We did not, of course, take the advice of the Englishman. James and I were agreed that it would not be consistent with our dignity to turn to so base a use as the purchase of currie and rice the funds needed for the distribution of Bibles and tracts3 among the aborigines. We did call on the good padre, but for no other purpose than to crave4 permission to inspect his cast-off foot wear. The tramp from Pegu had wrought5 disaster to our own. My companion wore on his right foot the upper portion of a shoe, the sole of which he had left somewhere in the Burmese jungle; on the left, the sole of its mate, to which there still adhered enough of the upper to keep it in place. He was better shod than I.
But missionaries6 domiciled in the far corners of the brown man’s land are not wont7 to be satisfied with a casual morning call from those of their own race. The “Christer” espied8 us as we started up the sloping pathway through his private park, and gave us American welcome at the foot of the steps. Our coming, he averred9, was the red-letter event of that season. Before we had time even to broach10 the object of our visit, we found ourselves stammering11 denials to the assertion he was shouting to his wife within, that we were to stay at least a fortnight.
Our new host was a native of Indiana, a missionary12 among the Talaings, as the inhabitants of this region are known. His dwelling13, the Talaing Mission, was a palatial14 bungalow15 set in a wooded estate on the outer rim16 of the city. Its windows commanded a far-reaching view over a gorgeous tropical landscape. Within, it was not merely 411spacious, airy, and lighted with soft tints18 of filtered sunshine—blessings easily attained19 in British-Burma, it was hung with rich tapestries20, carpeted with downy rugs, decorated with Oriental works of art. The room to which we were assigned was all but sumptuously21 furnished; and it was by no means the “bridal chamber22.” At table we were served formal dinners of many courses; a white-liveried chowkee dar slipped in and out of the room, salaaming24 reverentially each time he offered a new dish; a punkah-wallah on the back veranda25 toiled26 ceaselessly; a gardener clipped away at the shrubbery in the mission grounds; a native aya followed the two tiny memsahibs who drove about the house a team of lizards28, harnessed in tandem29 with the reins30 tied to their hind31 legs. In short, the reverend gentleman lived in a style rarely dreamed of by men of the cloth at home, or by the sympathetic spinsters to whose charity the adjacent heathen owed their threatened evangelization.
For all his profession, however, the man from Indiana was one whose acquaintanceship was well worth the making. To us especially, for when he was once convinced that our plea for employment was genuine, he quickly found something to put us at. One would have fancied that a “handy man” had never before entered the mission grounds. There was barely a trade of which we knew the rudiments32 that we did not take a turn at during our stay. Having served apprenticeship33 in earlier days as carpenter, blacksmith, shoemaker, and “carriage trimmer,” I repaired the floor and several doors and windows, constructed two kitchen benches, forged wardrobe hooks, half-soled the family shoes, and upholstered two chairs used on “state occasions.” James, meanwhile, recovered the padre’s pack-saddle, overhauled34 and oiled his fire-arms, put new roosts in his henhouse, and set his lumber35 room in order. It was not that native workmen were scarce; a small army of servants flitted about the bungalow, leering at our loss of caste. But saddening experience had taught the missionary that Hindu or Burmese workmen not only made a botch of any task outside their narrow fields, but ruined with surprising rapidity the tools of which he had brought a well-stocked chest from his native land.
Our first day’s labor36 was enlivened with tales of the horrors that would befall us if we persisted in continuing our journey; the second, with pleas for a longer sojourn37; the third, with preparations for our departure. As to the route, we could learn no more than the names of three villages through which the “wild men” of the interior 412passed on their way to Siam. To what section of Siam their trail might bring us no man knew.
