Our train traverses the Athi plains, more crowded perhaps with game than any other part of the line, and approaches swiftly the long rows of one-storeyed tin houses which constitute the town. Nairobi is a typical South African township. It might be Pietermaritzburg or Ladysmith of twenty years ago, before blue gum-trees and stone buildings had waxed and multiplied. In its present stage perhaps it resembles Buluwayo most. The population is also South African in its character and proportions. There are five hundred and eighty whites, three thousand one hundred Indians, and ten thousand five hundred and fifty African natives. The shops and stores are, however, much more considerable than these figures would appear to warrant, and are fully10 capable of supplying the varied11 needs of settlers and planters over a wide area. Nairobi is also the headquarters of a brigade of the King's African Rifles, the central office and depot2 of the Uganda Railway, and the seat of the Administration, with its numerous official personnel. The dinner of the Colonists12' Association, to which I was invited, afforded the familiar, yet in Central Africa not unimpressive, spectacle of long rows of gentlemen 21 in evening dress; while the ball given by the Governor to celebrate the King's birthday revealed a company gay with uniforms, and ladies in pretty dresses, assembled upon a spot where scarcely ten years before lions hunted undisturbed.
Guard of Honour, King's African Rifles.
Every white man in Nairobi is a politician; and most of them are leaders of parties. One would scarcely believe it possible, that a centre so new should be able to develop so many divergent and conflicting interests, or that a community so small should be able to give to each such vigorous and even vehement14 expression. There are already in miniature all the elements of keen political and racial discord15, all the materials for hot and acrimonious16 debate. The white man versus17 the black; the Indian versus both; the settler as against the planter; the town contrasted with the country; the official class against the unofficial; the coast and the highlands; the railway administration and the Protectorate generally; the King's African Rifles and the East Africa Protectorate Police; all these different points of view, naturally arising, honestly adopted, tenaciously18 held, and not yet reconciled into any harmonious19 general conception, confront 22 the visitor in perplexing disarray20. Nor will he be wise to choose his part with any hurry. It is better to see something of the country, of its quality and extent, of its promises and forfeits21, of its realities and illusions, before endeavouring to form even a provisional opinion.
The snow-clad peak of Mount Kenya, a hundred miles away, can on a clear morning be easily seen from the slopes above Nairobi—a sharp, serrated summit veined with gleaming white. A road—passable, albeit22 unmetalled, for wagons23 and even a motor-car—runs thitherward by Fort Hall and across the Tana River. On the way there is much to see. A wild, ragged26-looking, but fertile region, swelling27 into successive undulations and intersected by numerous gorges28 whose streams are shaded by fine trees, unfolds itself to the eye. Scattered29 about upon spacious30 estates of many thousand acres are a score or two of colonists, each gradually making himself a home and a living in his own way. One raises stock; another plants coffee, which grows so exuberantly31 in this generous soil as to threaten the speedy exhaustion32 of the plant. Here are ostriches34, sheep, and cattle standing35 placidly36 23 together in one drove under the guardianship37 of a native child of eleven. There is a complete dairy farm, admirably equipped. One of the streams has been dammed effectively, and turbines are already in position to light Nairobi with electricity. Upon the banks of another there is talk of building an hotel.
At one place I found a family of good people from Hightown, Manchester, grappling courageously40 with an enormous tract41 of ten thousand acres. Hard by, an old Boer, who has trekked42 the length of Africa to avoid the British flag, sits smoking stolidly43 by his grass house, reconciled to British rule at last by a few months' experience of paternal44 government in a neighbouring Protectorate. He has few cattle and less cash, but he holds decided45 views as to the whereabouts of lions; there, moreover, stands the heavy tilted46 wagon24 of the Great Trek—an ark of refuge when all else fails; and for the rest there is plenty of game, few people, and the family grows from year to year. In short, one sees a sparse6, heterogeneous47 population engaged in varied labours; but everywhere hard work, straitened resources, hopes persisting through many disappointments, 24 stout48 hospitable49 hearts, and the beginnings, at any rate, of progress.
