—Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar.
In one of those Benares temples we saw a devotee working for salvation1 in a curious way. He had a huge wad of clay beside him and was making it up into little wee gods no bigger than carpet tacks2. He stuck a grain of rice into each—to represent the lingam, I think. He turned them out nimbly, for he had had long practice and had acquired great facility. Every day he made 2,000 gods, then threw them into the holy Ganges. This act of homage3 brought him the profound homage of the pious4—also their coppers5. He had a sure living here, and was earning a high place in the hereafter.
The Ganges front is the supreme7 show-place of Benares. Its tall bluffs9 are solidly caked from water to summit, along a stretch of three miles, with a splendid jumble10 of massive and picturesque11 masonry12, a bewildering and beautiful confusion of stone platforms, temples, stair-flights, rich and stately palaces—nowhere a break, nowhere a glimpse of the bluff8 itself; all the long face of it is compactly walled from sight by this crammed13 perspective of platforms, soaring stairways, sculptured temples, majestic14 palaces, softening15 away into the distances; and there is movement, motion, human life everywhere, and brilliantly costumed—streaming in rainbows up and down the lofty stairways, and massed in metaphorical16 flower-gardens on the miles of great platforms at the river’s edge.
All this masonry, all this architecture represents piety17. The palaces were built by native princes whose homes, as a rule, are far from Benares, but who go there from time to time to refresh their souls with the sight and touch of the Ganges, the river of their idolatry. The stairways are records of acts of piety; the crowd of costly19 little temples are tokens of money spent by rich men for present credit and hope of future reward. Apparently20, the rich Christian21 who spends large sums upon his religion is conspicuous22 with us, by his rarity, but the rich Hindoo who doesn’t spend large sums upon his religion is seemingly non-existent. With us the poor spend money on their religion, but they keep back some to live on. Apparently, in India, the poor bankrupt themselves daily for their religion. The rich Hindoo can afford his pious outlays23; he gets much glory for his spendings, yet keeps back a sufficiency of his income for temporal purposes; but the poor Hindoo is entitled to compassion24, for his spendings keep him poor, yet get him no glory.
We made the usual trip up and down the river, seated in chairs under an awning25 on the deck of the usual commodious26 hand-propelled ark; made it two or three times, and could have made it with increasing interest and enjoyment27 many times more; for, of course, the palaces and temples would grow more and more beautiful every time one saw them, for that happens with all such things; also, I think one would not get tired of the bathers, nor their costumes, nor of their ingenuities28 in getting out of them and into them again without exposing too much bronze, nor of their devotional gesticulations and absorbed bead-tellings.
But I should get tired of seeing them wash their mouths with that dreadful water and drink it. In fact, I did get tired of it, and very early, too. At one place where we halted for a while, the foul29 gush30 from a sewer31 was making the water turbid32 and murky33 all around, and there was a random34 corpse35 slopping around in it that had floated down from up country. Ten steps below that place stood a crowd of men, women, and comely36 young maidens37 waist deep in the water-and they were scooping38 it up in their hands and drinking it. Faith can certainly do wonders, and this is an instance of it. Those people were not drinking that fearful stuff to assuage39 thirst, but in order to purify their souls and the interior of their bodies. According to their creed40, the Ganges water makes everything pure that it touches—instantly and utterly41 pure. The sewer water was not an offence to them, the corpse did not revolt them; the sacred water had touched both, and both were now snow-pure, and could defile42 no one. The memory of that sight will always stay by me; but not by request.
A word further concerning the nasty but all-purifying Ganges water. When we went to Agra, by and by, we happened there just in time to be in at the birth of a marvel—a memorable43 scientific discovery—the discovery that in certain ways the foul and derided44 Ganges water is the most puissant45 purifier in the world! This curious fact, as I have said, had just been added to the treasury46 of modern science. It had long been noted47 as a strange thing that while Benares is often afflicted48 with the cholera49 she does not spread it beyond her borders. This could not be accounted for. Mr. Henkin, the scientist in the employ of the government of Agra, concluded to examine the water. He went to Benares and made his tests. He got water at the mouths of the sewers50 where they empty into the river at the bathing ghats; a cubic centimetre of it contained millions of germs; at the end of six hours they were all dead. He caught a floating corpse, towed it to the shore, and from beside it he dipped up water that was swarming51 with cholera germs; at the end of six hours they were all dead. He added swarm52 after swarm of cholera germs to this water; within the six hours they always died, to the last sample. Repeatedly, he took pure well water which was barren of animal life, and put into it a few cholera germs; they always began to propagate at once, and always within six hours they swarmed—and were numberable by millions upon millions.