A few hours over washtub and needle made our rags presentable, and we still had two extra cotton suits. That these and our other possessions might be protected from the tropical deluges39, we bought two squares of oilcloth in which to roll our “swag.” My bundle contained one of the two pairs of half-worn shoes that I had come across in the lumber-room. Unfortunately, there was a marked pedal disparity between the Australian and the missionary, and my companion might have departed as poorly shod as he had arrived, had not the good sky pilot insisted on fitting him out in the bazaars40. There, the stoutest42 shoes in stock proved to be a pair of football buskins, imported for some Moulmein exponent43 of Rugby. These the purchaser chose, in the face of the protest of the prospective44 wearer, arguing that the cleats made them just the thing for climbing steep mountain paths. In my pack, too, were our earnings45 at the mission, some four dollars in silver and copper46; James having pleaded that he was too careless to be intrusted with such a fortune. Nor should the parting gifts of our hosts be forgotten,—a little pocket compass from the padre, and a bottle of “Superior Curry48 Dressing” from his solicitous49 spouse50.
We left the Talaing Mission, then, on the morning of May twenty-third, and, boarding a tiny steamer plying51 on the Gyang river, disembarked as the sun was touching52 the western tree-tops, in the village of Choung Doa. It comprised two rows of spindle-shanked hutches facing a narrow clearing ankle-deep in mud. In one of the booths, boiled rice, tea, and a few stale biscuits from far-off England were for sale. The population, irrespective of age, sex, or dishabille, formed a gaping53 circle around us and flocked behind us as we set out, like country boys in the wake of the annual circus parade.
A jungle trail that was almost a highway led eastward54 through densest55 virgin57 forest. We set a sharp pace, for the hour was late and the next hamlet full fifteen miles distant. Not a hut nor a human being did we pass on the journey; only the trail, winding58 over thick-clothed foothills, gave evidence that man had been here before us.
Black night had fallen when we reached Kawkeriek. As the capital of the most eastern district of the Indian Empire, it posed as a city of importance; yet it was only a larger collection of those same one-story, bamboo huts, ranged in unsteady rows like the soldiers of an inebriated59 army, in the square clearing which its inhabitants had 413won by force of arms from the militant60 jungle. A sub-commissioner61 dwelt there. That much information had reached Moulmein. Perhaps he spoke62 a smattering of English. We fell to shouting an inquiry63 for his bungalow as we wandered in and out among the huts. Here and there, where a light cast a flickering64 gleam into the night, we startled the peace of a quiet family by intruding65 upon them—and seldom found them in a garb66 to receive callers. The few belated stragglers whom we came upon in the darkness listened with trembling limbs to our query67, grunted68 unintelligibly70, and sped noiselessly away.
It was surely nine and time all well-behaved residents of the capital should have been abed, when we captured a night-hawk on his way home after a little supper with the boys, or a round of the dance-halls. He was of bolder stuff, naturally, and better informed on who’s who in Kawkeriek than his hen-pecked neighbors, and consented like a man ready for any adventure to give us guidance.
Beyond the last row of dwellings71, he plunged72 into a sub-sylvan pathway, and, mounting a gentle slope, paused before a forest-girdled bungalow. We turned to thank him, but he had slipped silently away, anxious, no doubt, to reach his apartment before the elevator stopped running.
The commissioner was reading in his study. He was a Burman from “over Mandalay way,” as much a foreigner in Kawkeriek as we, and so much a sahib in his habits that he had not yet dined. For that we were grateful. To have missed the formal repast to which he invited us would have been a misfortune indeed.
So rarely does England appoint any but a white man to rule over a district, that this native, who had risen so high in her esteem73, awakened74 our keenest curiosity. In appearance he was like any other Burman of the prosperous class. His garb was the usual flowing robe, though his legs were dressed and his feet shod. His long, black hair, a bit wavy75 and of a thickness the other sex might have envied, was caught up at the back of his head in a “Psyche knot.” Like the police captain of Bankipore, however, he was in all but nationality and dress a European. Without the trace of a foreign accent, he couched even his casual remarks in an English that sounded like a reading from a master of style. His energy, his accomplishments76, his very point of view were those of the Occident77. Had we entered the bungalow blindfolded78, we should never have suspected that his skin was brown. So little of the native was there left in his make-up that, though middle-aged79, he was still a bachelor.
414“I have been too busy in my short life,” he confided80, “to give attention to such matters.”