A camp has been prepared for me in a very beautiful spot at the juncture50 of the Chania and Thika rivers. Tents are pitched and grass shelters are erected51 in a smooth meadow. Southwards, a hundred yards away, a fine waterfall plunges52 downwards53 over enormous boulders54 amid tall, interlacing trees. The muffled55 roar of another rises from a deep ravine an equal distance to the north; and the Philistine56 computes57, with a frown, four thousand horse-power expending58 itself upon the picturesque59.
Nothing causes the East African colonist13 more genuine concern than that his guest should not have been provided with a lion. The knowledge preys60 upon his mind until it becomes a veritable obsession61. He feels some deep reproach is laid upon his own hospitality and the reputation of his adopted country. How to find, and, having found, to kill, a lion is the unvarying theme of conversation; and every place and every journey is judged by a simple standard—"lions or no lions." At the Thika camp, then, several gentlemen, accomplished62 in this important sport, have 25 come together with ponies63, rifles, Somalis, and all the other accessories. Some zebras and kongoni have been killed and left lying in likely-looking places to attract the lions; and at 4 a.m., rain or shine, we are to go and look for them.
Shooting Party at Thika Camp.
From left to right—Capt. Sadler, Major Riddell, Mr. Marsh64, Marquis Gandolfi-Hornyold, Hon. K. Dundas, Mr. Percival, Mr. Churchill, Mr. D. J. Wilson.
The young Englishman, be he officer or settler in the East African Highlands, cuts a hardy65 figure. His clothes are few and far between: a sun hat, a brown flannel66 shirt with sleeves cut above the elbow and open to the chest, a pair of thin khaki knickerbockers cut short five inches—at least—above the knee, boots, and a pair of putties comprise the whole attire67. Nothing else is worn. The skin, exposed to sun, thorns, and insects, becomes almost as dark as that of the natives, and so hardened that it is nothing to ride all day with bare knees on the saddle; a truly Spartan68 discipline from which at least the visitor may be excused.
This is the way in which they hunt lions. First find the lion, lured69 to a kill, driven from a reed-bed, or kicked up incontinently by the way. Once viewed he must never be lost sight of for a moment. Mounted on ponies of more or less approved fidelity70, three or 26 four daring Britons or Somalis gallop71 after him, as in India they ride the pig—that is to say, neck or nothing—across rocks, holes, tussocks, nullahs, through high grass, thorn scrub, undergrowth, turning him, shepherding him, heading him this way and that until he is brought to bay. For his part the lion is no seeker of quarrels; he is often described in accents of contempt. His object throughout is to save his skin. If, being unarmed, you meet six or seven lions unexpectedly, all you need do—according to my information—is to speak to them sternly and they will slink away, while you throw a few stones at them to hurry them up. All the highest authorities recommend this.
But when pursued from place to place, chased hither and thither25 by the wheeling horsemen, the naturally mild disposition72 of the lion becomes embittered73. First he begins to growl74 and roar at his enemies, in order to terrify them, and make them leave him in peace. Then he darts75 little short charges at them. Finally, when every attempt at peaceful persuasion76 has failed, he pulls up abruptly77 and offers battle. Once he has done this, he will run no more. He means to fight, 27 and to fight to the death. He means to charge home; and when a lion, maddened with the agony of a bullet-wound, distressed78 by long and hard pursuit, or, most of all, a lioness in defence of her cubs79, is definitely committed to the charge, death is the only possible conclusion. Broken limbs, broken jaws80, a body raked from end to end, lungs pierced through and through, entrails torn and protruding—none of these count. It must be death—instant and utter—for the lion, or down goes the man, mauled by septic claws and fetid teeth, crushed and crunched81, and poisoned afterwards to make doubly sure. Such are the habits of this cowardly and wicked animal.