For ages and ages the Hindoos have had absolute faith that the water of the Ganges was absolutely pure, could not be defiled53 by any contact whatsoever54, and infallibly made pure and clean whatsoever thing touched it. They still believe it, and that is why they bathe in it and drink it, caring nothing for its seeming filthiness55 and the floating corpses56. The Hindoos have been laughed at, these many generations, but the laughter will need to modify itself a little from now on. How did they find out the water’s secret in those ancient ages? Had they germ-scientists then? We do not know. We only know that they had a civilization long before we emerged from savagery57. But to return to where I was before; I was about to speak of the burning-ghat.
They do not burn fakeers—those revered58 mendicants. They are so holy that they can get to their place without that sacrament, provided they be consigned59 to the consecrating60 river. We saw one carried to mid-stream and thrown overboard. He was sandwiched between two great slabs61 of stone.
We lay off the cremation62-ghat half an hour and saw nine corpses burned. I should not wish to see any more of it, unless I might select the parties. The mourners follow the bier through the town and down to the ghat; then the bier-bearers deliver the body to some low-caste natives—Doms—and the mourners turn about and go back home. I heard no crying and saw no tears, there was no ceremony of parting. Apparently, these expressions of grief and affection are reserved for the privacy of the home. The dead women came draped in red, the men in white. They are laid in the water at the river’s edge while the pyre is being prepared.
The first subject was a man. When the Doms unswathed him to wash him, he proved to be a sturdily built, well-nourished and handsome old gentleman, with not a sign about him to suggest that he had ever been ill. Dry wood was brought and built up into a loose pile; the corpse was laid upon it and covered over with fuel. Then a naked holy man who was sitting on high ground a little distance away began to talk and shout with great energy, and he kept up this noise right along. It may have been the funeral sermon, and probably was. I forgot to say that one of the mourners remained behind when the others went away. This was the dead man’s son, a boy of ten or twelve, brown and handsome, grave and self-possessed, and clothed in flowing white. He was there to burn his father. He was given a torch, and while he slowly walked seven times around the pyre the naked black man on the high ground poured out his sermon more clamorously than ever. The seventh circuit completed, the boy applied63 the torch at his father’s head, then at his feet; the flames sprang briskly up with a sharp crackling noise, and the lad went away. Hindoos do not want daughters, because their weddings make such a ruinous expense; but they want sons, so that at death they may have honorable exit from the world; and there is no honor equal to the honor of having one’s pyre lighted by one’s son. The father who dies sonless is in a grievous situation indeed, and is pitied. Life being uncertain, the Hindoo marries while he is still a boy, in the hope that he will have a son ready when the day of his need shall come. But if he have no son, he will adopt one. This answers every purpose.
Meantime the corpse is burning, also several others. It is a dismal64 business. The stokers did not sit down in idleness, but moved briskly about, punching up the fires with long poles, and now and then adding fuel. Sometimes they hoisted65 the half of a skeleton into the air, then slammed it down and beat it with the pole, breaking it up so that it would burn better. They hoisted skulls66 up in the same way and banged and battered67 them. The sight was hard to bear; it would have been harder if the mourners had stayed to witness it. I had but a moderate desire to see a cremation, so it was soon satisfied. For sanitary68 reasons it would be well if cremation were universal; but this form is revolting, and not to be recommended.
The fire used is sacred, of course—for there is money in it. Ordinary fire is forbidden; there is no money in it. I was told that this sacred fire is all furnished by one person, and that he has a monopoly of it and charges a good price for it. Sometimes a rich mourner pays a thousand rupees for it. To get to paradise from India is an expensive thing. Every detail connected with the matter costs something, and helps to fatten69 a priest. I suppose it is quite safe to conclude that that fire-bug is in holy orders.
