For on the island of Boupari it was high feast with the worshippers of their god that night. The sun had turned on the Tropic of Capricorn at noon, and was making his way northward5, toward the equator once more; and his votaries6, as was their wont7, had all come forth8 to do him honor in due season, and to pay their respects, in the inmost and sacredest grove9 on the island, to his incarnate10 representative, the living spirit of trees and fruits and vegetation, the very high god, the divine Tu-Kila-Kila!
Early in the evening, as soon as the sun’s rim11 had disappeared beneath the ocean, a strange noise boomed forth from the central shrine12 of Boupari. Those who heard it clapped their hands to their ears and ran hastily forward. It was a noise like distant rumbling13 thunder, or the whir of some great English mill or factory; and at its sound every woman on the island threw herself on the ground prostrate14, with her face in the dust, and waited there reverently15 till the audible voice of the god had once more subsided16. For no woman knew how that sound was produced. Only the grown men, initiated17 into the mysteries of the shrine when they came of age at the tattooing18 ceremony, were aware that the strange, buzzing, whirring noise was nothing more or less than the cry of the bull-roarer.
A bull-roarer, as many English schoolboys know, is merely a piece of oblong wood, pointed20 at either end, and fastened by a leather thong21 at one corner. But when whirled round the head by practised priestly hands, it produces a low rumbling noise like the wheels of a distant carriage, growing gradually louder and clearer, from moment to moment, till at last it waxes itself into a frightful23 din24, or bursts into perfect peals25 of imitation thunder. Then it decreases again once more, as gradually as it rose, becoming fainter and ever fainter, like thunder as it recedes26, till the horrible bellowing27, as of supernatural bulls, dies away in the end, by slow degrees, into low and soft and imperceptible murmurs28.
But when the savage29 hears the distant humming of the bull-roarer, at whatever distance, he knows that the mysteries of his god are in full swing, and he hurries forward in haste, leaving his work or his pleasure, and running, naked as he stands, to take his share in the worship, lest the anger of heaven should burst forth in devouring30 flames to consume him. But the women, knowing themselves unworthy to face the dread32 presence of the high god in his wrath33, rush wildly from the spot, and, flinging themselves down at full length, with their mouths to the dust, wait patiently till the voice of their deity34 is no longer audible.
And as the bull-roarer on Boupari rang out with wild echoes from the coral caverns35 in the central grove that evening, Tu-Kila-Kila, their god, rose slowly from his place, and stood out from his hut, a deity revealed, before his reverential worshippers.
As he rose, a hushed whisper ran wave-like through the dense37 throng38 of dusky forms that bent39 low, like corn beneath the wind, before him, “Tu-Kila-Kila rises! He rises to speak! Hush36! for the voice of the mighty40 man-god!”
The god, looking around him superciliously41 with a cynical42 air of contempt, stood forward with a firm and elastic43 step before his silent worshippers. He was a stalwart savage, in the very prime of life, tall, lithe44, and active. His figure was that of a man well used to command; but his face, though handsome, was visibly marked by every external sign of cruelty, lust45, and extreme bloodthirstiness. One might have said, merely to look at him, he was a being debased by all forms of brutal46 and hateful self-indulgence. A baleful light burned in his keen gray eyes. His lips were thick, full, purple, and wistful.
“My people may look upon me,” he said, in a strangely affable voice, standing47 forward and smiling with a curious half-cruel, half-compassionate smile upon his awe48-struck followers49. “On every day of the sun’s course but this, none save the ministers dedicated50 to the service of Tu-Kila-Kila dare gaze unhurt upon his sacred person. If any other did, the light from his holy eyes would wither51 them up, and the glow of his glorious countenance52 would scorch53 them to ashes.” He raised his two hands, palm outward, in front of him. “So all the year round,” he went on, “Tu-Kila-Kila, who loves his people, and sends them the earlier and the later rain in the wet season, and makes their yams and their taro54 grow, and causes his sun to shine upon them freely—all the year round Tu-Kila-Kila, your god, sits shut up in his own house among the skeletons of those whom he has killed and eaten, or walks in his walled paddock, where his bread-fruit ripens55 and his plantains spring—himself, and the ministers that his tribesmen have given him.”
