men whose eyes are incapable50 of seeing drab or gray, who find mystery and fresh beauty in what we call the commonplace.
It is scarcely necessary to say that Riley was aboard the next schooner bound south for the islands. Nukuhiva knew him for a time, but the gloom and tragedy of that land—together with an episode of domestic infelicity—were overpowering to a man of his temperament51. From the Marquesas he went to Tahiti, and his wanderings ended in the Cook group, six hundred 91 miles to the west. Perhaps the finding of his journey's end wrought52 the change, perhaps it was due to his rather practical Tahitian wife—in any case, the wanderer ceased to rove, the spendthrift began to save and plan. In the groups to the eastward53 he had picked up a smattering of coconut lore54; it was not long before he got a berth55 as superintendent56 of a small plantation57. With a native wife and the Irishman's knack58 for languages, he soon mastered the dialect of his group; he is one of a very few men who speak it with all the finer shadings. This accounts in part for his success with labor—the chief difficulty of the planter throughout Polynesia. To one interested as I am in the variations of this oceanic tongue, it is a genuine pleasure to talk with Riley. In school he learned to read and write; beyond that he is entirely59 self-educated. A good half of his earnings60, I should say, in the days when he followed the sea, were spent on books; a native intelligence enabled him to criticize and select; he has read enormously, and what he has read he has remembered. Each time a new subject attracted him he hastened to the book shops of San Francisco, or Liverpool, or Singapore, and gathered a little forecastle library of reference. Like most intelligent men in this part of the world, he has grown interested in the subject of Polynesian research; it is odd to hear him discuss—with a strong accent of South Boston and the manner of a professor of ethnology—some question of Maori chronology, or the variations in a causative prefix61. Once he made clear to me a matter often referred to in print, but which I had never properly understood. He was speaking of the language of Tahiti.
"When you hear a Tahitian talk," he said, "it 92 sounds different, but really it's the same as Hawaiian, or Marquesan, or Rarotongan, or New Zealand Maori. Tahiti is the oldest settled place, and the language has kind of rotted away there. Nowadays the Tahitian has lost the strong, harsh sounds of the old lingo62, the k and ng; in place of them there is simply a catch between two vowels63. If you know Rarotongan and understand the system of change, you can get on all right in Tahiti. Take our word akatangi—to play a musical instrument. Tangi means 'wail26' or 'weep'; aka is the old causative prefix; the combination means 'cause to weep.' Now let's figure that word out in Tahitian. First we've got to take out the k and ng; that leaves a bad start—it doesn't sound good, so the Tahitians stick on an f at the beginning. That's all there is to it; fa'ata'i is the word. It makes me laugh to think of when I first came down here. I was working in Tahiti, and when I came home in the evening my girl would look up from her sewing and sing out, 'O Riley!' 'For the love of Mike,' I'd tell her, 'don't you know my name yet? It's Riley, not O'Riley!' Finally I caught on; I'd been fooled on the same proposition as Cook and all the rest of them. You remember they called the island Otahiti. That O is simply a special form of the verb used before personal pronouns and proper nouns. The old navigators, when the canoes came out to meet them, pointed64 to the land and asked its name. 'O Tahiti' said the natives ('It is Tahiti'). My girl didn't mean to call me O'Riley at all; she was simply saying, 'It's Riley.'"
A serious white man, particularly when he is able to recruit and handle native labor, is always in demand in the islands; it was not long before Riley's talents 93 were recognized; now he is manager and part owner of an entire atoll. I have listened with a great deal of interest to his accounts of the life there. Every year, at about Christmas time, a schooner comes to load his copra and take his boys back to their respective islands. Not a soul is left on the atoll; Riley boards the schooner with his wife and takes passage to Papeete for a couple of months of civilization. When the time is up he makes a tour of the Cook group to recruit twenty or thirty boys for the new season, and is landed on his island with a nine months' supply of medicine, provisions, and reading matter. He is the only white man on the atoll; one would suppose such a life deadly monotonous65 and lonely, but just now he is pining to get back. It is really the pleasantest of lives, he says; enough routine in keeping the men properly at work, superb fishing when one desires a touch of sport, plenty of time to read and think, the healthiest climate in the world, and a bit of trouble now and then to give the spice a true Irishman needs.
