How old is Damascus? Or, rather, how long has a city of that name existed here on the banks of the Abana? According to Jewish tradition, which we have no reason to doubt, it was founded by Uz, the son of Aram, the son of Shem. By the same tradition it was a great city when a remarkable3 man, of the tenth generation from the Deluge4,—a person of great sagacity, not mistaken in his opinions, skilful5 in the celestial6 science, compelled to leave Chaldea when he was seventy-five years old, on account of his religious opinions, since he ventured to publish the notion that there was but one God, the Creator of the Universe,—came with an army of dependants7 and "reigned9" in the city of Uz. After some time Abraham removed into Canaan, which was already occupied by the Canaanites, who had come from the Persian Gulf10, established themselves in wall-towns in the hills, built Sidon on the coast, and carried their conquests into Egypt. It was doubtless during the reign8 of the Hittites, or Shepherd Kings, that Abraham visited Egypt. Those usurpers occupied the throne of the Pharaohs for something like five hundred years, and it was during their occupancy that the Jews settled in the Delta11.
Now, if we can at all fix the date of the reign of the Shepherd Kings, we can approximate to the date of the foundation of Damascus, for Uz was the third generation from Noah, and Abraham was the tenth. We do not know how to reckon a generation in those days, when a life-lease was such a valuable estate, but if we should assume it to be a century, we should have about seven hundred years between the foundation of Damascus and the visit of Abraham to Egypt, a very liberal margin12. But by the chronology of Mariette Bey, the approximate date of the Shepherds' invasion is 2300 B.C. to 2200 B. C., and somewhat later than that time Abraham was in Damascus. If Damascus was then seven hundred years old, the date of its foundation would be about 3000 B.C. to 2900 B.C.
Assuming that Damascus has this positive old age, how old is it comparatively? When we regard it in this light, we are obliged to confess that it is a modern city. When Uz and his friends wandered out of the prolific13 East, and pitched their tents by the Abana, there was already on the banks of the Nile a civilized14, polished race, which had nearly completed a cycle of national existence much longer than the duration of the Roman Empire. It was about the eleventh dynasty of the Egyptian kingdom, the Great Pyramid had been built more than a thousand years, and the already degenerate15 Egyptians of the "Old Empire" had forgotten the noble art which adorned16 and still renders illustrious the reigns17 of the pyramid-builders..
But if Damascus cannot claim the highest antiquity18, it has outlived all its rivals on the earth, and has flourished in a freshness as perennial19 as the fountain to which it owes its life, through all the revolutions of the Orient. As a necessary commercial capital it has pursued a pretty uniform tenor20 under all its various masters. Tiglath-Pileser attempted to destroy it; it was a Babylonian and then a Persian satrapy for centuries; it was a Greek city; it was the capital of a Roman province for seven hundred years; it was a Christian21 city and reared a great temple to John the Baptist; it was the capital of the Saracenic Empire, in which resided the ruler who gave laws to all the lands from India to Spain; it was ravaged22 by Tamerlane; it now suffers the blight23 of Turkish imbecility. From of old it was a caravan24 station and a mart of exchange, a camp by a stream; it is to-day a commercial hive, swarming25 with an hundred and fifty thousand people, a city without monuments of its past or ambition for its future.
If one could see Damascus, perhaps he could invent a phrase that would describe it; but when you have groped and stumbled about in it for a couple of weeks, endeavoring in vain to get a view of more than a few rods of it at a time, you are utterly26 at a loss how to convey an impression of it to others.
If Egypt is the gift of the Nile, the river Abana is the life of Damascus; its water is carried into the city on a dozen different levels, making it literally27 one of fountains and running water. Sometimes the town is flooded; the water had only just subsided28 from the hotel when we arrived. This inundation29 makes the city damp for a long time. Indeed, it is at all times rather soaked with water, and is—with all respect to Uz and Abraham and the dynasty of the Omeiyades—a sort of habitable frog-pond on a grand scale. At night the noise of frogs, even at our hotel, is the chief music, the gentle twilight30 song, broken, it is true, by the incessant31 howling and yelping32 of savage33 dogs, packs of which roam the city like wolves all night. They are mangy yellow curs, without a single good quality, except that they sleep all the daytime. In every quarter of the city you see ranks and rows of them asleep in the sun, occupying half the street and nestling in all the heaps of rubbish. But much as has been said of the dogs here, I think the frogs are the feature of the town; they are as numerous as in the marshes35 of Ravenna.