At the sound of their mystic deity’s voice the savages56, bending lower still till their foreheads touched the ground, repeated in chorus, to the clapping of hands, like some solemn litany: “Tu-Kila-Kila speaks true. Our lord is merciful. He sends down his showers upon our crops and fields. He causes his sun to shine brightly over us. He makes our pigs and our slaves bring forth their increase. Tu-Kila-Kila is good. His people praise him.”
The god took another step forward, the divine mantle57 of red feathers glowing in the sunset on his dusky shoulders, and smiled once more that hateful gracious smile of his. He was standing near the open door of his wattled hut, overshadowed by the huge spreading arms of a gigantic banyan-tree. Through the open door of the hut it was possible to catch just a passing glimpse of an awful sight within. On the beams of the house, and on the boughs58 of the trees behind it, human skeletons, half covered with dry flesh, hung in ghastly array, their skulls59 turned downward. They were the skeletons of the victims Tu-Kila-Kila, their prince, had slain60 and eaten; they were the trophies61 of the cannibal man-god’s hateful prowess.
Tu-Kila-Kila raised his right hand erect62 and spoke63 again. “I am a great god,” he said, slowly. “I am very powerful. I make the sun to shine, and the yams to grow. I am the spirit of plants. Without me there would be nothing for you all to eat or drink in Boupari. If I were to grow old and die, the sun would fade away in the heavens overhead; the bread-fruit trees would wither and cease to bear on earth; all fruits would come to an end and die at once; all rivers would stop forthwith from running.”
His worshippers bowed down in acquiescence64 with awestruck faces. “It is true,” they answered, in the same slow sing-song of assent65 as before. “Tu-Kila-Kila is the greatest of gods. We owe to him everything. We hang upon his favor.”
Tu-Kila-Kila started back, laughed, and showed his pearly white teeth. They were beautiful and regular, like the teeth of a tiger, a strong young tiger. “But I need more sacrifices than all the other gods,” he went on, melodiously66, like one who plays with consummate67 skill upon some difficult instrument. “I am greedy; I am thirsty; I am a hungry god. You must not stint68 me. I claim more human victims than all the other gods beside. If you want your crops to grow, and your rivers to run, the fields to yield you game, and the sea fish—this is what I ask: give me victims, victims! That is our compact. Tu-Kila-Kila calls you.”
The men bowed down once more and repeated humbly69, “You shall have victims as you will, great god; only give us yam and taro and bread-fruit, and cause not your bright light, the sun, to grow dark in heaven over us.”
“Cut yourselves,” Tu-Kila-Kila cried, in a peremptory70 voice, clapping his hands thrice. “I am thirsting for blood. I want your free-will offering.”
As he spoke, every man, as by a set ritual, took from a little skin wallet at his side a sharp flake71 of coral-stone, and, drawing it deliberately72 across his breast in a deep red gash73, caused the blood to flow out freely over his chest and long grass waistband. Then, having done so, they never strove for a moment to stanch74 the wound, but let the red drops fall as they would on to the dust at their feet, without seeming even to be conscious at all of the fact that they were flowing.
Tu-Kila-Kila smiled once more, a ghastly self-satisfied smile of unquestioned power. “It is well,” he went on. “My people love me. They know my strength, how I can wither them up. They give me their blood to drink freely. So I will be merciful to them. I will make my sun shine and my rain drop from heaven. And instead of taking all, I will choose one victim.” He paused, and glanced along their line significantly.
“Choose, Tu-Kila-Kila,” the men answered, without a moment’s hesitation75. “We are all your meat. Choose which one you will take of us.”