Close to the cremation-ground stand a few time-worn stones which are remembrances of the suttee. Each has a rough carving70 upon it, representing a man and a woman standing71 or walking hand in hand, and marks the spot where a widow went to her death by fire in the days when the suttee flourished. Mr. Parker said that widows would burn themselves now if the government would allow it. The family that can point to one of these little memorials and say: “She who burned herself there was an ancestress of ours,” is envied.
It is a curious people. With them, all life seems to be sacred except human life. Even the life of vermin is sacred, and must not be taken. The good Jain wipes off a seat before using it, lest he cause the death of-some valueless insect by sitting down on it. It grieves him to have to drink water, because the provisions in his stomach may not agree with the microbes. Yet India invented Thuggery and the Suttee. India is a hard country to understand. We went to the temple of the Thug goddess, Bhowanee, or Kali, or Durga. She has these names and others. She is the only god to whom living sacrifices are made. Goats are sacrificed to her. Monkeys would be cheaper.
There are plenty of them about the place. Being sacred, they make themselves very free, and scramble72 around wherever they please. The temple and its porch are beautifully carved, but this is not the case with the idol18. Bhowanee is not pleasant to look at. She has a silver face, and a projecting swollen73 tongue painted a deep red. She wears a necklace of skulls.
In fact, none of the idols74 in Benares are handsome or attractive. And what a swarm of them there is! The town is a vast museum of idols—and all of them crude, misshapen, and ugly. They flock through one’s dreams at night, a wild mob of nightmares. When you get tired of them in the temples and take a trip on the river, you find idol giants, flashily painted, stretched out side by side on the shore. And apparently wherever there is room for one more lingam, a lingam is there. If Vishnu had foreseen what his town was going to be, he would have called it Idolville or Lingamburg.
The most conspicuous feature of Benares is the pair of slender white minarets75 which tower like masts from the great Mosque76 of Aurangzeb. They seem to be always in sight, from everywhere, those airy, graceful77, inspiring things. But masts is not the right word, for masts have a perceptible taper78, while these minarets have not. They are 142 feet high, and only 8 1/2 feet in diameter at the base, and 7 1/2 at the summit—scarcely any taper at all. These are the proportions of a candle; and fair and fairylike candles these are. Will be, anyway, some day, when the Christians79 inherit them and top them with the electric light. There is a great view from up there—a wonderful view. A large gray monkey was part of it, and damaged it. A monkey has no judgment80. This one was skipping about the upper great heights of the mosque—skipping across empty yawning intervals81 which were almost too wide for him, and which he only just barely cleared, each time, by the skin of his teeth. He got me so nervous that I couldn’t look at the view. I couldn’t look at anything but him. Every time he went sailing over one of those abysses my breath stood still, and when he grabbed for the perch82 he was going for, I grabbed too, in sympathy. And he was perfectly83 indifferent, perfectly unconcerned, and I did all the panting myself. He came within an ace6 of losing his life a dozen times, and I was so troubled about him that I would have shot him if I had had anything to do it with. But I strongly recommend the view. There is more monkey than view, and there is always going to be more monkey while that idiot survives, but what view you get is superb. All Benares, the river, and the region round about are spread before you. Take a gun, and look at the view.
The next thing I saw was more reposeful84. It was a new kind of art. It was a picture painted on water. It was done by a native. He sprinkled fine dust of various colors on the still surface of a basin of water, and out of these sprinklings a dainty and pretty picture gradually grew, a picture which a breath could destroy. Somehow it was impressive, after so much browsing85 among massive and battered and decaying fanes that rest upon ruins, and those ruins upon still other ruins, and those upon still others again. It was a sermon, an allegory, a symbol of Instability. Those creations in stone were only a kind of water pictures, after all.
A prominent episode in the Indian career of Warren Hastings had Benares for its theater. Wherever that extraordinary man set his foot, he left his mark. He came to Benares in 1781 to collect a fine of L500,000 which he had levied86 upon its Rajah, Cheit Singh, on behalf of the East India Company. Hastings was a long way from home and help. There were, probably, not a dozen Englishmen within reach; the Rajah was in his fort with his myriads87 around him. But no matter. From his little camp in a neighboring garden, Hastings sent a party to arrest the sovereign. He sent on this daring mission a couple of hundred native soldiers— sepoys—under command of three young English lieutenants88. The Rajah submitted without a word. The incident lights up the Indian situation electrically, and gives one a vivid sense of the strides which the English had made and the mastership they had acquired in the land since the date of Clive’s great victory. In a quarter of a century, from being nobodies, and feared by none, they were become confessed lords and masters, feared by all, sovereigns included, and served by all, sovereigns included. It makes the fairy tales sound true. The English had not been afraid to enlist89 native soldiers to fight against their own people and keep them obedient. And now Hastings was not afraid to come away out to this remote place with a handful of such soldiers and send them to arrest a native sovereign.