Still the water could not be spared. It gives sparkle, life, verdure. In walking you constantly get glimpses through heavy doorways36 of fountains, marble tanks of running water, of a blooming tree or a rose-trellis in a marble court, of a garden of flowers. The crooked37, twisted, narrow streets, mere38 lanes of mud-walls, would be scarcely endurable but for these occasional glimpses, and the sight now and then of the paved, pillared court of a gayly painted mosque39.
One ought not to complain when the Arab barber who trims his hair gives him a narghileh to smoke during the operation; but Damascus is not so Oriental as Cairo, the predominant Turkish element is not so picturesque40 as the Egyptian. And this must be said in the face of the universal use of the narghileh, which more than any other one thing imparts an Oriental, luxurious41 tone to the city. The pipe of Egypt is the chibouk, a stem of cherry five feet long with a small clay bowl; however richly it may be ornamented42, furnished with a costly43 amber44 mouthpiece, wound with wire of gold, and studded, as it often is, with diamonds and other stones of price, it is, at the best, a stiff affair; and even this pipe is more and more displaced by the cigar, just as in Germany the meerschaum has yielded to the cigar as the Germans have become accessible to foreign influences. But in Damascus the picturesque narghileh, encourager of idleness, is still the universal medium of smoke. The management of the narghileh requires that a person should give his undivided mind to it; in return for that, it gives him peace. The simplest narghileh is a cocoanut-shell, with a flexible stem attached, and an open metal bowl on top for the tobacco. The smoke is drawn46 through the water which the shell contains. Other narghilehs have a glass standard and water-bowl, and a flexible stem two or three yards in length. The smoker47, seated cross-legged before this graceful48 object, appears to be worshipping his idol49. The mild Persian tobacco is kept alight by a slowly burning piece of dried refuse which is kindly50 furnished by the camel for fuel; and the smoke is inhaled51 into the lungs, and slowly expelled from the nostrils52 and the mouth. Although the hastily rolled cigarette is the resort of the poor in Egypt, and is somewhat used here, it must be a very abandoned wretch53 who cannot afford a pull at a narghileh in Damascus. Its universality must excuse the long paragraph I have devoted54 to this pipe. You see men smoking it in all the caf閟, in all the shops, by the roadside, seated in the streets, in every garden, and on the house-tops. The visible occupation of Damascus is sucking this pipe.
Our first walk in the city was on Sunday to the church of the Presbyterian mission; on our way we threaded a wilderness55 of bazaars57, nearly all of them roofed over, most of them sombre and gloomy. Only in the glaring heat of summer could they be agreeable places of refuge. The roofing of these tortuous58 streets and lanes is not so much to exclude the sun, I imagine, as to keep out the snow, and the roofs are consequently substantial; for Damascus has an experience of winter, being twenty-two hundred feet above the sea-level, nearly as high as Jerusalem. These bazaars, so much vaunted all through the Orient, disappointed us, not in extent, for they are interminable, but in wanting the picturesqueness59, oddity, and richness of those of Cairo. And this, like the general appearance of the city, is a disappointment hard to be borne, for we have been taught to believe that Damascus is a Paradise on earth, and that here, if anywhere, we should come into that region of enchantment60 which the poets of the Arabian Nights' tales have imposed upon us as the actual Orient. Should we have recognized, in the low and partially61 flooded strip of grassland62 through which we drove from the mouth of the Abana gorge63 to the western gate of the city, the green Merj of the Arabian poets, that gem45 of the earth? The fame of it has gone abroad throughout the world, as if it were a unique gift of Allah to his favorites. Why, every Occidental land has a million glades65, watered, green-sodded, tree-embowered, more lovely than this, that no poet has thought it worth while to celebrate.