There was a dak bungalow in Kawkeriek. The commissioner’s servant escorted us thither81, prepared our bath, and arranged the sleeping-quarters for the reception of such distinguished82 guests. In the morning we took breakfast with the governor. No more important problem, apparently83, than the planning of our itinerary84 had occupied his attention in many a day. He had summoned his entire council, six men of standing85 in the community, who approached the business in hand with the solemnity of delegates to a Hague conference.
The morning was half spent before the result of their deliberations was laid before us. It was tabulated86 under three heads. First: the country east of the capital was a trackless jungle overrun with savage87 dacoits, poisonous reptiles88, and man-eating tigers, into which even the people of Kawkeriek dared not venture. Secondly89: if we persisted in our suicidal project, would we not spend a few days of our closing existence with the commissioner, who was pining away for lack of congenial companions. Thirdly: if we denied him even this favor, there was outside his door a “wild man,” chief of a jungle village, whose route coincided with our own for one day’s journey.
We suggested an immediate90 departure. A servant stepped out on the veranda and summoned the boh into the council chamber. He was a “wild man” indeed. In physique, he was thin and angular, a tall man for his race, though small when judged by our standard. His skin was a leathery brown, his hair short and bristling91, his eyes small and shifty, with a suggestion of the leopard92 in them. The chewing of betel-nut had left his teeth jet-black, and the prominence93 of his cheek bones under a sloping forehead made his face ugly to look upon. All in all, he was a creature who would have seemed in his proper element chattering95 in the tree-tops of the jungle.
His dress, nevertheless, was brilliant. Around his brow was wound a strip of pink silk; an embroidered96 jacket, innocent of buttons, left his chest bare to the waist-line; his loins and thighs97 were clothed in many yards of bright red stuff arranged in the fashion of bloomers. Below the knees he wore nothing. At his waist was fastened a betel-nut pouch98. He carried a leather sack of the shape of a saddlebag, and—having fallen under the civilizing99 influence of Kawkeriek—an umbrella.
His dialect being a foreign language to the commissioner, the importance of his mission was impressed upon the boh through an interpreter. 415He replied only in monosyllables, salaaming, each time he grunted, so low that his head all but touched his knees. From time to time he sat down on his heels as a signal mark of respect. When he retired101, he backed towards the door, kowtowing with every step, and forgetting, in his awe102, his leather sack, until he was called back by the commissioner’s major domo.
The brilliant garb which the village chieftan had donned for his audience with the governor was not, of course, his traveling costume. On the outskirts103 of the capital he signed to us to halt and stepped inside a hut. But for his ape’s countenance104 we should not have recognized him when he reappeared. His regal garments had been packed away in his haversack, the broad strap105 of which was his only covering, save a strip of dirty, white cotton about his loins.
He plunged at once into the jungle, moving with little, mincing106 steps beside which our strides seemed awkward. The path was so narrow that the outstretching branches whipped us in the faces. It showed few signs of travel and was overgrown with virile107 creepers that entangled108 our feet. None but a jungle-bred human could have followed the erratic110, oft-obliterated route through that labyrinth111 of vegetation. Flocks of birds of brilliant plumage flew away before us, uttering strident screams; now and then a crashing of underbrush marked the flight of some unknown animal. The overbearing sunshine, falling sheer upon us, seemed to double the weight of the “swag” on our shoulders; and the bundles themselves were not light.
Our guide was the most taciturn of Orientals. Not once during the day, to our knowledge, did a sound escape his lips. Where the path widened a bit, he raised his umbrella and cantered steadily112 forward. Even swollen113 streams were no obstacle to him. Had he been alone it is doubtful whether he would have noticed them at all. With never a pause he splashed through the first and loped unconcernedly on along the branch-choked path. We hallooed to him as we sat down to pull off our shoes; and he halted a moment, but set off again before we had waded115 ashore116. When we shouted once more he turned to stare open-mouthed until we were re-shod. Why these strange creatures should wear garments on their feet under any circumstances was an enigma117 to him; that we should stop to put on our shoes again when we must know there were other streams to wade114 seemed the height of asininity118. When we had overtaken him he hinted in awkward pantomime that we should do better to toss aside the foolish leather contrivances that hindered our progress. He could not realize that a 416mile over sharp stones and jagged roots would have left us crippled.