Tu-Kila-Kila walked with a leisurely76 tread down the lines and surveyed the men critically. They were all drawn77 up in rows, one behind the other, according to tribes and families; and the god walked along each row, examining them with a curious and interested eye, as a farmer examines sheep fit for the market. Now and then, he felt a leg or an arm with his finger and thumb, and hesitated a second. It was an important matter, this choosing a victim. As he passed, a close observer might have noted78 that each man trembled visibly while the god’s eye was upon him, and looked after him askance with a terrified sidelong gaze as he passed on to his neighbor. But not one savage gave any overt79 sign or token of his terror or his reluctance80. On the contrary, as Tu-Kila-Kila passed along the line with lazy, cruel deliberateness, the men kept chanting aloud without one tremor81 in their voices, “We are all your meat. Choose which one you will take of us.”
On a sudden, Tu-Kila-Kila turned sharply round, and, darting82 a rapid glance toward a row he had already passed several minutes before, he exclaimed, with an air of unexpected inspiration, “Tu-Kila-Kila has chosen. He takes Maloa.”
The man upon whose shoulder the god laid his heavy hand as he spoke stood forth from the crowd without a moment’s hesitation. If anger or fear was in his heart at all, it could not be detected in his voice or his features. He bowed his head with seeming satisfaction, and answered humbly, “What Tu-Kila-Kila says must need be done. This is a great honor. He is a mighty god. We poor men must obey him. We are proud to be taken up and made one with divinity.”
Tu-Kila-Kila raised in his hand a large stone axe22 of some polished green material, closely resembling jade83, which lay on a block by the door, and tried its edge with his finger, in an abstracted manner. “Bind84 him!” he said, quietly, turning round to his votaries. And the men, each glad to have escaped his own fate, bound their comrade willingly with green ropes of plantain fibre.
“Crown him with flowers!” Tu-Kila-Kila said; and a female attendant, absolved85 from the terror of the bull-roarer by the god’s command, brought forward a great garland of crimson86 hibiscus, which she flung around the victim’s neck and shoulders.
“Lay his head on the sacred stone block of our fathers,” Tu-Kila-Kila went on, in an easy tone of command, waving his hand gracefully87. And the men, moving forward, laid their comrade, face downward, on a huge flat block of polished greenstone, which lay like an altar in front of the hut with the mouldering88 skeletons.
“It is well,” Tu-Kila-Kila murmured once more, half aloud. “You have given me the free-will offering. Now for the trespass89! Where is the woman who dared to approach too near the temple-home of the divine Tu-Kila-Kila? Bring the criminal forward!”
The men divided, and made a lane down their middle. Then one of them, a minister of the man-god’s shrine, led up by the hand, all trembling and shrinking with supernatural terror in every muscle, a well-formed young girl of eighteen or twenty. Her naked bronze limbs were shapely and lissome90; but her eyes were swollen91 and red with tears, and her face strongly distorted with awe for the man-god. When she stood at last before Tu-Kila-Kila’s dreaded92 face, she flung herself on the ground in an agony of fear.
“Oh, mercy, great God!” she cried, in a feeble voice. “I have sinned, I have sinned. Mercy, mercy!”
Tu-Kila-Kila smiled as before, a smile of imperial pride. No ray of pity gleamed from those steel-gray eyes. “Does Tu-Kila-Kila show mercy?” he asked, in a mocking voice. “Does he pardon his suppliants93? Does he forgive trespasses94? Is he not a god, and must not his wrath be appeased95? She, being a woman, and not a wife sealed to Tu-Kila-Kila, has dared to look from afar upon his sacred home. She has spied the mysteries. Therefore she must die. My people, bind her.”
In a second, without more ado, while the poor trembling girl writhed96 and groaned97 in her agony before their eyes, that mob of wild savages, let loose to torture and slay98, fell upon her with hideous99 shouts, and bound her, as they had bound their comrade before, with coarse native ropes of twisted plantain fibre.
“Lay her head on the stone,” Tu-Kila-Kila said, grimly. And his votaries obeyed him.
“Now light the sacred fire to make our feast, before I slay the victims,” the god said, in a gloating voice, running his finger again along the edge of his huge hatchet100.