We found a little handful of worshippers at the mission church, and among them—Heaven forgive us for looking at her on Sunday!—an eccentric and somewhat notorious English lady of title, who shares the bed and board of an Arab sheykh in his harem outside the walls. It makes me blush for the attractiveness of my own country, and the slighted fascination66 of the noble red man in his paint and shoddy blanket, when I see a lady, sated with the tame civilization of England, throw herself into the arms of one of these coarse bigamists of the desert. Has he no reputation in the Mother country, our noble, chivalrous67 Walk-Under-the-Ground?
We saw something of the missionaries68 of Damascus, but as I was not of the established religion at the court of Washington at the time of my departure from home, and had no commission to report to the government, either upon the condition of consulates69 or of religion abroad, I am not prepared to remark much upon the state of either in this city. I should say, however, that not many direct converts were made either from Moslemism or from other Christian beliefs, but that incalculable good is accomplished71 by the schools which the missionaries conduct. The influence of these, in encouraging a disposition72 to read, and to inquire into the truth and into the conditions of a better civilization, is not to be overestimated73. What impressed me most, however, in the fortune of these able, faithful servants of the propagandism of Christian civilization, was their pathetic isolation75. A gentleman and his wife of this mission had been thirty years absent from the United States. The friends who cheered or regretted their departure, who cried over them, and prayed over them, and followed them with tender messages, had passed away, or become so much absorbed in the ever-exciting life at home as to have almost forgotten those who had gone away to the heathen a generation ago. The Mission Board that personally knew them and lovingly cared for them is now composed of strangers to them. They were, in fact, expatriated, lost sight of. And yet they had gained no country nor any sympathies to supply the place of those lost. They must always be, to a great degree, strangers in this fierce, barbarous city.
We wandered down through the Christian quarter of the town: few shops are here; we were most of the time walking between mud-walls, which have a door now and then. This quarter is new; it was entirely76 burned by the Moslems and Druses in 1860, when no less than twenty-five hundred adult male Christians77, heads of families, were slaughtered78, and thousands more perished of wounds and famine consequent upon the total destruction of their property. That the Druses were incited79 to this persecution80 by the Turkish rulers is generally believed. We went out of the city by the eastern gate, called Bab Shurky, which name profanely81 suggested the irrelevant82 colored image of Bob Sharkey, and found ourselves in the presence of huge mounds83 of rubbish, the accumulations of refuse carted out of the city during many centuries, which entirely concealed85 from view the country beyond. We skirted these for a while, with the crumbling86 city wall on the left hand, passed through the hard, gray, desolate87 Turkish cemetery88, and came at length into what might be called country. Not that we could see any country, however; we were always between high mud-walls, and could see nothing beyond them, except the sky, unless we stepped through an open door into a garden.
Into one of these gardens, a public one, and one of the most celebrated89 in the rhapsodies of travellers and by the inventive poets, we finally turned. When you are walking for pleasure in your native land, and indulging a rural feeling, would you voluntarily go into a damp swale, and sit on a moist sod under a willow90? This garden is low, considerably91 lower than the city, which has gradually elevated itself on its own decay, and is cut by little canals or sluiceways fed by the Abana, which run with a good current. The ground is well covered with coarse grass, of the vivid green that one finds usually in low ground, and is liberally sprinkled with a growth of willows92 and poplars. In this garden of the Hesperides, in which there are few if any flowers, and no promise of fruit, there is a rough wooden shed, rickety and decaying, having, if I remember rightly, a balcony,—it must have a balcony,—and there pipes, poor lemonade, and poorer ice cream are served to customers. An Arab band of four persons, one of them of course blind of an eye, seated cross-legged on a sort of bedstead, was picking and thumping93 a monotonous95, never-ending tune74 out of the usual instruments. You could not deny that the vivid greenery, and the gayly apparelled groups, sitting about under the trees and on the water's edge, made a lively scene. In another garden, farther on around the wall, the shanty96 of entertainment is a many-galleried shaky construction, or a series of platforms and terraces of wood, overhanging the swift Abana. In the daytime it is but a shabby sight; but at night, when a thousand colored globes light it without revealing its poverty, and the lights dance in the water, and hundreds of turbaned, gowned narghileh-smokers and coffee-drinkers lounge in the galleries, or gracefully97 take their ease by the sparkling current, and the faint thump94 of the darabouka is heard, and some gesticulating story-teller, mounted upon a bench, is reeling off to an attentive98 audience an interminable Arabian tale, you might fancy that the romance of the Orient is not all invented.