It is at the stage when the lion has been determinedly82 "bayed" that the sportsman from London is usually introduced upon the scene. He has, we may imagine, followed the riders as fast as the inequalities of the ground, his own want of training, and the burden of a heavy rifle will allow him. He arrives at the spot where the lion is cornered in much the same manner as the matador84 enters the arena85, the others standing aside deferentially86, ready to aid him or divert the 28 lion. If his bullet kills, he is, no doubt, justly proud. If it only wounds, the lion charges the nearest horseman. For forty yards the charge of a lion is swifter than the gallop of a racehorse. The riders, therefore, usually avoid waiting within that distance. But sometimes they do not; or sometimes the lion sees the man who has shot him; or sometimes all sorts of things happen which make good stories—afterwards.
After this general description no particular example is required, and the reader need not be disappointed to learn that our lion escaped what, no doubt, would have been his certain destruction by the breaking of a single link in the regular chain of circumstances. He was not found upon the kill. His place was taken by a filthy88 hyena89, and it was not until we had beaten thoroughly90 for two hours more than three miles of reed-bed that we saw him—a splendid great yellow cat, looking as big as a bullock—bounding away up the opposite hill. Off started our riders like falcons91; but alas92!—if "alas!" is the proper word—a deep and impassable nullah intervened, necessitating93 large circuits and long delays; so that the lion got clean away out of sight of all men, and we were reduced to the slow and tedious 29 process of tracking him footprint by footprint through waving grass, breast-high, hour after hour, always expecting to tread on his tail, and always—disappointed!
The Banda at Thika Camp.
Colonel Wilson's Lion.
In the afternoon I had to ride to Fort Hall, where there was to be a great gathering94 of Kikuyu chiefs and thousands of their warriors95 and women. The country is much the same as that traversed on the previous day, but greener, smoother, and more pleasant-looking. Fort Hall is not a fort in any military sense, but the Commissioner97's house with a ditch round it, a jail, a few houses, and an Indian bazaar98. The station is hardly well selected, being perched up on a hill out of the reach of any railway—and unhealthy nevertheless. The whole place was crowded with natives in their most highly ornamented99 and elaborate nudity, waiting for the war-dance.
This ceremony was performed the next morning. Long before daylight the beating of drums, the blowing of horns, and the rhythm of loud, yet not altogether unmelodious chanting awakened100 the weariest sleeper101; and when, at eight o'clock the indaba began, the whole space in front of the fort was densely102 packed with naked, painted, plumed104, 30 and gyrating humanity, which seethed105 continually to and fro, and divided from time to time as particular chiefs advanced with their followers106, or as gifts of struggling sheep and bulls were brought forward. In his war dress the Kikuyu, and, still more, the Masai warrior96, is a striking, if not impressive, figure. His hair and body are smeared107 with the red earth of his native land, compounded into a pigment108 by mixture with the slimy juice of the castor-oil plant, which abounds109. Fantastic headdresses, some of ostrich33 feathers, others of metal or leather; armlets and leglets of twisted wire; stripes of white clay rubbed across the red pigment; here and there an old pot-hat or some European garment, incongruously contrasted with leopard-skins and bulls' horns; broad, painted cow-hide shields, and spears with soft iron blades nearly four feet long, complete a grotesque110 and indecorous picture. Still, there is a sleek111 grace about these active forms—bronze statues but for their frippery—which defeats all their own efforts to make themselves hideous112. The chiefs, however, succeed in reducing themselves to regular guys. Any old, cast-off khaki jacket or tattered113 pair of trousers; any fragment of 31 weather-stained uniform, a battered114 sun-helmet with a feather stuck lamely115 into the top of it, a ragged umbrella, is sufficient to induce them to abandon the ostrich plume103 and the leopard-skin kaross. Among their warriors in ancient gear they look ridiculous and insignificant—more like the commonest kind of native sweeper than the hereditary116 rulers of some powerful and numerous tribe.