As he spoke, two men, holding in their hands hollow bamboos with coals of fire concealed101 within, which they kept aglow102 meanwhile by waving them up and down rapidly in the air, laid these primitive103 matches to the base of a great pyramidal pile of wood and palm-leaves, ready prepared beforehand in the yard of the temple. In a second, the dry fuel, catching104 the sparks instantly, blazed up to heaven with a wild outburst of flame. Great red tongues of fire licked up the mouldering mass of leaves and twigs105, and caught at once at the trunks of palm and li wood within. A huge conflagration106 reddened the sky at once like lightning. The effect was magical. The glow transfigured the whole island for miles. It was, in fact, the blaze that Felix Thurstan had noted and remarked upon as he stood that evening on the silent deck of the Australasian.
Tu-Kila-Kila gazed at it with horrid107 childish glee. “A fine fire!” he said, gayly. “A fire worthy31 of a god. It will serve me well. Tu-Kila-Kila will have a good oven to roast his meal in.”
Then he turned toward the sea, and held up his hand once more for silence. As he did so, an answering light upon its surface attracted his eye for a moment’s space. It was a bright red light, mixed with white and green ones; in point of fact, the Australasian was passing. Tu-Kila-Kila pointed toward it solemnly with his plump, brown fore-finger. “See,” he said, drawing himself up and looking preternaturally wise; “your god is great. I am sending some of this fire across the sea to where my sun has set, to aid and reinforce it. That is to keep up the fire of the sun, lest ever at any time it should fade and fail you. While Tu-Kila-Kila lives the sun will burn bright. If Tu-Kila-Kila were to die it would be night forever.”
His votaries, following their god’s fore-finger as it pointed, all turned to look in the direction he indicated with blank surprise and astonishment108. Such a sight had never met their eyes before, for the Australasian was the very first steamer to take the eastward109 route, through the dangerous and tortuous110 Boupari Channel. So their awe and surprise at the unwonted sight knew no bounds. Fire on the ocean! Miraculous111 light on the waves! Their god must, indeed, be a mighty deity if he could send flames like that careering over the sea! Surely the sun was safe in the hands of a potentate112 who could thus visibly reinforce it with red light, and white! In their astonishment and awe, they stood with their long hair falling down over their foreheads, and their hands held up to their eyes that they might gaze the farther across the dim, dark ocean. The borrowed light of their bonfire was moving, slowly moving over the watery113 sea. Fire and water were mixing and mingling114 on friendly terms. Impossible! Incredible! Marvellous! Miraculous! They prostrated115 themselves in their terror at Tu-Kila-Kila’s feet. “Oh, great god,” they cried, in awe-struck tones, “your power is too vast! Spare us, spare us, spare us!”
As for Tu-Kila-Kila himself, he was not astonished at all. Strange as it sounds to us, he really believed in his heart what he said. Profoundly convinced of his own godhead, and abjectly116 superstitious117 as any of his own votaries, he absolutely accepted as a fact his own suggestion, that the light he saw was the reflection of that his men had kindled118. The interpretation119 he had put upon it seemed to him a perfectly120 natural and just one. His worshippers, indeed, mere19 men that they were, might be terrified at the sight; but why should he, a god, take any special notice of it?
He accepted his own superiority as implicitly121 as our European nobles and rulers accept theirs. He had no doubts himself, and he considered those who had little better than criminals.
By and by, a smaller light detached itself by slow degrees from the greater ones. The others stood still, and halted in mid-ocean. The lesser122 light made as if it would come in the direction of Boupari. In point of fact, the gig had put out in search of Felix and Muriel.
Tu-Kila-Kila interpreted the facts at once, however, in his own way. “See,” he said, pointing with his plump forefinger123 once more, and encouraging with his words his terrified followers, “I am sending back a light again from the sun to my island. I am doing my work well. I am taking care of my people. Fear not for your future. In the light is yet another victim. A man and a woman will come to Boupari from the sun, to make up for the man and woman whom we eat in our feast to-night. Give me plenty of victims, and you will have plenty of yam. Make haste, then; kill, eat; let us feast Tu-Kila-Kila! To-morrow the man and woman I have sent from the sun will come ashore on the reef, and reach Boupari.”
At the words, he stepped forward and raised that heavy tomahawk. With one blow each he brained the two bound and defenceless victims on the altar-stone of his fathers. The rest, a European hand shrinks from revealing. The orgy was too horrible even for description.