Of other and private gardens and enclosures we had glimpses, on our walk, through open gates, and occasionally over the walls; we could imagine what a fragrance99 and color would greet the senses when the apricots are in bloom, and the oranges and lemons in flower, and how beautiful the view might be if the ugly walls did not conceal84 it. We returned by the saddlers' bazaar56, and by a famous plane-tree, which may be as old as the Moslem70 religion; its gnarled limbs are like the stems of ordinary trees, and its trunk is forty feet around.
The remark that Damascus is without monuments of its past needs qualification; it was made with reference to its existence before the Christian era, and in comparison with other capitals of antiquity. Remains100 may, indeed, be met in its exterior101 walls, and in a broken column here and there built into a modern house, of Roman workmanship, and its Great Mosque is an historical monument of great interest, if not of the highest antiquity. In its structure it represents three religions and three periods of art; like the mosque of St. Sophia at Constantinople, it was for centuries a Christian cathedral; like the Dome102 of the Rock at Jerusalem, it is built upon a spot consecrated103 by the most ancient religious rites64. Situated104 in the midst of the most densely105 peopled part of the city, and pressed on all sides by its most crowded bazaars, occupying a quadrangle nearly five hundred feet one way by over three hundred the other, the wanderer among the shops is constantly coming to one side or another of it, and getting glimpses through the spacious106 portals of the colonnaded107 court within. Hemmed108 in as it is, it is only by diving into many alleys109 and pushing one's way into the rear of dirty shops and climbing upon the roofs of houses, that one can get any idea of the exterior of the mosque. It is, indeed, only from an eminence110 that you can see its three beautiful minarets112.
It does not appear that Chosroes, the Persian who encamped his army in the delicious gardens of Damascus, in the year 614, when he was on his way to the destruction of Jerusalem and the massacre113 of its Christian inhabitants, disturbed the church of John the Baptist in this city. But twenty years later it fell into the hands of the Saracens, who for a few years were content to share it with the Christian worshippers. It is said that when Kh鈒ed, the most redoubtable114 of the Friends of the Prophet, whose deeds entitled him to the sobriquet115 of The Sword of God, entered this old church, he asked to be conducted into the sacred vault116 (which is now beneath the kubbeh of the mosque), and that he was there shown the head of John the Baptist in a gold casket, which had in Greek this inscription117: "This casket contains the head of John the Baptist, son of Zachariah."
The building had been then for over three centuries a Christian church. And already, when Constantine dedicated118 it to Christian use, it had for over three hundred years witnessed the worship of pagan deities119. The present edifice120 is much shorn of its original splendor121 and proportions, but sufficient remains to show that it was a worthy122 rival of the temples of Ba'albek, Palmyra, and Jerusalem. No part of the building is older than the Roman occupation, but the antiquarians are agreed to think that this was the site of the old Syrian temple, in which Ahaz saw the beautiful altar which he reproduced in the temple at Jerusalem.
Pieces of superb carving123, recalling the temple of the Sun at Ba'albek, may still be found in some of the gateways124, and the noble Corinthian columns of the interior are to be referred to Roman or Greek workmen. Christian art is represented in the building in some part of the walls and in the round-topped windows; and the Moslems have superimposed upon all minarets, a dome, and the gay decorations of colored marbles and flaring125 inscriptions126.
The Moslems have either been too ignorant or too careless to efface127 all the evidences of Christian occupation. The doors of the eastern gate are embossed with brass128, and among the emblems129 is the Christian sacramental cup. Over an arch, which can only be seen from the roof of the silversmiths' bazaar, is this inscription in Greek: "Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting130 kingdom, and thy dominion131 endureth throughout all generations."