As we neared the mountains the streams increased in number and swiftness. In the beginning we took it upon ourselves, as a duty to beachcombers who might some day appeal to us for statistical119 information, to count them. When we had forded thirty-six before the sun began its decline, we gave up the attempt in despair. By that time, too, we had grown weary of halting every hundred yards to pull off our shoes and bellow120 after the boh, who must be reminded at every rivulet121 of our peculiar122 custom. James essayed to cross one on a few stepping-stones, lost his balance, and sprawled123 headlong into it. I was more fortunate, but reached the further bank by no means dry shod. Thereafter we waded through the streams, which for the most part were something over knee-deep, and marched on with the water gushing124 from our shoe-tops. It mattered little in the end, for a pent-up deluge38 burst upon us.
He who has never bowed his back to a tropical shower at the height of the rainy season cannot know their violence; and nowhere do they rage with more fury than in the mountains of the Malay Peninsula. With a roar like the explosion of a powder-mill an infuriated clap of thunder broke above us. Then another and another, in quick, spasmodic blasts. It was no such tamed and domesticated125 thunder as that of the north. Flaming flashes of lightning followed each other in quick succession, half blinding us with their sudden glare. We looked instinctively126 to see the riotous127 vegetation burst into flame. In the falling masses of water—to call it rain seems absurd—we plunged on; the densest thicket129 could not have offered the least shelter. The boh had raised his umbrella. It broke the force of the downpour, but could not save him a drenching130. What cared he, dressed only in a loin-cloth? The water ran in rivulets131 down his naked shoulders and along his prominent ribs132, yet on his macilent face hovered133 the beginning of a haggard smile. Between the crashes of thunder the devil’s-tattoo of the storm drowned out all other sounds. Only by speaking into my companion’s ear as into a telephone receiver, and bellowing134 at the top of my lungs, could I make myself heard.
Then the storm abated135—gradually at first, then suddenly, and with its ceasing our tones were still shrill136 and strident. Quickly the sun burst forth137 again, to blaze fiercely upon us; though not for long. All that day the deluges broke in succession so rapid that we had no notion of their number. More often than not they caught us climbing a sheer mountainside by a narrow, clay-bottomed path down which an 417ever-increasing brook138 poured, washing us off our feet while we clutched at the overhanging bushes.
The boh led us, by zigzag139 routes, over two mountain ranges before the day was done. At sunset, we were descending140 into a third valley when we came suddenly upon a tiny clearing and a tinier village. “Thenganyenam” the natives called it. There were four bamboo huts and a dak bungalow, housing a population of thirty-one “wild men” and one tame one. To take the census141 was no difficult matter, for the inhabitants poured forth from their hovels before we had crossed five yards of the clearing.
At their head trotted142 the domesticated human. In all the shrieking144, gaping band of men, women, and children there was no other that wore more than a loin-cloth or an abbreviated145 shirt. He was a babu, the “manager” of the public rest-house. With a majestic146 bow of deepest reverence147 he offered us welcome, turned to wave back the awe-stricken populace with the gesture of a man born to command, and led the way with martial148 stride to the government bungalow.
“Look here, babu,” I began, as we sank down into wicker chairs on the veranda, “this is a splendid little surprise to find a dak bungalow and a man who speaks English, here in the jungle. But we’re no millionaires; and the government fee is two rupees, eh? Too strong for us. Can’t you get us a cheaper lodging149 in one of the huts?”
“The government,” returned the babu, with careful enunciation150, “the government have make the dak bungalow for Europeans. Why; you may not ask me. In two years and nine days that I am living in Thenganyenam there are come two white men, and one have only rested and not sleep. But because the dak bungalow is make, all sahibs coming in Thenganyenam must stop in it. When I have see you coming by the foot and not by the horses I must know that you have not plenty money. Every day we are not everybody rich. How strong you have the legs to come from Kawkeriek by the foot! The two rupees you must not pay. If you can give some little to the cook, that he make you a supper—”
“That’s the word,” burst out James. “Sure, we pay for our chow. Where’s the chowkee? Tell him to get busy.”