And that was the land toward which, that moment, Felix Thurstan was struggling, with all his might, to carry Muriel Ellis, from the myriad124 clasping arms of a comparatively gentle and merciful ocean!
点击收听单词发音
1 enacted | |
制定(法律),通过(法案)( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 ashore | |
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 rites | |
仪式,典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 northward | |
adv.向北;n.北方的地区 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 votaries | |
n.信徒( votary的名词复数 );追随者;(天主教)修士;修女 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 wont | |
adj.习惯于;v.习惯;n.习惯 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 grove | |
n.林子,小树林,园林 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 incarnate | |
adj.化身的,人体化的,肉色的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 rim | |
n.(圆物的)边,轮缘;边界 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 shrine | |
n.圣地,神龛,庙;v.将...置于神龛内,把...奉为神圣 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 rumbling | |
n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 prostrate | |
v.拜倒,平卧,衰竭;adj.拜倒的,平卧的,衰竭的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 reverently | |
adv.虔诚地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 subsided | |
v.(土地)下陷(因在地下采矿)( subside的过去式和过去分词 );减弱;下降至较低或正常水平;一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 initiated | |
n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始,创始,启蒙,介绍加入 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 tattooing | |
n.刺字,文身v.刺青,文身( tattoo的现在分词 );连续有节奏地敲击;作连续有节奏的敲击 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 thong | |
n.皮带;皮鞭;v.装皮带 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 axe | |
n.斧子;v.用斧头砍,削减 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 frightful | |
adj.可怕的;讨厌的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 din | |
n.喧闹声,嘈杂声 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 peals | |
n.(声音大而持续或重复的)洪亮的响声( peal的名词复数 );隆隆声;洪亮的钟声;钟乐v.(使)(钟等)鸣响,(雷等)发出隆隆声( peal的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 recedes | |
v.逐渐远离( recede的第三人称单数 );向后倾斜;自原处后退或避开别人的注视;尤指问题 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 bellowing | |
v.发出吼叫声,咆哮(尤指因痛苦)( bellow的现在分词 );(愤怒地)说出(某事),大叫 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 murmurs | |
n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 );低语声;怨言;嘀咕 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 devouring | |
吞没( devour的现在分词 ); 耗尽; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 wrath | |
n.愤怒,愤慨,暴怒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 deity | |
n.神,神性;被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 caverns | |
大山洞,大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 hush | |
int.嘘,别出声;n.沉默,静寂;v.使安静 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 throng | |
n.人群,群众;v.拥挤,群集 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 superciliously | |
adv.高傲地;傲慢地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42 cynical | |
adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的,不信世道向善的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43 elastic | |
n.橡皮圈,松紧带;adj.有弹性的;灵活的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
44 lithe | |
adj.(指人、身体)柔软的,易弯的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
45 lust | |
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
46 brutal | |
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
47 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
48 awe | |
n.敬畏,惊惧;vt.使敬畏,使惊惧 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
49 followers | |
追随者( follower的名词复数 ); 用户; 契据的附面; 从动件 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
50 dedicated | |
adj.一心一意的;献身的;热诚的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
51 wither | |
vt.使凋谢,使衰退,(用眼神气势等)使畏缩;vi.枯萎,衰退,消亡 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
52 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
53 scorch | |
v.烧焦,烤焦;高速疾驶;n.烧焦处,焦痕 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
54 taro | |
n.芋,芋头 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
55 ripens | |
v.成熟,使熟( ripen的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
56 savages | |
未开化的人,野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
57 mantle | |
n.斗篷,覆罩之物,罩子;v.罩住,覆盖,脸红 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
58 boughs | |
大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
59 skulls | |
颅骨( skull的名词复数 ); 脑袋; 脑子; 脑瓜 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
60 slain | |
杀死,宰杀,杀戮( slay的过去分词 ); (slay的过去分词) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
61 trophies | |
n.(为竞赛获胜者颁发的)奖品( trophy的名词复数 );奖杯;(尤指狩猎或战争中获得的)纪念品;(用于比赛或赛跑名称)奖 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
62 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
63 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
64 acquiescence | |
n.默许;顺从 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
65 assent | |
v.批准,认可;n.批准,认可 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