It required a special permit to admit us to the mosque, but when we were within the sacred precincts and shod with slippers132, lest our infidel shoes should touch the pavement, we were followed by a crowd of attendants who for the moment overcame their repugnance133 to our faith in expectation of our backsheesh. The interior view is impressive by reason of the elegant minarets and the fine colonnaded open court. Upon one of the minarets Jesus will descend134 when he comes to judge the world. The spacious mosque, occupying one side of the court, and open on that side to its roof, is divided in its length by two rows of Corinthian columns, and has a certain cheerfulness and hospitality. The tesselated marble pavement of the interior is much worn, and is nearly all covered with carpets of Persia and of Smyrna. The only tomb in the mosque is that of St. John the Baptist, which is draped in a richly embroidered135 cloth.
We were anew impressed by the home-like, democratic character of the great mosques136. This, opening by its four gates into the busiest bazaars, as we said, is much frequented at all hours. At the seasons of prayer you may see great numbers prostrating137 themselves in devotion, and at all other times this cool retreat is a refuge for the poor and the weary. The fountains of running water in the court attract people,—those who desire only to sit there and rest, as well as those who wash and pray. About the fountains and in the mosque were seated groups of women, eating their noonday bread, or resting in that dumb attitude under which Eastern women disguise their discontent or their intrigues138. This is, at any rate, a haven139 of rest for all, and it is a goodly sight to see all classes, rich and poor, flocking in here, leaving their shoes at the door or carrying them in their hands.
The view from the minaret111 which we ascended140 is peculiar141. On the horizon we saw the tops of hills and mountains, snowy Hermon among them. Far over the plain we could not look, for the city is beset142 by a thicket143 of slender trees, which were just then in fresh leafage. Withdrawing our gaze from the environs, we looked down upon the wide-spread oval-shaped city. Most conspicuous144 were the minarets, then a few domes145, and then thousands of dome-shaped roofs. You see the top of a covered city, but not the city. In fact, it scarcely looks like a city; you see no streets, and few roofs proper, for we have to look twice to convince ourselves that the flat spaces covered with earth and often green with vegetation (gardens in the air) are actually roofs of houses. The streets are either roofed over or are so narrow that we cannot see them from this height. Damascus is a sort of rabbit-burrow.
Not far from the Great Mosque is the tomb of Saladin. We looked from the street through a grated window, to the bars of which the faithful have tied innumerable rags and strings146 (pious offerings, which it is supposed will bring them good luck) into a painted enclosure, and saw a large catafalque, or sarcophagus; covered with a green mantle147. The tomb is near a mosque, and beside a busy cotton-bazaar; it is in the midst of traffic and travel, among activities and the full rush of life,—just where a man would like to be buried in order to be kept in remembrance.
In going about the streets we notice the prevalence of color in portals, in the interior courts of houses, and in the baths; there is a fondness for decorating with broad gay stripes of red, yellow, and white. Even the white pet sheep which are led about by children have their wool stained with dabs148 of brilliant color,—perhaps in honor of the Greek Easter.
The baths of Damascus are many and very good, not so severe and violent as those of New York, nor so thorough as those of Cairo, but, the best of them, clean and agreeable. We push aside a gay curtain from the street and descend by steps into a square apartment. It has a dome like a mosque. Under the dome is a large marble basin into which water is running; the floor is tesselated with colored marbles. Each side is a recess149 with a halfdome, and in the recesses150 are elevated divans151 piled with cushions for reclining. The walls are painted in stripes of blue, yellow, and red, and the room is bright with various Oriental stuffs. There are turbaned and silken-attired attendants, whose gentle faces might make them mistaken for ministers of religion as well as of cleanliness, and upon the divans recline those who have come from the bath, enjoying kief, with pipes and coffee. There is an atmosphere of perfect contentment in the place, and I can imagine how an effeminate ruler might see, almost without a sigh, the empire of the world slip from his grasp while he surrendered himself to this delicious influence.