Riley is a man of medium size, with thick brown hair and eyes of Celtic dark blue, perpetually sparkling with humor. I have never seen a stronger or more active man of his weight; on his atoll he spends an hour every day in exercise, running, jumping, working with dumbbells and Indian clubs. From head to foot he is burnt a deep, ruddy brown—a full shade darker than the tint66 of his native wife. Sometimes, he says, he works himself into such a pink of condition that he aches to pick a fight with the first comer, but I fancy he finds trouble enough to satisfy another man. Once a huge, sullen67 fellow from the Gambier group attempted to spear him, and Riley called all of his men in from 94 their work, appointed the foreman referee68, and beat the two-hundred-and-twenty-pound native—fierce and lithe69 and strong as a tiger—slowly and scientifically, to a pulp70. On another occasion, a half-savage boy, from a far-off island of the southern Paumotus, took a grudge71 against the manager and bided72 his time with the cunning of a wild animal. The chance came one afternoon when Riley was asleep in the shade behind his house. The Paumotan stole up with a club and put him still sounder asleep with a blow on the head that laid his scalp open and nearly fractured his skull73. Half a dozen kicks from the ball of a toughened foot stove in the ribs74 on one side of his chest; with that, the native left his victim, very likely thinking him dead. Riley's wife, from whom I got the story, was asleep in the house at the time; toward evening she went to look for her husband, and found him stretched out, bloody75 and unconscious, on the sand. In spite of her agitation—her kind are not much use in a crisis—she managed to get him to the house and revive him. Riley's first act was to drink half a tumbler of whisky; his second, to send for the foreman. The Paumotan boy had disappeared; overcome by forebodings of evil, he had taken a canoe and paddled off to hide himself on an uncleared islet across the lagoon76. Riley gave the foreman careful instructions; early in the morning he was to take all the boys and spend the day, if necessary, in running down the fugitive77, who under no circumstances was to be injured or roughly handled.
They brought the boy in at noon—deadly afraid at first, sullen and relieved when he learned his punishment was no worse than to stand up to the manager before the assembled plantation hands. It must have 95 been a grievous affair; Tetua could scarcely describe it without tears. Riley was still sick and dizzy; his ribs were taped so tightly that he could breathe with only half his lungs, and a two-inch strip of plaster covered the wound on his head. The Paumotan was fresh and unhurt; he outweighed78 his antagonist79 by twenty pounds, and fought with confidence and bitterness. The Kanaka is certainly among the strongest men of the world, a formidable adversary80 in a rough-and-tumble fight. It went badly with Riley for a time; the boy nearly threw him, and a blow on his broken ribs almost made him faint, but in the end—maddened by pain and the thought of the treacherous81 attack—he got his man down and might have killed him if the foreman and half a dozen others had not intervened.
Riley's island is a true atoll—a broad lagoon inclosed by an oval sweep of reef along which are scattered82 islets of varying size. Many people must have lived on it in the past; everywhere there are traces of man's occupation. A dozen inhabitants were there within the memory of living men, but the dead outnumbered the living too heavily—the place became unbearable83 to them, and in the end a schooner took them away.
The outlying Cook Islands are places full of interest. I determined84, when I began this letter, to give you a real account of Mauké—the island itself, its people, the number of tons of copra produced annually85, and other enlightening information. But somehow, when one begins to write of this part of the world it seems a hopeless task to stick to a train of facts—there are too many diverging86 lines of fancy; too many intangible stimuli87 to thought, stirring to the imagination.
96 Our landing on Mauké was a ticklish88 business. Like Mangaia, Mitiaro, and Atiu, this island is of mixed volcanic89 and raised-coral origin—the pinnacle90 of a submerged peak, ringed with millions of tons of coral, and without any lagoon worthy91 of the name. The polyps have built a sort of platform around the land, low inshore and highest—as seems usually the case—just before it drops off into the sea. Breaching across the outer ridge92, the surf fills a narrow belt of shallows between it and the shore; the result is a miniature edition of a lagoon—a place of rocky pools where children wade93 knee-deep, on the lookout for crayfish and baby octopus94. On the outer edge the reef is steep, too, dropping off almost at the perpendicular95. It is difficult to realize, when one has been brought up on the friendly coasts of America, that if a boat capsizes off these reefs one must swim offshore96 and wait to be picked up—that it is wiser to chance the sharks than to attempt a landing in the surf, for the sea is breaking along the summit of a sunken cliff—jagged and sharp as broken glass, poisonous as the venom97 of a snake.