The lieutenants imprisoned90 the Rajah in his own fort. It was beautiful, the pluckiness91 of it, the impudence92 of it. The arrest enraged93 the Rajah’s people, and all Benares came storming about the place and threatening vengeance94. And yet, but for an accident, nothing important would have resulted, perhaps. The mob found out a most strange thing, an almost incredible thing—that this handful of soldiers had come on this hardy95 errand with empty guns and no ammunition96. This has been attributed to thoughtlessness, but it could hardly have been that, for in such large emergencies as this, intelligent people do think. It must have been indifference97, an over-confidence born of the proved submissiveness of the native character, when confronted by even one or two stern Britons in their war paint. But, however that may be, it was a fatal discovery that the mob had made. They were full of courage, now, and they broke into the fort and massacred the helpless soldiers and their officers. Hastings escaped from Benares by night and got safely away, leaving the principality in a state of wild insurrection; but he was back again within the month, and quieted it down in his prompt and virile98 way, and took the Rajah’s throne away from him and gave it to another man. He was a capable kind of person was Warren Hastings. This was the only time he was ever out of ammunition. Some of his acts have left stains upon his name which can never be washed away, but he saved to England the Indian Empire, and that was the best service that was ever done to the Indians themselves, those wretched heirs of a hundred centuries of pitiless oppression and abuse.
点击收听单词发音
1 salvation | |
n.(尤指基督)救世,超度,拯救,解困 | |
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2 tacks | |
大头钉( tack的名词复数 ); 平头钉; 航向; 方法 | |
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3 homage | |
n.尊敬,敬意,崇敬 | |
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4 pious | |
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
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5 coppers | |
铜( copper的名词复数 ); 铜币 | |
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6 ace | |
n.A牌;发球得分;佼佼者;adj.杰出的 | |
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7 supreme | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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8 bluff | |
v.虚张声势,用假象骗人;n.虚张声势,欺骗 | |
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9 bluffs | |
恐吓( bluff的名词复数 ); 悬崖; 峭壁 | |
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10 jumble | |
vt.使混乱,混杂;n.混乱;杂乱的一堆 | |
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11 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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12 masonry | |
n.砖土建筑;砖石 | |
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13 crammed | |
adj.塞满的,挤满的;大口地吃;快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满;填入;临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
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14 majestic | |
adj.雄伟的,壮丽的,庄严的,威严的,崇高的 | |
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15 softening | |
变软,软化 | |
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16 metaphorical | |
a.隐喻的,比喻的 | |
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17 piety | |
n.虔诚,虔敬 | |
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18 idol | |
n.偶像,红人,宠儿 | |
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19 costly | |
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的 | |
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20 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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21 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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22 conspicuous | |
adj.明眼的,惹人注目的;炫耀的,摆阔气的 | |
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23 outlays | |
v.支出,费用( outlay的第三人称单数 ) | |
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24 compassion | |
n.同情,怜悯 | |
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25 awning | |
n.遮阳篷;雨篷 | |
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26 commodious | |
adj.宽敞的;使用方便的 | |
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27 enjoyment | |
n.乐趣;享有;享用 | |
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28 ingenuities | |
足智多谋,心灵手巧( ingenuity的名词复数 ) | |
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29 foul | |
adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
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30 gush | |
v.喷,涌;滔滔不绝(说话);n.喷,涌流;迸发 | |
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31 sewer | |
n.排水沟,下水道 | |
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32 turbid | |
adj.混浊的,泥水的,浓的 | |
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33 murky | |
adj.黑暗的,朦胧的;adv.阴暗地,混浊地;n.阴暗;昏暗 | |
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34 random | |
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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35 corpse | |
n.尸体,死尸 | |
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36 comely | |
adj.漂亮的,合宜的 | |
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37 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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38 scooping | |
n.捞球v.抢先报道( scoop的现在分词 );(敏捷地)抱起;抢先获得;用铲[勺]等挖(洞等) | |
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39 assuage | |
v.缓和,减轻,镇定 | |
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40 creed | |
n.信条;信念,纲领 | |
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41 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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42 defile | |
v.弄污,弄脏;n.(山间)小道 | |
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43 memorable | |
adj.值得回忆的,难忘的,特别的,显著的 | |
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44 derided | |
v.取笑,嘲笑( deride的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45 puissant | |
adj.强有力的 | |
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46 treasury | |
n.宝库;国库,金库;文库 | |
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47 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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48 afflicted | |
使受痛苦,折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49 cholera | |
n.霍乱 | |
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50 sewers | |
n.阴沟,污水管,下水道( sewer的名词复数 ) | |
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51 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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52 swarm | |
n.(昆虫)等一大群;vi.成群飞舞;蜂拥而入 | |
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53 defiled | |
v.玷污( defile的过去式和过去分词 );污染;弄脏;纵列行进 | |
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54 whatsoever | |
adv.(用于否定句中以加强语气)任何;pron.无论什么 | |
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55 filthiness | |
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56 corpses | |
n.死尸,尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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57 savagery | |
n.野性 | |
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58 revered | |
v.崇敬,尊崇,敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59 consigned | |
v.把…置于(令人不快的境地)( consign的过去式和过去分词 );把…托付给;把…托人代售;丟弃 | |
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60 consecrating | |
v.把…奉为神圣,给…祝圣( consecrate的现在分词 );奉献 | |
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61 slabs | |
n.厚板,平板,厚片( slab的名词复数 );厚胶片 | |
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62 cremation | |
n.火葬,火化 | |
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63 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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64 dismal | |
adj.阴沉的,凄凉的,令人忧郁的,差劲的 | |
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65 hoisted | |
把…吊起,升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66 skulls | |
颅骨( skull的名词复数 ); 脑袋; 脑子; 脑瓜 | |
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67 battered | |
adj.磨损的;v.连续猛击;磨损 | |
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68 sanitary | |
adj.卫生方面的,卫生的,清洁的,卫生的 | |
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69 fatten | |
v.使肥,变肥 | |
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70 carving | |
n.雕刻品,雕花 | |
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71 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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72 scramble | |
v.爬行,攀爬,杂乱蔓延,碎片,片段,废料 | |
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73 swollen | |
adj.肿大的,水涨的;v.使变大,肿胀 | |
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74 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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75 minarets | |
n.(清真寺旁由报告祈祷时刻的人使用的)光塔( minaret的名词复数 ) | |
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76 mosque | |
n.清真寺 | |
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77 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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78 taper | |
n.小蜡烛,尖细,渐弱;adj.尖细的;v.逐渐变小 | |
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79 Christians | |
n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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80 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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81 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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82 perch | |
n.栖木,高位,杆;v.栖息,就位,位于 | |
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83 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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84 reposeful | |
adj.平稳的,沉着的 | |
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85 browsing | |
v.吃草( browse的现在分词 );随意翻阅;(在商店里)随便看看;(在计算机上)浏览信息 | |
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86 levied | |
征(兵)( levy的过去式和过去分词 ); 索取; 发动(战争); 征税 | |
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87 myriads | |
n.无数,极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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88 lieutenants | |
n.陆军中尉( lieutenant的名词复数 );副职官员;空军;仅低于…官阶的官员 | |
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89 enlist | |
vt.谋取(支持等),赢得;征募;vi.入伍 | |
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90 imprisoned | |
下狱,监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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91 pluckiness | |
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92 impudence | |
n.厚颜无耻;冒失;无礼 | |
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93 enraged | |
使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 ); 歜; 激愤 | |
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94 vengeance | |
n.报复,报仇,复仇 | |
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95 hardy | |
adj.勇敢的,果断的,吃苦的;耐寒的 | |
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96 ammunition | |
n.军火,弹药 | |
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97 indifference | |
n.不感兴趣,不关心,冷淡,不在乎 | |
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98 virile | |
adj.男性的;有男性生殖力的;有男子气概的;强有力的 | |
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