And had he possessed2 but a single spouse3, most discourteous4, surely, to have overlooked the princess; much more, then, as it is; and by how-much the more, a plurality exceeds a unit.
Exclusive of the female attendants, by day waiting upon the person of the king, he had wives thirty in number, corresponding in name to the nights of the moon. For, in Juam, time is not reckoned by days, but by nights; each night of the lunar month having its own designation; which, relatively5 only, is extended to the day.
In uniform succession, the thirty wives ruled queen of the king's heart. An arrangement most wise and judicious6; precluding7 much of that jealousy8 and confusion prevalent in ill-regulated seraglios. For as thirty spouses9 must be either more desirable, or less desirable than one; so is a harem thirty times more difficult to manage than an establishment with one solitary10 mistress. But Donjalolo's wives were so nicely drilled, that for the most part, things went on very smoothly11. Nor were his brows much furrowed12 with wrinkles referable to domestic cares and tribulations13. Although, as in due time will be seen, from these he was not altogether exempt14.
Now, according to Braid-Beard, who, among other abstruse15 political researches, had accurately16 informed himself concerning the internal administration of Donjalolo's harem, the following was the method pursued therein.
On the Aquella, or First Night of the month, the queen of that name assumes her diadem17, and reigns19. So too with Azzolino the Second, and Velluvi the Third Night of the Moon; and so on, even unto the utter eclipse thereof; through Calends, Nones, and Ides.
For convenience, the king is furnished with a card, whereon are copied the various ciphers20 upon the arms of his queens; and parallel thereto, the hieroglyphics21 significant of the corresponding Nights of the month. Glancing over this, Donjalolo predicts the true time of the rising and setting of all his stars.
This Moon of wives was lodged22 in two spacious23 seraglios, which few mortals beheld24. For, so deeply were they buried in a grove25; so overpowered with verdure; so overrun with vines; and so hazy26 with the incense27 of flowers; that they were almost invisible, unless closely approached. Certain it was, that it demanded no small enterprise, diligence, and sagacity, to explore the mysterious wood in search of them. Though a strange, sweet, humming sound, as of the clustering and swarming28 of warm bees among roses, at last hinted the royal honey at hand. High in air, toward the summit of the cliff, overlooking this side of the glen, a narrow ledge29 of rocks might have been seen, from which, rumor30 whispered, was to be caught an angular peep at the tip of the apex31 of the roof of the nearest seraglio. But this wild report had never been established. Nor, indeed, was it susceptible32 of a test. For was not that rock inaccessible33 as the eyrie of young eagles? But to guard against the possibility of any visual profanation34, Donjalolo had authorized35 an edict, forever tabooing that rock to foot of man or pinion36 of fowl37. Birds and bipeds both trembled and obeyed; taking a wide circuit to avoid the spot.
Access to the seraglios was had by corresponding arbors leading from the palace. The seraglio to the right was denominated "Ravi" (Before), that to the left "Zono" (After). The meaning of which was, that upon the termination of her reign18 the queen wended her way to the Zono; there tarrying with her predecessors39 till the Ravi was emptied; when the entire Moon of wives, swallow-like, migrated back whence they came; and the procession was gone over again.
In due order, the queens reposed40 upon mats inwoven with their respective ciphers. In the Ravi, the mat of the queen-apparent, or next in succession, was spread by the portal. In the Zono, the newly- widowed queen reposed furthest from it.
But alas41 for all method where thirty wives are concerned. Notwithstanding these excellent arrangements, the mature result of ages of progressive improvement in the economy of the royal seraglios in Willamilla, it must needs be related, that at times the order of precedence became confused, and was very hard to restore.
At intervals42, some one of the wives was weeded out, to the no small delight of the remainder; but to their equal vexation her place would soon after be supplied by some beautiful stranger; who assuming the denomination43 of the vacated Night of the Moon, thenceforth commenced her monthly revolutions in the king's infallible calendar.
In constant attendance, was a band of old men; woe-begone, thin of leg, and puny44 of frame; whose grateful task it was, to tarry in the garden of Donjalolo's delights, without ever touching45 the roses. Along with innumerable other duties, they were perpetually kept coming and going upon ten thousand errands; for they had it in strict charge to obey the slightest behests of the damsels; and with all imaginable expedition to run, fly, swim, or dissolve into impalpable air, at the shortest possible notice.
So laborious46 their avocations47, that none could discharge them for more than a twelvemonth, at the end of that period giving up the ghost out of pure exhaustion48 of the locomotive apparatus49. It was this constant drain upon the stock of masculine old age in the glen, that so bethinned its small population of gray-beards and hoary-heads. And any old man hitherto exempted50, who happened to receive a summons to repair to the palace, and there wait the pleasure of the king: this unfortunate, at once suspecting his doom51, put his arbor38 in order; oiled and suppled52 his joints53; took a long farewell of his friends; selected his burial-place; and going resigned to his fate, in due time expired like the rest.
Had any one of them cast about for some alleviating54 circumstance, he might possibly have derived55 some little consolation56 from the thought, that though a slave to the whims57 of thirty princesses, he was nevertheless one of their guardians58, and as such, he might ingeniously have concluded, their superior. But small consolation this. For the damsels were as blithe59 as larks60, more playful than kittens; never looking sad and sentimental61, projecting clandestine62 escapes. But supplied with the thirtieth part of all that Aspasia could desire; glorying in being the spouses of a king; nor in the remotest degree anxious about eventual63 dowers; they were care-free, content, and rejoicing, as the rays of the morning.
Poor old men, then; it would be hard to distill64 out of your fate, one drop of the balm of consolation. For, commissioned to watch over those who forever kept you on the trot65, affording you no time to hunt up peccadilloes66; was not this circumstance an aggravation67 of hard times? a sharpening and edge-giving to the steel in your souls?
To dwell no more upon the eternal wear-and-tear incident to these attenuated69 old warders, they were intensely hated by the damsels. Inasmuch, as it was archly opined, for what ulterior purposes they were retained.
Nightly couching, on guard, round the seraglio, like fangless70 old bronze dragons round a fountain enchanted71, the old men ever and anon cried out mightily72, by reason of sore pinches and scratches received in the dark: And tri-trebly-tri-triply girt about as he was, Donjalolo himself started from his slumbers73, raced round and round through his ten thousand corridors; at last bursting all dizzy among his twenty-nine queens, to see what under the seventh-heavens was the matter. When, lo and behold74! there lay the innocents all sound asleep; the dragons moaning over their mysterious bruises75.
Ah me! his harem, like all large families, was the delight and the torment76 of the days and nights of Donjalolo.
And in one special matter was he either eminently77 miserable78, or otherwise: for all his multiplicity of wives, he had never an heir. Not his, the proud paternal79 glance of the Grand Turk Solyman, looking round upon a hundred sons, all bone of his bone, and squinting80 with his squint81.
点击收听单词发音
1 likeness | |
n.相像,相似(之处) | |
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2 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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3 spouse | |
n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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4 discourteous | |
adj.不恭的,不敬的 | |
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5 relatively | |
adv.比较...地,相对地 | |
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6 judicious | |
adj.明智的,明断的,能作出明智决定的 | |
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7 precluding | |
v.阻止( preclude的现在分词 );排除;妨碍;使…行不通 | |
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8 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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9 spouses | |
n.配偶,夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 ) | |
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10 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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11 smoothly | |
adv.平滑地,顺利地,流利地,流畅地 | |
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12 furrowed | |
v.犁田,开沟( furrow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13 tribulations | |
n.苦难( tribulation的名词复数 );艰难;苦难的缘由;痛苦 | |
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14 exempt | |
adj.免除的;v.使免除;n.免税者,被免除义务者 | |
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15 abstruse | |
adj.深奥的,难解的 | |
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16 accurately | |
adv.准确地,精确地 | |
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17 diadem | |
n.王冠,冕 | |
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18 reign | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势 | |
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19 reigns | |
n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 );君主统治时期;任期;当政期 | |
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20 ciphers | |
n.密码( cipher的名词复数 );零;不重要的人;无价值的东西 | |
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21 hieroglyphics | |
n.pl.象形文字 | |
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22 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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23 spacious | |
adj.广阔的,宽敞的 | |
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24 beheld | |
v.看,注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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25 grove | |
n.林子,小树林,园林 | |
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26 hazy | |
adj.有薄雾的,朦胧的;不肯定的,模糊的 | |
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27 incense | |
v.激怒;n.香,焚香时的烟,香气 | |
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28 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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29 ledge | |
n.壁架,架状突出物;岩架,岩礁 | |
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30 rumor | |
n.谣言,谣传,传说 | |
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31 apex | |
n.顶点,最高点 | |
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32 susceptible | |
adj.过敏的,敏感的;易动感情的,易受感动的 | |
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33 inaccessible | |
adj.达不到的,难接近的 | |
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34 profanation | |
n.亵渎 | |
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35 authorized | |
a.委任的,许可的 | |
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36 pinion | |
v.束缚;n.小齿轮 | |
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37 fowl | |
n.家禽,鸡,禽肉 | |
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38 arbor | |
n.凉亭;树木 | |
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39 predecessors | |
n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 );前辈;(被取代的)原有事物;前身 | |
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40 reposed | |
v.将(手臂等)靠在某人(某物)上( repose的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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42 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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43 denomination | |
n.命名,取名,(度量衡、货币等的)单位 | |
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44 puny | |
adj.微不足道的,弱小的 | |
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45 touching | |
adj.动人的,使人感伤的 | |
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46 laborious | |
adj.吃力的,努力的,不流畅 | |
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47 avocations | |
n.业余爱好,嗜好( avocation的名词复数 );职业 | |
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48 exhaustion | |
n.耗尽枯竭,疲惫,筋疲力尽,竭尽,详尽无遗的论述 | |
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49 apparatus | |
n.装置,器械;器具,设备 | |
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50 exempted | |
使免除[豁免]( exempt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
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52 suppled | |
使柔软,使柔顺(supple的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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53 joints | |
接头( joint的名词复数 ); 关节; 公共场所(尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所) (非正式); 一块烤肉 (英式英语) | |
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54 alleviating | |
减轻,缓解,缓和( alleviate的现在分词 ) | |
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55 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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56 consolation | |
n.安慰,慰问 | |
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57 WHIMS | |
虚妄,禅病 | |
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58 guardians | |
监护人( guardian的名词复数 ); 保护者,维护者 | |
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59 blithe | |
adj.快乐的,无忧无虑的 | |
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60 larks | |
n.百灵科鸟(尤指云雀)( lark的名词复数 );一大早就起床;鸡鸣即起;(因太费力而不想干时说)算了v.百灵科鸟(尤指云雀)( lark的第三人称单数 );一大早就起床;鸡鸣即起;(因太费力而不想干时说)算了 | |
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61 sentimental | |
adj.多愁善感的,感伤的 | |
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62 clandestine | |
adj.秘密的,暗中从事的 | |
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63 eventual | |
adj.最后的,结局的,最终的 | |
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64 distill | |
vt.蒸馏,用蒸馏法提取,吸取,提炼 | |
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65 trot | |
n.疾走,慢跑;n.老太婆;现成译本;(复数)trots:腹泻(与the 连用);v.小跑,快步走,赶紧 | |
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66 peccadilloes | |
n.轻罪,小过失( peccadillo的名词复数 ) | |
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67 aggravation | |
n.烦恼,恼火 | |
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68 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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69 attenuated | |
v.(使)变细( attenuate的过去式和过去分词 );(使)变薄;(使)变小;减弱 | |
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70 fangless | |
Fangless | |
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71 enchanted | |
adj. 被施魔法的,陶醉的,入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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72 mightily | |
ad.强烈地;非常地 | |
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73 slumbers | |
睡眠,安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
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74 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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75 bruises | |
n.瘀伤,伤痕,擦伤( bruise的名词复数 ) | |
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76 torment | |
n.折磨;令人痛苦的东西(人);vt.折磨;纠缠 | |
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77 eminently | |
adv.突出地;显著地;不寻常地 | |
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78 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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79 paternal | |
adj.父亲的,像父亲的,父系的,父方的 | |
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80 squinting | |
斜视( squint的现在分词 ); 眯着眼睛; 瞟; 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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81 squint | |
v. 使变斜视眼, 斜视, 眯眼看, 偏移, 窥视; n. 斜视, 斜孔小窗; adj. 斜视的, 斜的 | |
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