They came out to us in a whaleboat; Riley, the supercargo, and I were the first to go ashore. As we pulled away from the schooner a high-pitched argument began. One of the principal men of the island had come out as a passenger and was sitting beside me. He insisted that as they had got off safely from the boat passage it was best to return the same way. The boat steerer disagreed; it was all very well to put out from the passage, with a score of men to hold the boat until the moment came, and launch her out head-on to the breakers, but now the situation was different; the passage was narrow; it must be entered 97 just so, and a mishap98 might have unpleasant consequences in such a surf. The steersman had the best of it; he took us a quarter of a mile beyond the passage, and let his men rest on their oars99 off a place where the reef seemed a little lower than elsewhere.
Each time we swung up to the crest100 of a swell101 I got a look at the surf, and the prospect102 was not reassuring103. Once or twice, as the backwash poured off in a frothy cascade104, I caught a glimpse of the coral—reddish-black, jagged and forbidding. Little by little we drew near the land until the boat lay just where the waves began to tower for the final rush; the oarsmen backed water gently—the boat steerer turned his head nervously105 this way and that, glancing at the reef ahead and at the rearing water behind. I thought of a day, many years before, when my father had taken me for a first experience of the "chutes," and our little boat seemed to pause for an instant at the summit of the tower before it tilted106 forward and flew down the steep slope to the water—infinitely far off and below. The feeling was the same—fear mingling107 with delight, an almost painful exhilaration.
All of us, saving the watchful108 figure in the stern, were waiting for a signal which would make the oarsmen leap into activity, the passengers clench109 their teeth and grip the rail. Suddenly it came—a harsh shout. Six oars struck the water at once; the whaleboat gathered way; a big sea rose behind us, lifted us gently on its back, and swept us toward the reef. Next moment I saw that we had started a breath too late. We were going like the wind, it was true, but not tilted forward on the crest as we should have been; the wave was gradually passing beneath us. Riley 98 glanced at me and shook his head with a humorous turndown of the mouth. It was too late to stop—the men were pulling desperately110, their long oars bending at every stroke. When the sea broke we were slipping down into the trough behind; as we passed over the edge of the reef the wave was beginning its backward wash. There were shouts; I found myself up to my waist in a foaming111 rush of water, struggling with might and main to keep my footing and to hold the boat from slipping off into the sea. We stopped her just on the brink112; her keel grated on the coral; another sea was coming at us, towering high above our heads. Riley, the supercargo, and I leaped aboard in response to a sharp command. The boys held her stern-on to the last; as they scrambled113 over the sides the sea caught us, half swamping the boat and lifting her stern high in the air. She tilted wildly as her bow crashed on the coral, but a rare piece of luck saved her from turning broadside on. Next moment we were over the reef and gliding114 smoothly115 into the shallow water beyond. As I drew a long, satisfying breath I heard Riley chuckle25. "I think I'll get a job diving for shell," he remarked. "I'll swear I haven't breathed for a good three minutes!"
When we stood on the beach a dozen men came forward, smiling, to greet their friend Rairi. With a decently pronounceable name—from the native standpoint—Riley has got off easily; I never tire of wondering what these people will call a white man. They seem to prefer the surname if it can be pronounced; if not, they try the given name, and Charley becomes Teari, or Johnny, Tioni. If this fails, or if they take a dislike to one, the fun begins. I have a friend who, 99 unless he leaves the islands, will be called Salt Pork all his life; and I know another man—a second-rate colonial of the intolerant kind—who goes blissfully about his business all unaware that hundreds of people know him by no other name than Pig Dung. No doubt you have noticed another thing down here—the deceptive116 simplicity117 of address. In these eastern islands the humblest speaks to the most powerful without any title of respect, with nothing corresponding to our "mister" or "sir." At first one is inclined to believe that here is the beautiful and ideal democracy—the realization118 of the communist's dream—and there are other things which lead to the same conclusion. Servants, for one example, are treated with extraordinary consideration and kindliness119; when the feast is over the mistress of the household is apt as not to dance with the man who feeds her pigs, or the head of the family to take the arm of the girl who has been waiting on his guests. The truth is that this impression of equality is false; there are not many places in the world where a more rigid120 social order exists—not of caste, but of classes. In the thousand or fifteen hundred years that they have inhabited the islands the Polynesians have worked out a system of human relationships nearer the ultimate, perhaps, than our own idealists would have us believe. Wealth counts for little, birth for everything; it is useless for an islander to think of raising himself in a social way—where he is born he dies, and his children after him. On the other hand, except for the abstract pleasure of position, there is little to make the small man envious121 of the great; he eats the same food, his dress is the same, he works as little or as much, and the relations 100 between the two are of the pleasantest. There is a really charming lack of ostentation122 in these islands, where everything is known about everyone, and it is useless to pretend to be what one is not. That is at the root of it all—here is one place in the world, at least, where every man is sure of himself.
We were strolling up the path between the canoe houses when Riley stopped me. "Come and have a look," he said; "this is the only island I know of where you can see an old-fashioned double canoe."
There were two of them in the shed we entered, under a roof of battered123 galvanized iron—long, graceful124 hulls125 fashioned from the trunks of trees, joined in pairs by timbers of ironwood laid across the gunwales and lashed126 down with sinnet. They were beautifully finished—scraped smooth and decorated with carving127. In these craft, my companion told me, the men of Mauké still voyage to Atiu and Mitiaro, as they had done for generations before Cook sailed through the group. There is an ancient feud128 between Mauké and Atiu; it is curious how hard such grudges129 die. The men of Atiu were the most warlike of all the Cook Islanders; even in these times of traders and schools and missionaries130 no firearms are allowed on the island. Time after time, in the old days, they raided Mauké, stealing by night upon the sleeping villages, entering each house to feel the heads of the sleepers131. When they felt the large head of a warrior132 they seized his throat and killed him without noise; the children and women—the small heads and the heads with long hair—were taken back alive to Atiu. Terrible scenes have been enacted133 under the old ironwoods of Mauké, when the raiders, maddened with the 101 heat of killing134, danced in the firelight about the opened ovens and gorged135 on the bodies of the slain136; for the Cook-Islanders, excepting perhaps the people of Aitutaki, were cannibals as fierce as the Maoris of New Zealand or the tawny137 savages138 of the Marquesas. Why should Aitutaki have bred a gentler and finer people? The group is not widely scattered as islands go; there must have been fighting and intermarriage for ages past. Yet any man who has been here long can tell you at a glance from which island a native hails; even after my few weeks I am beginning to have an eye for the differences. The Mangaian is certainly the most distinct, recognizable at once by his dark skin, his wide, ugly mouth, his uncouth139 and savage manner. The full-blooded Rarotongan, who will soon be a rarity, is another type—handsome in a square-cut leonine way, with less energy and far more dignity of presence. The people of Aitutaki are different still—fair as the average Tahitian, and pleasing in features and manner; I have seen girls from that island who would be called beautiful in any country. These differences are not easy to account for, it seems to me, when one considers that the islanders are all of one race, tracing their ancestry140 back to common sources and speaking a common tongue.
The trader, a friend of Riley's, took us to his house for lunch. The day was Sunday and a feast was already preparing, so we were spared the vocal141 agonies of the pig. Times must be changing—I have seen very few traders of the gin-drinking type one expects to find in the South Seas; nowadays they seem to be rather quiet, reflective men, who like to read and play their phonographs in the evening, and drink excellent 102 whisky with soda142 from a sparklet bottle. This one was no exception; I found him full of intelligence and a dreamy philosophy which kept him content in this forgotten corner of the world. He was young and English; there were cricket bats and blazers in his living room, and shelves filled with the kind of books one can read over and over again. He was pessimistic over Riley's chances of getting men—the people of Mauké were growing lazier each year, he said, and seemed to get along with less and less of the European things for which, at one time, they had worked. As for copra, they no longer bothered much with it; the nuts were left to sprout143 under the palms. The taro144 patches were running down; the coffee and breadfruit dropped off the trees unpicked; the oranges, which brought a good price when a vessel31 came to take them off, were allowed to drop and rot.
As we sat smoking after lunch, a native boy came in, with a vague air of conspiracy145, to hold a whispered conversation with Riley. When he had gone the American winked146 at our host and turned to me.
"There's a beer tub going full blast out in the bush," he said. "I think I'll drop in on them and see if I can pick up a man or two. You'd better come along."
Liquor is prohibited to the natives throughout the Cook Islands; even the white man must buy it from the government in quantities regulated by the judgment147 of the official in charge. The manufacture of anything alcoholic148 is forbidden, but this latter law is administered with a certain degree of tolerance149. Fortunately for everyone concerned, the art of making palm toddy has never been introduced; when the Cook-Islander feels the need of mild exhilaration he takes 103 to the bush and brews150 a beverage151 known as orange beer. The ingredients are sugar, orange juice, and yeast—the recipe would prove popular, I fancy, in our own orange-growing states. The story goes that when the Cook Island boys went overseas to war they found a great drought prevailing152 in their eastern field of action—Palestine, I think it was. But there were oranges in plenty, and these untutored islanders soon showed the Tommies a trick that brought them together like brothers. I have tasted orange beer at all stages (even the rare old vintage stuff, bottled two or three months before) and found it not at all difficult to take; there are worse varieties of tipple153, though this one is apt to lead to fighting, and leaves its too-enthusiastic devotee with a headache of unusual severity.
We found fifteen or twenty men assembled under an old utu tree; a dance ended as we drew near, and the cup was being passed. Two five-gallon kerosene154 tins, with the tops cut off and filled with the bright-yellow beer, stood in the center of the group. Women are never present on these occasions, which correspond, in a way, to Saturday evenings in a club at home. A sort of rude ceremonial—a relic44, perhaps, of kava-drinking days—is observed around the beer tub. The oldest man present, armed with a heavy stick, is appointed guardian155 of the peace, to see that decency156 and order are preserved; the natives realize, no doubt, that any serious disturbance157 might put an end to their fun. The single cup is filled and passed to each guest in turn; he must empty it without taking breath. After every round one of the drinkers is expected to rise and entertain the company with a dance or a song.
Riley was welcomed with shouts; he was in a gay 104 mood and when we had had our turns at the cup he stripped off his tunic158 for a dance. He is a famous dancer; unhampered by the native conventions, he went through the figures of heiva, otea, and ura—first the man's part, then the woman's—while the men of Mauké clapped their hands rhythmically159 and choked with laughter. No wonder Riley gets on with the people; there is not an ounce of self-consciousness in him—he enters into a bit of fun with the good-natured abandon of a child. As for dancing, he is wonderful; every posture160 was there, every twist and wriggle161 and flutter of the hands—what old Bligh called, with delightful162, righteous gusto, the "wanton gestures" of the heiva.
Riley had told his friends on the beach that he was on the lookout for labor; by this time, probably, the whole island knew he was on his way to the atoll and that he needed men. Before we took leave of the drinkers three of them had agreed to go with my companion. The sea was calmer now, and, since Riley's wife was on the schooner, we decided163 to go aboard for dinner. Four more recruits were waiting by the canoe houses to sign on—it was odd to see their response to the Irishman's casual offer when half the planters of the group declare that labor is unobtainable.
The whaleboat was waiting in the passage. It was evening. The wind had dropped; the sky overhead was darkening; out to the west the sun had set behind banks of white cloud rimmed164 with gold. The oarsmen took their places; friendly hands shot us out in a lull165 between two breakers; we passed the surf and pulled offshore toward where the schooner was riding an easy swell, her lights beginning to twinkle in the dusk.
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shrouds
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| n.裹尸布( shroud的名词复数 )；寿衣；遮蔽物；覆盖物v.隐瞒( shroud的第三人称单数 )；保密 | |
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munching
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| v.用力咀嚼（某物），大嚼( munch的现在分词 ) | |
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scudding
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| n.刮面v.（尤指船、舰或云彩）笔直、高速而平稳地移动( scud的现在分词 ) | |
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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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swoop
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| n.俯冲，攫取；v.抓取，突然袭击 | |
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lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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blotted
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| 涂污( blot的过去式和过去分词 )； （用吸墨纸）吸干 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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10
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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11
obliquely
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| adv.斜； 倾斜； 间接； 不光明正大 | |
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12
breaching
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| 攻破( breach的过去式 )； 破坏，违反 | |
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13
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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14
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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15
syllable
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| n.音节；vt.分音节 | |
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16
ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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17
twitch
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| v.急拉，抽动，痉挛，抽搐；n.扯，阵痛，痉挛 | |
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18
tack
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| n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝 | |
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19
coconut
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| n.椰子 | |
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20
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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21
wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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22
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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23
sniff
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| vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视 | |
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24
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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26
wail
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| vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸 | |
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27
sketchiest
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| adj.概要的，不完全的，粗略的( sketchy的最高级 ) | |
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28
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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29
algebra
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| n.代数学 | |
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30
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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31
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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32
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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33
plying
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的现在分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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34
seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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35
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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36
schooners
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| n.（有两个以上桅杆的）纵帆船( schooner的名词复数 ) | |
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37
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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38
unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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39
carousal
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| n.喧闹的酒会 | |
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40
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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41
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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42
blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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43
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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44
relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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45
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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46
susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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47
appraises
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| v.估价( appraise的第三人称单数 )；估计；估量；评价 | |
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48
ripened
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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50
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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51
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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52
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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53
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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54
lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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55
berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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56
superintendent
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| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
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57
plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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58
knack
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| n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法 | |
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59
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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60
earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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61
prefix
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| n.前缀；vt.加…作为前缀；置于前面 | |
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62
lingo
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| n.语言不知所云，外国话，隐语 | |
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63
vowels
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| n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 ) | |
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64
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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65
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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66
tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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67
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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68
referee
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| n.裁判员．仲裁人，代表人，鉴定人 | |
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69
lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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70
pulp
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| n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆 | |
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71
grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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72
bided
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| v.等待，停留( bide的过去式 )；居住；等待；面临 | |
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73
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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74
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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75
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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76
lagoon
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| n.泻湖，咸水湖 | |
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77
fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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78
outweighed
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| v.在重量上超过( outweigh的过去式和过去分词 )；在重要性或价值方面超过 | |
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79
antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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80
adversary
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| adj.敌手，对手 | |
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81
treacherous
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|
| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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82
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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83
unbearable
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| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
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84
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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85
annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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86
diverging
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| 分开( diverge的现在分词 )； 偏离； 分歧； 分道扬镳 | |
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87
stimuli
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| n.刺激（物） | |
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88
ticklish
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|
| adj.怕痒的；问题棘手的；adv.怕痒地；n.怕痒，小心处理 | |
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89
volcanic
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|
| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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90
pinnacle
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| n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰 | |
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91
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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92
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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93
wade
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| v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉 | |
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94
octopus
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| n.章鱼 | |
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95
perpendicular
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|
| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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96
offshore
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| adj.海面的，吹向海面的；adv.向海面 | |
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97
venom
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| n.毒液，恶毒，痛恨 | |
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98
mishap
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| n.不幸的事，不幸；灾祸 | |
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99
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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100
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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101
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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102
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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103
reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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104
cascade
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| n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下 | |
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105
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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106
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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107
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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108
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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109
clench
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| vt.捏紧（拳头等），咬紧（牙齿等），紧紧握住 | |
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110
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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111
foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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112
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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113
scrambled
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| 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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114
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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115
smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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116
deceptive
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| adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的 | |
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117
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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118
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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119
kindliness
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| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
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120
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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121
envious
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| adj.嫉妒的，羡慕的 | |
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122
ostentation
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| n.夸耀，卖弄 | |
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123
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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124
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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125
hulls
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| 船体( hull的名词复数 )； 船身； 外壳； 豆荚 | |
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126
lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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127
carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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128
feud
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| n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇 | |
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129
grudges
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| 不满，怨恨，妒忌( grudge的名词复数 ) | |
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130
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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131
sleepers
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| n.卧铺（通常以复数形式出现）；卧车( sleeper的名词复数 )；轨枕；睡觉（呈某种状态）的人；小耳环 | |
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132
warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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133
enacted
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| 制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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134
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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135
gorged
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| v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 )；作呕 | |
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136
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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137
tawny
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| adj.茶色的，黄褐色的；n.黄褐色 | |
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138
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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139
uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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140
ancestry
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| n.祖先，家世 | |
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141
vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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142
soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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143
sprout
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| n.芽，萌芽；vt.使发芽，摘去芽；vi.长芽，抽条 | |
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144
taro
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| n.芋，芋头 | |
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145
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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146
winked
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| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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147
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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148
alcoholic
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| adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者 | |
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149
tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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150
brews
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| n.（尤指某地酿造的）啤酒( brew的名词复数 )；酿造物的种类；（茶）一次的冲泡量；（不同思想、环境、事件的）交融v.调制( brew的第三人称单数 )；酝酿；沏（茶）；煮（咖啡） | |
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151
beverage
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| n.(水，酒等之外的)饮料 | |
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152
prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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153
tipple
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| n.常喝的酒；v.不断喝，饮烈酒 | |
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154
kerosene
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| n.(kerosine)煤油，火油 | |
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155
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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156
decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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157
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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158
tunic
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| n.束腰外衣 | |
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159
rhythmically
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| adv.有节奏地 | |
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160
posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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161
wriggle
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| v./n.蠕动，扭动；蜿蜒 | |
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162
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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163
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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164
rimmed
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| adj.有边缘的，有框的v.沿…边缘滚动；给…镶边 | |
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165
lull
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| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
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