We undressed, were towelled, shod with wooden clogs152, and led through marble paved passages and several rooms into an inner, long chamber153, which has a domed154 roof pierced by bulls'-eyes of party-colored glass. The floor, of colored marbles, was slippery with water running from the overflowing155 fountains, or dashed about by the attendants. Out of this room open several smaller chambers156, into which an unsocial person might retire. We sat down on the floor by a marble basin into which both hot and cold water poured. After a little time spent in contemplating157 the humidity of the world, and reflecting on the equality of all men before the law without clothes, an attendant approached, and began to deluge us with buckets of hot water, dashing them over us with a jocular enjoyment158 and as much indifference159 to our personality as if we had been statues. I should like to know how life looks to a man who passes his days in this dimly illumined chamber of steam, and is permitted to treat his fellow-men with every mark of disrespect. When we were sufficiently160 drenched161, the agile162 Arab who had selected me as his mine of backsheesh, knelt down and began to scrub me with hair mittens163, with a great show of energy, uttering jocose164 exclamations165 in his own language, and practising the half-dozen English words he had mastered, one of them being "dam," which he addressed to me both affirmatively and interrogatively, as if under the impression that it conveyed the same meaning as tyeb in his vocabulary. I suppose he had often heard wicked Englishmen, who were under his hands, use it, and he took it for an expression of profound satisfaction. He continued this operation for some time, putting me in a sitting position, turning me over, telling me to "sleep" when he desired me to lie down, encouraging me by various barbarous cries, and slapping his hand from time to time to make up by noise for his economical expenditure166 of muscular force.
After my hilarious167 bather had finished this process, he lathered168 me thoroughly169, drenched me from head to heels in suds, and then let me put the crowning touch to my happiness by entering one of the little rooms, and sliding into a tank of water hot enough to take the skin off. It is easy enough to make all this process read like a martyrdom, but it is, on the contrary, so delightful170 that you do not wonder that the ancients spent so much time in the bath, and that next to the amphitheatre the emperors and tyrants171 lavished172 most money upon these establishments, of which the people were so extravagantly173 fond.
Fresh towels were wound round us, turbans were put on our heads, and we were led back to the room first entered, where we were re-enveloped in cloths and towels, and left to recline upon the cushioned divans; pipes and coffee were brought, and we enjoyed a delicious sense of repose174 and bodily lightness, looking dimly at the grave figures about us, and recognizing in them not men but dreamy images of a physical paradise. No rude voices or sharp movements broke the repose of the chamber. It was as in a dream that I watched a handsome boy, who, with a long pole, was handling the washed towels, and admired the unerring skill that tossed the strips of cloth high in the air and caused them to catch and hang squarely upon the cords stretched across the recesses. The mind was equal to the observation, but not to the comprehension, of this feat34. When we were sufficiently cooled, we were assisted to dress, the various articles of Frank apparel affording great amusement to the Orientals. The charge for the whole entertainment was two francs each, probably about four times what a native would have paid.
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incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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perpetuated
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| vt.使永存（perpetuate的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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dependants
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| 受赡养者，受扶养的家属( dependant的名词复数 ) | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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delta
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margin
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prolific
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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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degenerate
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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reigns
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antiquity
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perennial
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| adj.终年的；长久的 | |
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tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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ravaged
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blight
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caravan
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swarming
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| 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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utterly
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literally
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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29
inundation
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| n.the act or fact of overflowing | |
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30
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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31
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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32
yelping
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| v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的现在分词 ) | |
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33
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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34
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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35
marshes
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| n.沼泽，湿地( marsh的名词复数 ) | |
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36
doorways
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| n.门口，门道( doorway的名词复数 ) | |
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37
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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38
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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39
mosque
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| n.清真寺 | |
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40
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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41
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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42
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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43
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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44
amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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45
gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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46
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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47
smoker
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| n.吸烟者，吸烟车厢，吸烟室 | |
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48
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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49
idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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50
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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51
inhaled
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| v.吸入( inhale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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53
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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54
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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55
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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56
bazaar
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| n.集市，商店集中区 | |
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57
bazaars
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| （东方国家的）市场( bazaar的名词复数 )； 义卖； 义卖市场； （出售花哨商品等的）小商品市场 | |
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58
tortuous
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| adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的 | |
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59
picturesqueness
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60
enchantment
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| n.迷惑，妖术，魅力 | |
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61
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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62
grassland
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| n.牧场，草地，草原 | |
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63
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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64
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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65
glades
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| n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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66
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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67
chivalrous
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| adj.武士精神的；对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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68
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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69
consulates
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| n.领事馆( consulate的名词复数 ) | |
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70
Moslem
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| n.回教徒，穆罕默德信徒；adj.回教徒的，回教的 | |
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71
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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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
overestimated
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| 对（数量）估计过高，对…作过高的评价( overestimate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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74
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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75
isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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76
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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77
Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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78
slaughtered
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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79
incited
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| 刺激，激励，煽动( incite的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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80
persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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81
profanely
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| adv.渎神地，凡俗地 | |
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82
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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83
mounds
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| 土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆 | |
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84
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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85
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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86
crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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87
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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88
cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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89
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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90
willow
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| n.柳树 | |
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91
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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92
willows
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| n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木 | |
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93
thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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94
thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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95
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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96
shanty
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| n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子 | |
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97
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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98
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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99
fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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100
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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101
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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102
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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103
consecrated
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| adj.神圣的，被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 )；奉献 | |
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104
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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105
densely
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| ad.密集地；浓厚地 | |
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106
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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107
colonnaded
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| adj.有列柱的，有柱廊的 | |
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108
hemmed
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| 缝…的褶边( hem的过去式和过去分词 )； 包围 | |
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109
alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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110
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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111
minaret
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| n.（回教寺院的）尖塔 | |
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112
minarets
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| 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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113
massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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114
redoubtable
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| adj.可敬的；可怕的 | |
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115
sobriquet
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| n.绰号 | |
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116
vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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117
inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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118
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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119
deities
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| n.神，女神( deity的名词复数 )；神祗；神灵；神明 | |
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120
edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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121
splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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122
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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123
carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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124
gateways
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| n.网关( gateway的名词复数 )；门径；方法；大门口 | |
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125
flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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126
inscriptions
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| （作者）题词( inscription的名词复数 )； 献词； 碑文； 证劵持有人的登记 | |
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127
efface
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| v.擦掉，抹去 | |
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128
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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129
emblems
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| n.象征，标记( emblem的名词复数 ) | |
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130
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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131
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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132
slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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133
repugnance
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| n.嫌恶 | |
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134
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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135
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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136
mosques
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| 清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 ) | |
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137
prostrating
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| v.使俯伏，使拜倒( prostrate的现在分词 )；（指疾病、天气等）使某人无能为力 | |
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138
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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139
haven
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| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
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140
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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141
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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142
beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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143
thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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144
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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145
domes
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| n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 )；像圆屋顶一样的东西；圆顶体育场 | |
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146
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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147
mantle
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| n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红 | |
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148
dabs
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| 少许( dab的名词复数 )； 是…能手； 做某事很在行； 在某方面技术熟练 | |
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149
recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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150
recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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151
divans
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| n.（可作床用的）矮沙发( divan的名词复数 )；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集 | |
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152
clogs
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| 木屐； 木底鞋，木屐( clog的名词复数 ) | |
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153
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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154
domed
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| adj. 圆屋顶的, 半球形的, 拱曲的 动词dome的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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155
overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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156
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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157
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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158
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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159
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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160
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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161
drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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162
agile
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| adj.敏捷的，灵活的 | |
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163
mittens
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| 不分指手套 | |
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164
jocose
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| adj.开玩笑的，滑稽的 | |
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165
exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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166
expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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167
hilarious
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| adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed | |
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168
lathered
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| v.（指肥皂）形成泡沫( lather的过去式和过去分词 )；用皂沫覆盖；狠狠地打 | |
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169
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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170
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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171
tyrants
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| 专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 )； 暴君似的人； （古希腊的）僭主； 严酷的事物 | |
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172
lavished
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| v.过分给予，滥施( lavish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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173
extravagantly
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| adv.挥霍无度地 | |
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174
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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