"Durbar" at Kiambu.
It is unquestionably an advantage that the East African negro should develop a taste for civilized117 attire. In no more useful and innocent direction could his wants be multiplied and his desires excited, and it is by this process of assimilation that his life will gradually be made more complicated, more varied, less crudely animal, and himself raised to a higher level of economic utility. But it would surely be worth while to organize and guide this new motive118 force within graceful119 and appropriate limits. A Government runs risks when it intrudes120 upon the domain121 of fashion; but when a veritable abyss of knowledge and science separates the rulers from the ruled, when authority is dealing122 with a native race still plunged123 in its primary squalour, without religion, without clothes, without morals, 32 but willing to emerge and capable of emerging, such risks may fairly be accepted; and the Government might well prescribe or present suitable robes for ceremonial occasions to the chiefs, and gradually encourage, and more gradually still enforce, their adoption124 throughout the population.
After the dance it had been arranged that I should go as far as the bank of the Tana River to see the view of Mount Kenya, and then return to the Thika camp before night. But when the whole splendid panorama125 of the trans-Tana country opened upon us, I could not bring myself to stop short of the promised land; and, casting away material cares of luncheon126 and baggage, I decided to ride through to Embo, twenty-eight miles from Fort Hall, and our most advanced post in this direction. We crossed the Tana by a ferry which travels along a rope under the impulsion of the current. The ponies swam the deep, strong, sixty-yard stream of turbulent red water. On the farther bank the country is really magnificent in quality and aspect. The centre of the picture is always Mount Kenya; but there never was a mountain which made so little of its height. It rises 33 by long gentle slopes, more like a swelling of ground than a peak, from an immense upland plain, and so gradual is the acclivity that, but for the sudden outcrop of snow-clad rock which crowns the summit, no one would believe it over eighteen thousand feet high. It is its gradual rise that imparts so great a value to this noble mountain; for about its enormous base and upon its slopes, traversed by hundreds of streams of clear perennial127 water, there grows, or may grow, in successive, concentric belts, every kind of crop and forest known in the world, from the Equator to the Arctic Circle. The landscape is superb. In beauty, in fertility, in verdure, in the coolness of the air, in the abundance of running water, in its rich red soil, in the variety of its vegetation, the scenery about Kenya far surpasses anything I have ever seen in India or South Africa, and challenges comparison with the fairest countries of Europe. Indeed, looking at it with an eye fresh from Italy, I was most powerfully reminded of the upper valleys of the Po.
We rode on all day through this delicious country, along a well-kept native road, smooth enough for a bicycle, except where it crossed 34 stream after stream on primitive128 bridges. On every side the soil was cultivated and covered with the crops of a large and industrious129 population. It is only a year since regular control was established beyond the Tana, not without some bloodshed, by a small military expedition. Yet so peaceful are the tribes—now that their intertribal fighting has been stopped—that white officers ride freely about among their villages without even carrying a pistol. All the natives met with on the road were armed with sword and spear, and all offered us their customary salutations, while many came up smiling and holding out long, moist, delicate-looking hands for me to shake, till I had quite enough of it. Indeed, the only dangers of the road appear to be from the buffaloes130 which infest131 the country, and after nightfall place the traveller in real peril132. We were very glad for this reason, and also because we had eaten nothing but a banana each since early morning, to see at last on the top of the next hill the buildings of Embo just as the sun sank beneath the horizon.
Embo is a model station, only five months old—one small, three-roomed house for the District Commissioner, one for the military 35 officer, an office, and a tiny jail, all in good dressed stone; two Indian shops in corrugated133 iron; and seven or eight long rows of beehive grass huts for a hundred and fifty soldiers and police. Two young white officers—a civilian134 and a soldier—preside from this centre of authority, far from the telegraph, over the peace and order of an area as large as an English county, and regulate the conduct and fortunes of some seventy-five thousand natives, who have never previously135 known or acknowledged any law but violence or terror. They were uncommonly136 surprised to see four horsemen come riding up the zigzag137 path to their dwelling138; but their astonishment139 was no bar to their hospitality, and we were soon rewarded for our journey and our fasting in most excellent fashion.
I had just time before the darkness flooded the land and blotted140 out the mighty141 mountain and its wreaths of fire-tipped cloud to walk round this station. The jail consisted of a single room, barred and bolted. Inside not a prisoner was to be seen. I inquired where they were, and was shown two little groups seated round fires in the open. They were chained together by a light running chain, and 36 after a hard day's miscellaneous work about the station they chatted peacefully as they cooked and ate their evening meal. The prison was only their shelter for the night—primitive arrangements, no doubt, but are they more barbarous than the hideous, long-drawn precision of an English convict establishment?
The African protectorates now administered by the Colonial Office afford rare scope for the abilities of earnest and intelligent youth. A man of twenty-five may easily find himself ruling a large tract of country and a numerous population. The Government is too newly established to have developed the highly centralized and closely knit—perhaps too closely knit—hierarchy and control of the Indian system. It is far too poor to afford a complete Administration. The District Commissioner must judge for himself, and be judged upon his actions. Very often—for tropical diseases make many gaps in the ranks, and men must often return to England to recruit their health—the officer is not a District Commissioner at all, but a junior acting142 in his stead or in some one's stead, sometimes for a year or more. To him there come day by day the natives of 37 the district with all their troubles, disputes, and intrigues143. Their growing appreciation144 of the impartial145 justice of the tribunal leads them increasingly to carry all sorts of cases to the District Commissioner's Court. When they are ill they come and ask for medicine. When they are wounded in their quarrels it is to the white man they go to have the injuries dressed. Disease and accident have to be combated without professional skill. Courts of justice and forms of legality must be maintained without lawyers. Taxes have to be collected by personal influence. Peace has to be kept with only a shadow of force.
All these great opportunities of high service, and many others, are often and daily placed within the reach of men in their twenties—on the whole with admirable results. It was most pleasant to hear with what comprehension and sympathy the officers of the East Africa Protectorate speak about their work; and how they regard themselves as the guardians38 of native interests and native rights against those who only care about exploiting the country and its people. No one can travel even for a little while among the Kikuyu tribes without acquiring a liking146 for these light-hearted, tractable147, if brutish 38 children, or without feeling that they are capable of being instructed and raised from their present degradation148. There are more than four million aboriginals149 in East Africa alone. Their care imposes a grave, and I think an inalienable, responsibility upon the British Government. It will be an ill day for these native races when their fortunes are removed from the impartial and august administration of the Crown and abandoned to the fierce self-interest of a small white population. Such an event is no doubt very remote. Yet the speculator, the planter, and the settler are knocking at the door. There are many things which ought to be done—good, wise, scientific, and justly profitable. If the Government cannot find the money to develop the natural economic strength of the country, to make its communications, to start its industries, can it with any reason bar the field to private enterprise? Can it prevent the ingress of a white population? Ought it to do so, and for how long? What is to happen when there are thirty thousand white people in East Africa, instead of the three thousand or so who make so much stir at the present time? Perhaps the course of these chapters will lead us back 39 again to these questions. I am very doubtful whether it will supply their answers.
We have a discussion in the evening on a much more manageable subject. The District Commissioner at Embo has been ordered by the High Court of the Protectorate to retry a criminal case which he had settled some months before, on account of an informality in the report of the proceedings150, which had excited the attention of the revising authority. It is pointed87 out that neither the accused nor his fellow-natives understand, or can ever be made to understand, the meaning of this repetition of a trial; that they are bewildered; that their confidence in their personal ruler may be weakened; that endless practical difficulties—for instance, the collection of witnesses scattered about in distant villages, and the disquietude caused to them by a second summons from the strange, mysterious power called "Government"—arise out of an error which only a lawyer could detect, and which only appears upon a piece of paper. "Some one," quaintly151 says a young civil officer, who has ridden over with us, "forgot to say 'Bo!' in the right place." I ask the nature of the "Bo!" It is certainly substantial. No 40 mention was made in the report of the trial that the accused was given the opportunity of cross-examining the hostile witnesses. Therefore, although this was in fact done, the trial is held to be no trial, and ordered anew.
Now, here is again a balancing of disadvantages; but without here examining whether a simple release would not have been better than a retrial, I find myself plainly on the side of the "Bo!" There is scarcely anything more important in the government of men than the exact—I will even say the pedantic—observance of the regular forms by which the guilt152 or innocence153 of accused persons is determined83. Those forms are designed to protect the prisoner, not merely from the consequences of honest forgetfulness in his judges, but from systematic154 carelessness and possible oppression. Once they are allowed to be loosely construed155 the whole system of civilized jurisprudence begins to crumble156, and in its place there is gradually erected a rough-and-ready practice dependent entirely157 for its efficiency and fairness upon the character and intelligence of the individual responsible. Necessary as it is to trust to personal authority in the control of native races of the lowest standard, it is not 41 less necessary to assign well-marked limits to that authority, and, above all, to place the simple primary rights of accused persons to what we at home are accustomed to call a "fair trial" outside its scope. Nor does the administrator158 really suffer in native eyes from the apparition159 into his domain of superior authority. The tribesmen see that their ruler—to them all-powerful, the man of soldiers and police, of punishment and reward—is himself obedient to some remote external force, and they wonder what that mysterious force can be and marvel160 dimly at its greatness. Authority is enhanced and not impaired161 by the suggestion of immense reserves behind and above the immediate162 ruler—strong though he be. But upon this, as upon other matters, it is not necessary for every one to be of the same opinion; and even lawyers are not always wise.
On our homeward ride in the early morning we passed a Swahili village. These Mohammedans have penetrated163 deeply and established themselves widely in the Eastern parts of Africa. Armed with a superior religion and strengthened with Arab blood, they maintain themselves without difficulty at a far higher level than the pagan aboriginals among whom 42 they live. Their language has become a sort of lingua franca over all this part of the world. As traders they are welcomed, as fighting men they are respected, and as sorcerers they are feared by all the tribes. Their Khan had supplied us with bananas on the previous day with many expressions of apology that, as we were unexpected, he had no "European food." To-day all this was repaired. The men of the village, to the number of perhaps fifty, walked sedately164 out to meet us, their long white smocks in striking contrast to the naked, painted barbarians165 who surrounded them. The Khan led up a white Arab stallion, of vicious temper and tripling gait, to replace my wearied pony166; and then produced tea and a familiar tin of mixed biscuits, which he had over-night sent runners to procure167, that his hospitality might incur168 no reproach.
While we were eating and parleying with the Khan there arrived on the scene a mounted Kikuyu chief, with chair, umbrella, khaki helmet, and other insignia, and attended by about a hundred warriors in full feather. In order to show their respect they began at once their war-dance, and we left them a quarter of an hour later still circling and hopping169 to and 43 fro with quivering spears and nodding plumes170 to their monotonous171 chorus, while the white-robed Swahilis stood gravely by and bade us farewell in the dignified172 manners of the East. I reflected upon the interval173 that separates these two races from each other, and on the centuries of struggle that the advance had cost, and I wondered whether that interval was wider and deeper than that which divides the modern European from them both; but without arriving at any sure conclusion.
Our journey to Embo had been so delightful174 that I was not inclined to hanker after rejected alternatives. But when we drove in to the Thika camp as the sun was setting, tired out by fifty miles of road, the first spectacle which saluted175 my eyes was a lion's skin spread out upon the ground and Colonel Wilson engaged in sprinkling it with arsenical powder. Then we were told the tale, which in brief was that they were driving a long reed-bed, when the lion sprang out and ran obliquely176 across the line of beaters. Wilson fired and the lion bounded back into the reeds, whence stones, fires, shoutings, shots, and all other disturbances177 failed to move him. Whereupon, after two hours, being impatient and venturesome, they had marched in 44 upon him shoulder to shoulder, to find him, fortunately, quite dead.
My friends endeavoured to console me by the news that lions had now been heard of in two other places, and that we should be sure to find one in the morning; and next day, after we had driven three miles of reeds, it seemed that their hopes were well founded, for a large animal of some kind could be seen moving swiftly to and fro under cover, and every one declared this must be the lion. At last only one more patch of reeds remained to beat, and we took up our positions, finger on trigger, about sixty yards from the farther edge of it, while the beaters, raising an astonishing tumult178 with yells and the beating of tin cans, plunged boldly in. Parturiunt montes—out rushed two enormous wart-hogs. Let no one reproach the courage of the pig. These great fierce boars, driven from their last shelter, charged out in gallant179 style—tusks gleaming, tails perpendicular—and met a fate prepared for a king. With these and another which we galloped180 down and pistolled on the way home I had to be content, and can now, so far as I am concerned, sadly write, in the expressive181 words of Reuter, "No lions were 'bagged.'"
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depots
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| 仓库( depot的名词复数 )； 火车站； 车库； 军需库 | |
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depot
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| n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站 | |
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residential
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| adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的 | |
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swampy
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| adj.沼泽的，湿地的 | |
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sparsely
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| adv.稀疏地；稀少地；不足地；贫乏地 | |
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sparse
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| adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的 | |
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foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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imprint
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| n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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colonists
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| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
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colonist
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| n.殖民者，移民 | |
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vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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discord
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| n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐 | |
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acrimonious
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| adj.严厉的，辛辣的，刻毒的 | |
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versus
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| prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下 | |
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tenaciously
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| 坚持地 | |
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harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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disarray
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| n.混乱，紊乱，凌乱 | |
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forfeits
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| 罚物游戏 | |
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albeit
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| conj.即使；纵使；虽然 | |
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wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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27
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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28
gorges
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| n.山峡，峡谷( gorge的名词复数 )；咽喉v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的第三人称单数 )；作呕 | |
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29
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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30
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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31
exuberantly
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| adv.兴高采烈地，活跃地，愉快地 | |
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32
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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33
ostrich
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| n.鸵鸟 | |
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34
ostriches
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| n.鸵鸟( ostrich的名词复数 )；逃避现实的人，不愿正视现实者 | |
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35
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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36
placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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37
guardianship
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| n. 监护, 保护, 守护 | |
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38
guardians
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| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
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39
breakdown
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| n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌 | |
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40
courageously
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| ad.勇敢地，无畏地 | |
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41
tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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42
trekked
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| v.艰苦跋涉，徒步旅行( trek的过去式和过去分词 )；（尤指在山中）远足，徒步旅行，游山玩水 | |
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43
stolidly
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| adv.迟钝地，神经麻木地 | |
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44
paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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45
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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46
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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47
heterogeneous
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| adj.庞杂的；异类的 | |
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49
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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50
juncture
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| n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头 | |
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51
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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52
plunges
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| n.跳进，投入vt.使投入，使插入，使陷入vi.投入，跳进，陷入v.颠簸( plunge的第三人称单数 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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53
downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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54
boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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55
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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56
philistine
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|
| n.庸俗的人；adj.市侩的，庸俗的 | |
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57
computes
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| v.计算，估算( compute的第三人称单数 ) | |
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58
expending
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| v.花费( expend的现在分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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59
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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60
preys
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| v.掠食( prey的第三人称单数 )；掠食；折磨；（人）靠欺诈为生 | |
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61
obsession
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| n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感) | |
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62
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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63
ponies
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| 矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑 | |
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64
marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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65
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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66
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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67
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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68
spartan
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| adj.简朴的，刻苦的；n.斯巴达；斯巴达式的人 | |
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69
lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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70
fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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71
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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72
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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73
embittered
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| v.使怨恨，激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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74
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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75
darts
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| n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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76
persuasion
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|
| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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77
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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78
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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79
cubs
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| n.幼小的兽，不懂规矩的年轻人( cub的名词复数 ) | |
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80
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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81
crunched
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| v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的过去式和过去分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄 | |
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82
determinedly
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| adv.决意地；坚决地，坚定地 | |
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83
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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84
matador
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| n.斗牛士 | |
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85
arena
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| n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台 | |
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86
deferentially
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| adv.表示敬意地，谦恭地 | |
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87
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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88
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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89
hyena
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| n.土狼，鬣狗 | |
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90
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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91
falcons
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| n.猎鹰( falcon的名词复数 ) | |
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92
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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93
necessitating
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| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的现在分词 ) | |
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94
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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95
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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96
warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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97
commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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98
bazaar
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| n.集市，商店集中区 | |
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99
ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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100
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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101
sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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102
densely
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| ad.密集地；浓厚地 | |
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103
plume
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| n.羽毛；v.整理羽毛，骚首弄姿，用羽毛装饰 | |
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104
plumed
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| 饰有羽毛的 | |
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105
seethed
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| （液体）沸腾( seethe的过去式和过去分词 )； 激动，大怒； 强压怒火； 生闷气(~with sth|~ at sth) | |
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106
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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107
smeared
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| 弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上 | |
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108
pigment
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| n.天然色素，干粉颜料 | |
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109
abounds
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的第三人称单数 ) | |
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110
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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111
sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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112
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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113
tattered
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| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
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114
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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115
lamely
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| 一瘸一拐地，不完全地 | |
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116
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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117
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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118
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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119
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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120
intrudes
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| v.侵入，侵扰，打扰( intrude的第三人称单数 )；把…强加于 | |
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121
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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122
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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123
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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124
adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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125
panorama
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| n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置] | |
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126
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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127
perennial
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| adj.终年的；长久的 | |
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128
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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129
industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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130
buffaloes
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| n.水牛（分非洲水牛和亚洲水牛两种）( buffalo的名词复数 )；（南非或北美的）野牛；威胁；恐吓 | |
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131
infest
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| v.大批出没于；侵扰；寄生于 | |
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132
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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133
corrugated
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| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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134
civilian
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| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
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135
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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136
uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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137
zigzag
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| n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行 | |
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138
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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139
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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140
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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141
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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142
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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143
intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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144
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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145
impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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146
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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147
tractable
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| adj.易驾驭的；温顺的 | |
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148
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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149
aboriginals
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| （某国的）公民( aboriginal的名词复数 )； 土著人特征； 土生动物（或植物） | |
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150
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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151
quaintly
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| adv.古怪离奇地 | |
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152
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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153
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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154
systematic
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| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
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155
construed
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| v.解释（陈述、行为等）( construe的过去式和过去分词 )；翻译，作句法分析 | |
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156
crumble
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| vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁 | |
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157
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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158
administrator
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| n.经营管理者，行政官员 | |
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159
apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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160
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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161
impaired
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| adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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162
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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163
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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164
sedately
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| adv.镇静地，安详地 | |
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165
barbarians
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| n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 )；外国人；粗野的人；无教养的人 | |
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166
pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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167
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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168
incur
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| vt.招致，蒙受，遭遇 | |
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169
hopping
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| n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式 | |
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170
plumes
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| 羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物 | |
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171
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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172
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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173
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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174
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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175
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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176
obliquely
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| adv.斜； 倾斜； 间接； 不光明正大 | |
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177
disturbances
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| n.骚乱( disturbance的名词复数 )；打扰；困扰；障碍 | |
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178
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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179
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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180
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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181
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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