66 melodiously | |
参考例句: |
|
|
67 consummate | |
adj.完美的;v.成婚;使完美 [反]baffle | |
参考例句: |
|
|
68 stint | |
v.节省,限制,停止;n.舍不得化,节约,限制;连续不断的一段时间从事某件事 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
69 humbly | |
adv. 恭顺地,谦卑地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
70 peremptory | |
adj.紧急的,专横的,断然的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
71 flake | |
v.使成薄片;雪片般落下;n.薄片 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
72 deliberately | |
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
73 gash | |
v.深切,划开;n.(深长的)切(伤)口;裂缝 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
74 stanch | |
v.止住(血等);adj.坚固的;坚定的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
75 hesitation | |
n.犹豫,踌躇 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
76 leisurely | |
adj.悠闲的;从容的,慢慢的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
77 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
78 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
79 overt | |
adj.公开的,明显的,公然的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
80 reluctance | |
n.厌恶,讨厌,勉强,不情愿 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
81 tremor | |
n.震动,颤动,战栗,兴奋,地震 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
82 darting | |
v.投掷,投射( dart的现在分词 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
83 jade | |
n.玉石;碧玉;翡翠 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
84 bind | |
vt.捆,包扎;装订;约束;使凝固;vi.变硬 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
85 absolved | |
宣告…无罪,赦免…的罪行,宽恕…的罪行( absolve的过去式和过去分词 ); 不受责难,免除责任 [义务] ,开脱(罪责) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
86 crimson | |
n./adj.深(绯)红色(的);vi.脸变绯红色 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
87 gracefully | |
ad.大大方方地;优美地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
88 mouldering | |
v.腐朽( moulder的现在分词 );腐烂,崩塌 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
89 trespass | |
n./v.侵犯,闯入私人领地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
90 lissome | |
adj.柔软的;敏捷的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
91 swollen | |
adj.肿大的,水涨的;v.使变大,肿胀 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
92 dreaded | |
adj.令人畏惧的;害怕的v.害怕,恐惧,担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
93 suppliants | |
n.恳求者,哀求者( suppliant的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
94 trespasses | |
罪过( trespass的名词复数 ); 非法进入 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
95 appeased | |
安抚,抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 ); 绥靖(满足另一国的要求以避免战争) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
96 writhed | |
(因极度痛苦而)扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
97 groaned | |
v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 );发牢骚;抱怨;受苦 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
98 slay | |
v.杀死,宰杀,杀戮 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
99 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
100 hatchet | |
n.短柄小斧;v.扼杀 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
101 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
102 aglow | |
adj.发亮的;发红的;adv.发亮地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
103 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
104 catching | |
adj.易传染的,有魅力的,迷人的,接住 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
105 twigs | |
细枝,嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
106 conflagration | |
n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
107 horrid | |
adj.可怕的;令人惊恐的;恐怖的;极讨厌的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
108 astonishment | |
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
109 eastward | |
adv.向东;adj.向东的;n.东方,东部 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
110 tortuous | |
adj.弯弯曲曲的,蜿蜒的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
111 miraculous | |
adj.像奇迹一样的,不可思议的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
112 potentate | |
n.统治者;君主 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
113 watery | |
adj.有水的,水汪汪的;湿的,湿润的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
114 mingling | |
adj.混合的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
115 prostrated | |
v.使俯伏,使拜倒( prostrate的过去式和过去分词 );(指疾病、天气等)使某人无能为力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
116 abjectly | |
凄惨地; 绝望地; 糟透地; 悲惨地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
117 superstitious | |
adj.迷信的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
118 kindled | |
(使某物)燃烧,着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 ); 激起(感情等); 发亮,放光 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
119 interpretation | |
n.解释,说明,描述;艺术处理 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
120 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
121 implicitly | |
adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
122 lesser | |
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
123 forefinger | |
n.食指 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
124 myriad | |
adj.无数的;n.无数,极大数量 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |