I still quote from my journal:
I found the national Legislature to consist of half a dozen white men and some thirty or forty natives. It was a dark assemblage. The nobles and Ministers (about a dozen of them altogether) occupied the extreme left of the hall, with David Kalakaua (the King’s Chamberlain) and Prince William at the head. The President of the Assembly, His Royal Highness M. Kekuanaoa, [Kekuanaoa is not of the blood royal. He derives1 his princely rank from his wife, who was a daughter of Kamehameha the Great. Under other monarchies2 the male line takes precedence of the female in tracing genealogies3, but here the opposite is the case—the female line takes precedence. Their reason for this is exceedingly sensible, and I recommend it to the aristocracy of Europe: They say it is easy to know who a man’s mother was, but, etc., etc.] and the Vice4 President (the latter a white man,) sat in the pulpit, if I may so term it. The President is the King’s father. He is an erect5, strongly built, massive featured, white-haired, tawny6 old gentleman of eighty years of age or thereabouts. He was simply but well dressed, in a blue cloth coat and white vest, and white pantaloons, without spot, dust or blemish7 upon them. He bears himself with a calm, stately dignity, and is a man of noble presence. He was a young man and a distinguished8 warrior9 under that terrific fighter, Kamehameha I., more than half a century ago. A knowledge of his career suggested some such thought as this: “This man, naked as the day he was born, and war-club and spear in hand, has charged at the head of a horde10 of savages11 against other hordes12 of savages more than a generation and a half ago, and reveled in slaughter13 and carnage; has worshipped wooden images on his devout14 knees; has seen hundreds of his race offered up in heathen temples as sacrifices to wooden idols15, at a time when no missionary16’s foot had ever pressed this soil, and he had never heard of the white man’s God; has believed his enemy could secretly pray him to death; has seen the day, in his childhood, when it was a crime punishable by death for a man to eat with his wife, or for a plebeian17 to let his shadow fall upon the King—and now look at him; an educated Christian18; neatly19 and handsomely dressed; a high-minded, elegant gentleman; a traveler, in some degree, and one who has been the honored guest of royalty20 in Europe; a man practiced in holding the reins21 of an enlightened government, and well versed22 in the politics of his country and in general, practical information. Look at him, sitting there presiding over the deliberations of a legislative23 body, among whom are white men—a grave, dignified24, statesmanlike personage, and as seemingly natural and fitted to the place as if he had been born in it and had never been out of it in his life time. How the experiences of this old man’s eventful life shame the cheap inventions of romance!”
The christianizing of the natives has hardly even weakened some of their barbarian25 superstitions26, much less destroyed them. I have just referred to one of these. It is still a popular belief that if your enemy can get hold of any article belonging to you he can get down on his knees over it and pray you to death. Therefore many a native gives up and dies merely because he imagines that some enemy is putting him through a course of damaging prayer. This praying an individual to death seems absurd enough at a first glance, but then when we call to mind some of the pulpit efforts of certain of our own ministers the thing looks plausible28.
In former times, among the Islanders, not only a plurality of wives was customary, but a plurality of husbands likewise. Some native women of noble rank had as many as six husbands. A woman thus supplied did not reside with all her husbands at once, but lived several months with each in turn. An understood sign hung at her door during these months. When the sign was taken down, it meant “NEXT.”
In those days woman was rigidly29 taught to “know her place.” Her place was to do all the work, take all the cuffs30, provide all the food, and content herself with what was left after her lord had finished his dinner. She was not only forbidden, by ancient law, and under penalty of death, to eat with her husband or enter a canoe, but was debarred, under the same penalty, from eating bananas, pine-apples, oranges and other choice fruits at any time or in any place. She had to confine herself pretty strictly31 to “poi” and hard work. These poor ignorant heathen seem to have had a sort of groping idea of what came of woman eating fruit in the garden of Eden, and they did not choose to take any more chances. But the missionaries32 broke up this satisfactory arrangement of things. They liberated33 woman and made her the equal of man.
The natives had a romantic fashion of burying some of their children alive when the family became larger than necessary. The missionaries interfered34 in this matter too, and stopped it.
To this day the natives are able to lie down and die whenever they want to, whether there is anything the matter with them or not. If a Kanaka takes a notion to die, that is the end of him; nobody can persuade him to hold on; all the doctors in the world could not save him.
A luxury which they enjoy more than anything else, is a large funeral. If a person wants to get rid of a troublesome native, it is only necessary to promise him a fine funeral and name the hour and he will be on hand to the minute—at least his remains35 will.
All the natives are Christians36, now, but many of them still desert to the Great Shark God for temporary succor37 in time of trouble. An irruption of the great volcano of Kilauea, or an earthquake, always brings a deal of latent loyalty38 to the Great Shark God to the surface. It is common report that the King, educated, cultivated and refined Christian gentleman as he undoubtedly39 is, still turns to the idols of his fathers for help when disaster threatens. A planter caught a shark, and one of his christianized natives testified his emancipation40 from the thrall41 of ancient superstition27 by assisting to dissect42 the shark after a fashion forbidden by his abandoned creed43. But remorse44 shortly began to torture him. He grew moody45 and sought solitude46; brooded over his sin, refused food, and finally said he must die and ought to die, for he had sinned against the Great Shark God and could never know peace any more. He was proof against persuasion47 and ridicule48, and in the course of a day or two took to his bed and died, although he showed no symptom of disease. His young daughter followed his lead and suffered a like fate within the week. Superstition is ingrained in the native blood and bone and it is only natural that it should crop out in time of distress49. Wherever one goes in the Islands, he will find small piles of stones by the wayside, covered with leafy offerings, placed there by the natives to appease50 evil spirits or honor local deities51 belonging to the mythology52 of former days.
In the rural districts of any of the Islands, the traveler hourly comes upon parties of dusky maidens53 bathing in the streams or in the sea without any clothing on and exhibiting no very intemperate54 zeal55 in the matter of hiding their nakedness. When the missionaries first took up their residence in Honolulu, the native women would pay their families frequent friendly visits, day by day, not even clothed with a blush. It was found a hard matter to convince them that this was rather indelicate. Finally the missionaries provided them with long, loose calico robes, and that ended the difficulty—for the women would troop through the town, stark56 naked, with their robes folded under their arms, march to the missionary houses and then proceed to dress!—
The natives soon manifested a strong proclivity57 for clothing, but it was shortly apparent that they only wanted it for grandeur58. The missionaries imported a quantity of hats, bonnets60, and other male and female wearing apparel, instituted a general distribution, and begged the people not to come to church naked, next Sunday, as usual. And they did not; but the national spirit of unselfishness led them to divide up with neighbors who were not at the distribution, and next Sabbath the poor preachers could hardly keep countenance61 before their vast congregations. In the midst of the reading of a hymn62 a brown, stately dame63 would sweep up the aisle64 with a world of airs, with nothing in the world on but a “stovepipe” hat and a pair of cheap gloves; another dame would follow, tricked out in a man’s shirt, and nothing else; another one would enter with a flourish, with simply the sleeves of a bright calico dress tied around her waist and the rest of the garment dragging behind like a peacock’s tail off duty; a stately “buck” Kanaka would stalk in with a woman’s bonnet59 on, wrong side before—only this, and nothing more; after him would stride his fellow, with the legs of a pair of pantaloons tied around his neck, the rest of his person untrammeled; in his rear would come another gentleman simply gotten up in a fiery65 neck-tie and a striped vest.
The poor creatures were beaming with complacency and wholly unconscious of any absurdity66 in their appearance. They gazed at each other with happy admiration67, and it was plain to see that the young girls were taking note of what each other had on, as naturally as if they had always lived in a land of Bibles and knew what churches were made for; here was the evidence of a dawning civilization. The spectacle which the congregation presented was so extraordinary and withal so moving, that the missionaries found it difficult to keep to the text and go on with the services; and by and by when the simple children of the sun began a general swapping68 of garments in open meeting and produced some irresistibly69 grotesque70 effects in the course of re-dressing71, there was nothing for it but to cut the thing short with the benediction72 and dismiss the fantastic assemblage.
In our country, children play “keep house;” and in the same high-sounding but miniature way the grown folk here, with the poor little material of slender territory and meagre population, play “empire.” There is his royal Majesty73 the King, with a New York detective’s income of thirty or thirty-five thousand dollars a year from the “royal civil list” and the “royal domain74.” He lives in a two-story frame “palace.”
And there is the “royal family”—the customary hive of royal brothers, sisters, cousins and other noble drones and vagrants75 usual to monarchy,—all with a spoon in the national pap-dish, and all bearing such titles as his or her Royal Highness the Prince or Princess So-and-so. Few of them can carry their royal splendors76 far enough to ride in carriages, however; they sport the economical Kanaka horse or “hoof it” with the plebeians77.
Then there is his Excellency the “royal Chamberlain”—a sinecure78, for his majesty dresses himself with his own hands, except when he is ruralizing at Waikiki and then he requires no dressing.
Next we have his Excellency the Commander-in-chief of the Household Troops, whose forces consist of about the number of soldiers usually placed under a corporal in other lands.
Next comes the royal Steward79 and the Grand Equerry in Waiting—high dignitaries with modest salaries and little to do.
Then we have his Excellency the First Gentleman of the Bed-chamber—an office as easy as it is magnificent.
Next we come to his Excellency the Prime Minister, a renegade American from New Hampshire, all jaw80, vanity, bombast81 and ignorance, a lawyer of “shyster” calibre, a fraud by nature, a humble82 worshipper of the sceptre above him, a reptile83 never tired of sneering84 at the land of his birth or glorifying85 the ten-acre kingdom that has adopted him—salary, $4,000 a year, vast consequence, and no perquisites86.
Then we have his Excellency the Imperial Minister of Finance, who handles a million dollars of public money a year, sends in his annual “budget” with great ceremony, talks prodigiously88 of “finance,” suggests imposing89 schemes for paying off the “national debt” (of $150,000,) and does it all for $4,000 a year and unimaginable glory.
Next we have his Excellency the Minister of War, who holds sway over the royal armies—they consist of two hundred and thirty uniformed Kanakas, mostly Brigadier Generals, and if the country ever gets into trouble with a foreign power we shall probably hear from them. I knew an American whose copper-plate visiting card bore this impressive legend: “Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Infantry90.” To say that he was proud of this distinction is stating it but tamely. The Minister of War has also in his charge some venerable swivels on Punch-Bowl Hill wherewith royal salutes91 are fired when foreign vessels92 of war enter the port.
Next comes his Excellency the Minister of the Navy—a nabob who rules the “royal fleet,” (a steam-tug and a sixty-ton schooner93.)
And next comes his Grace the Lord Bishop94 of Honolulu, the chief dignitary of the “Established Church”—for when the American Presbyterian missionaries had completed the reduction of the nation to a compact condition of Christianity, native royalty stepped in and erected95 the grand dignity of an “Established (Episcopal) Church” over it, and imported a cheap ready-made Bishop from England to take charge. The chagrin96 of the missionaries has never been comprehensively expressed, to this day, profanity not being admissible.
Next comes his Excellency the Minister of Public Instruction.
Next, their Excellencies the Governors of Oahu, Hawaii, etc., and after them a string of High Sheriffs and other small fry too numerous for computation.
Then there are their Excellencies the Envoy97 Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of the French; her British Majesty’s Minister; the Minister Resident, of the United States; and some six or eight representatives of other foreign nations, all with sounding titles, imposing dignity and prodigious87 but economical state.
Imagine all this grandeur in a play-house “kingdom” whose population falls absolutely short of sixty thousand souls!
The people are so accustomed to nine-jointed titles and colossal98 magnates that a foreign prince makes very little more stir in Honolulu than a Western Congressman99 does in New York.
And let it be borne in mind that there is a strictly defined “court costume” of so “stunning” a nature that it would make the clown in a circus look tame and commonplace by comparison; and each Hawaiian official dignitary has a gorgeous vari-colored, gold-laced uniform peculiar100 to his office—no two of them are alike, and it is hard to tell which one is the “loudest.” The King had a “drawing-room” at stated intervals101, like other monarchs102, and when these varied103 uniforms congregate104 there—weak-eyed people have to contemplate105 the spectacle through smoked glass. Is there not a gratifying contrast between this latter-day exhibition and the one the ancestors of some of these magnates afforded the missionaries the Sunday after the old-time distribution of clothing? Behold106 what religion and civilization have wrought107!
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1 derives | |
v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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2 monarchies | |
n. 君主政体, 君主国, 君主政治 | |
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3 genealogies | |
n.系谱,家系,宗谱( genealogy的名词复数 ) | |
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4 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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5 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
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6 tawny | |
adj.茶色的,黄褐色的;n.黄褐色 | |
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7 blemish | |
v.损害;玷污;瑕疵,缺点 | |
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8 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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9 warrior | |
n.勇士,武士,斗士 | |
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10 horde | |
n.群众,一大群 | |
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11 savages | |
未开化的人,野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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12 hordes | |
n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 );部落 | |
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13 slaughter | |
n.屠杀,屠宰;vt.屠杀,宰杀 | |
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14 devout | |
adj.虔诚的,虔敬的,衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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15 idols | |
偶像( idol的名词复数 ); 受崇拜的人或物; 受到热爱和崇拜的人或物; 神像 | |
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16 missionary | |
adj.教会的,传教(士)的;n.传教士 | |
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17 plebeian | |
adj.粗俗的;平民的;n.平民;庶民 | |
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18 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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19 neatly | |
adv.整洁地,干净地,灵巧地,熟练地 | |
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20 royalty | |
n.皇家,皇族 | |
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21 reins | |
感情,激情; 缰( rein的名词复数 ); 控制手段; 掌管; (成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的)保护带 | |
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22 versed | |
adj. 精通,熟练 | |
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23 legislative | |
n.立法机构,立法权;adj.立法的,有立法权的 | |
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24 dignified | |
a.可敬的,高贵的 | |
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25 barbarian | |
n.野蛮人;adj.野蛮(人)的;未开化的 | |
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26 superstitions | |
迷信,迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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27 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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28 plausible | |
adj.似真实的,似乎有理的,似乎可信的 | |
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29 rigidly | |
adv.刻板地,僵化地 | |
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30 cuffs | |
n.袖口( cuff的名词复数 )v.掌打,拳打( cuff的第三人称单数 ) | |
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31 strictly | |
adv.严厉地,严格地;严密地 | |
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32 missionaries | |
n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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33 liberated | |
a.无拘束的,放纵的 | |
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34 interfered | |
v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 );调停;妨碍;干涉 | |
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35 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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36 Christians | |
n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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37 succor | |
n.援助,帮助;v.给予帮助 | |
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38 loyalty | |
n.忠诚,忠心 | |
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39 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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40 emancipation | |
n.(从束缚、支配下)解放 | |
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41 thrall | |
n.奴隶;奴隶制 | |
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42 dissect | |
v.分割;解剖 | |
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43 creed | |
n.信条;信念,纲领 | |
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44 remorse | |
n.痛恨,悔恨,自责 | |
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45 moody | |
adj.心情不稳的,易怒的,喜怒无常的 | |
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46 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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47 persuasion | |
n.劝说;说服;持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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48 ridicule | |
v.讥讽,挖苦;n.嘲弄 | |
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49 distress | |
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛 | |
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50 appease | |
v.安抚,缓和,平息,满足 | |
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51 deities | |
n.神,女神( deity的名词复数 );神祗;神灵;神明 | |
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52 mythology | |
n.神话,神话学,神话集 | |
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53 maidens | |
处女( maiden的名词复数 ); 少女; 未婚女子; (板球运动)未得分的一轮投球 | |
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54 intemperate | |
adj.无节制的,放纵的 | |
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55 zeal | |
n.热心,热情,热忱 | |
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56 stark | |
adj.荒凉的;严酷的;完全的;adv.完全地 | |
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57 proclivity | |
n.倾向,癖性 | |
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58 grandeur | |
n.伟大,崇高,宏伟,庄严,豪华 | |
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59 bonnet | |
n.无边女帽;童帽 | |
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60 bonnets | |
n.童帽( bonnet的名词复数 );(烟囱等的)覆盖物;(苏格兰男子的)无边呢帽;(女子戴的)任何一种帽子 | |
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61 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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62 hymn | |
n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌 | |
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63 dame | |
n.女士 | |
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64 aisle | |
n.(教堂、教室、戏院等里的)过道,通道 | |
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65 fiery | |
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的 | |
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66 absurdity | |
n.荒谬,愚蠢;谬论 | |
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67 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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68 swapping | |
交换,交换技术 | |
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69 irresistibly | |
adv.无法抵抗地,不能自持地;极为诱惑人地 | |
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70 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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71 dressing | |
n.(食物)调料;包扎伤口的用品,敷料 | |
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72 benediction | |
n.祝福;恩赐 | |
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73 majesty | |
n.雄伟,壮丽,庄严,威严;最高权威,王权 | |
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74 domain | |
n.(活动等)领域,范围;领地,势力范围 | |
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75 vagrants | |
流浪者( vagrant的名词复数 ); 无业游民; 乞丐; 无赖 | |
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76 splendors | |
n.华丽( splendor的名词复数 );壮丽;光辉;显赫 | |
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77 plebeians | |
n.平民( plebeian的名词复数 );庶民;平民百姓;平庸粗俗的人 | |
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78 sinecure | |
n.闲差事,挂名职务 | |
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79 steward | |
n.乘务员,服务员;看管人;膳食管理员 | |
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80 jaw | |
n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
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81 bombast | |
n.高调,夸大之辞 | |
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82 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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83 reptile | |
n.爬行动物;两栖动物 | |
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84 sneering | |
嘲笑的,轻蔑的 | |
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85 glorifying | |
赞美( glorify的现在分词 ); 颂扬; 美化; 使光荣 | |
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86 perquisites | |
n.(工资以外的)财务补贴( perquisite的名词复数 );额外收入;(随职位而得到的)好处;利益 | |
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87 prodigious | |
adj.惊人的,奇妙的;异常的;巨大的;庞大的 | |
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88 prodigiously | |
adv.异常地,惊人地,巨大地 | |
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89 imposing | |
adj.使人难忘的,壮丽的,堂皇的,雄伟的 | |
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90 infantry | |
n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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91 salutes | |
n.致敬,欢迎,敬礼( salute的名词复数 )v.欢迎,致敬( salute的第三人称单数 );赞扬,赞颂 | |
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92 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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93 schooner | |
n.纵帆船 | |
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94 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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95 ERECTED | |
adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立 | |
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96 chagrin | |
n.懊恼;气愤;委屈 | |
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97 envoy | |
n.使节,使者,代表,公使 | |
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98 colossal | |
adj.异常的,庞大的 | |
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99 Congressman | |
n.(美)国会议员 | |
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100 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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101 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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102 monarchs | |
君主,帝王( monarch的名词复数 ) | |
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103 varied | |
adj.多样的,多变化的 | |
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104 congregate | |
v.(使)集合,聚集 | |
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105 contemplate | |
vt.盘算,计议;周密考虑;注视,凝视 | |
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106 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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107 wrought | |
v.引起;以…原料制作;运转;adj.制造的 | |
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