“But,” apologized the babu, “this is a very jungly place and we have not proper food for Europeans.”
“Holy dingoes!” shrieked151 the Australian. “Do I hear that old, stale joke again? Bring a pan of rice, or a raw turnip152, or a fried snake, anything, only julty karow. That wobbly-legged boh scoffed153 418all his sandwiches without saying ‘How d’ye do,’ and that breakfast in Kawky didn’t last an hour. Ring up the chowkee.”
“The other day,” observed the babu, reminiscently, “there was a chicken in Thenganyenam. I shall send the cook to hunt him.”
Through the united efforts of the Thenganyenamians, the solitary154 fowl155 was run to earth, with more hubbub156 than dispatch, and sacrificed in sight of the assembled multitude. A delay that was both painful and unaccountable ensued before it appeared before us as tongue-scorching currie, in an ample setting of hard-boiled rice.
Meanwhile we had pulled off our water-soaked rags, rubbed down with a strip of canvas, and donned our extra garments. The change was most gratifying. It was not until then that we realized the full value of the squares of oilcloth that had kept our “swag” dry. Supper over, we drove the babu forth into the night and turned in on the canvas charpoys.
The swamps and streams through which we had plunged during the day had swarmed158 with leeches160. One of these, having imbedded itself in a vein161 of my right ankle, refused to be dislodged. At supper a tiny stream of blood had trickled162 along my toes; but, fancying the flow would cease of itself, I made no efforts to staunch it. I awoke in the morning with the sensation of being held captive. The blood, oozing163 out during the night, had congealed164, gluing my right leg to the canvas of the charpoy.
Before I had dressed, the Hindu cook and care-taker wandered into the room; and, catching165 sight of the long, red stain, gave one lusty shriek143, and tumbled out on the veranda. James, who had slept in an adjoining chamber, was awakened by the bellow, and, hearing the Hindustanee word for “blood,” sprang to his feet with the conviction that I had been assassinated166 as he slept. I was explaining the matter to him when the cook returned, wild of eye, and bearing the register in which we had inscribed167 our names the evening before. Waving his free arm now at the book, now at the charpoy, he danced about us screaming excitedly. Comprehending little of his voluble chatter94, we waved him off and stepped out upon the veranda. The “manager” was just mounting the steps.
“Here, babu,” demanded James, “what’s biting our friend from the kitchen?”
The Hindu turned to his superior, all but choking himself over his convulsive utterance168. Tears were streaming down his tawny169 cheeks.
419“He says,” cried the babu, when the cook fell silent at last, “in the charpoy is much blood. Have you become wounded?”
“It was only a blood-sucker,” I explained, “but where does the register come in?”
“The cook asks that you will write all the story of the blood in it, very careful.”
“What nonsense,” I answered, when James’ mirth had subsided170. “I’ll pay for the damage to the charpoy.”
“Oh! It is no dam-máge,” protested the babu, “no dam-máge at all. He is not ask for pay. But when the inspector171 is coming and seeing the much blood in the charpoy, he is thinking the cook have kill a man who have sleep here, and he is taking him to Kawkeriek and making him shot. Very bad. So cook cry. Please, sir, write you the story in the register book.”
I sat down at the veranda table and inscribed a dramatic tale for the visiting inspector. Only when I had filled the page below our names and half the next one, did the Hindu acknowledge himself contented172, and carry away the book for safe keeping.
We stowed away our dry garments and donned the rags and tatters we had stretched along the ceiling the evening before. They were still clammy wet. As for our footwear, we despaired for a time of getting into it, or of being able to walk if once we did. Our feet were blistered173 and swollen to the ankles, the shoes shrunken and wrinkled until the leather was as inflexible174 as sheet-iron. We got them on at last, however, and hobbled down the veranda steps and away. For the first hour we advanced by spasmodic bursts, picking our way as across a field of burning coals. James was in even more uncomfortable straits than I. The football buskins, theoretically just the thing for jungle tramping, had, in actual use, proved quite the opposite. The day before, the Australian had slipped and stumbled over the rubble175 like a man learning to skate. In drying, the shoes had wrinkled and twisted into a shape that gave anything but a firm foothold, and the heavy leather chafed176 like emery paper. Wherever he came upon a sharp stone, the sufferer halted to chop viciously at one of the cleats, cursing the missionary’s judgment177 and snarling178 like one wreaking179 his pent-up vengeance180 on a mortal enemy. Before noonday came, he had pounded off the last cleat, not without inflicting181 serious injury to the soles; and at the first opportunity he borrowed a knife and transformed the shoes into a decidedly low pair of oxfords. 420But even after these radical182 alterations183 he was uncomfortably shod. I much doubt whether the white man has yet devised the proper footwear for jungle tramping. To be foot-sore seems to be one of the inevitable184 hardships of those who walk in the tropics. We, at least, suffered more or less pain at every step from Kawkeriek to the end of our journey.
Thenganyenam was no great distance from the frontier village. Our guide of the day before had turned westward185, but the pathway between the adjacent hamlets was distinctly enough marked to be followed. It was not yet noon when we reached Myáwadi. A few showers had visited their fury upon us; but the brilliant sunshine was again flooding the world about us. Myáwadi was a more populous186 thorp than that we had left in the morning, pitched along the bank of the stream that marks the limit of old England’s sway. An air of lazy, soul-filling contentment hovered over the tiny jungle oasis187. With every puff188 of the soft summer breeze the tinkling189 of the little silver bells at the top of the pagoda190 came musically clear to our ears. Here and there a villager was stretched out on his back in the grass. It seemed ill-mannered to break the peaceful repose191 of the inhabitants.
Besides the stone and mud sanctuary192 soaring above the brilliant vegetation, the most imposing193 edifice194 was a bamboo barracks, housing a little garrison195 of native soldiers. Here we stopped, as was our duty before crossing the frontier. The sepoys were childish, good-hearted fellows who made known their astonishment196 and offered their condolences in expressive197 pantomime, and did their best to make as appetizing as possible the dinner of rice and jungle vegetables they offered. It was fortunate that they were so open-handed, for we could not have purchased food in the village. This jungle land has not yet reached the commercial stage.
The native lieutenant198 evinced a strong curiosity to know what errand had brought us thus far from the beaten track of sahibs, and our pantomimic explanation seemed only to increase his suspicions. When he grew querulous we mentioned the name of Damalaku. He sprang to his feet shrieking with delight, and, having danced about us for some time, detailed199 a sepoy to accompany us to the first Siamese village, with a note of explanation to the head man.
When the sun had begun its decline and the latest storm had abated, we left the barracks and Burma behind. The international stream was little wider than many we had already encountered, and barely waist deep. We forded it easily, and the tinkling of the pagoda bells 421still came faintly to our ears when we climbed the sandy eastern bank,—in Siam at last.
The first village, we had gathered, was no great distance off, so we strolled leisurely200 on through the jungle, pausing to rest in shady thickets201 so often that the sepoy left us in disgust and went on alone. Two hours later he paused on his homeward journey to tell us in gestures that he had delivered his international note and that the village was waiting to receive us.
The day was not yet done when we reached the outpost of Siam, to be picked up at the edge of the jungle by a Siamese of ape-like mien202, who conducted us to the hut of the village head man.
Picture to yourself a trust magnate of the most pompous203 and self-worshiping type, with the face of an Alaskan totem pole, the general appearance of a side-show “wild man,” a skin the color of a door mat that has done service for many years, dressed in a cast-off dish cloth, and you have an exact visualization204 of the man who ruled over M?sawt. He received us in the “city hall,” sitting with folded legs on a grass mat in the middle of the floor. Around the walls of the misshapen bamboo shack205 squatted206 several briefly-attired courtiers. Through the network partition that separated the hall of ceremonies from the family sanctum, peered a parchment-skinned female, and a troop of dusky children not yet arrived at the dignity of clothing. If we had waited for an invitation to be seated we might have remained standing all night. The attitude of the Siamese towards the European is quite different from that of the Burman. Their very poise208 seems to say:—“We are a free people, not the slaves of white men like our neighbors over the border.”
We made ourselves comfortable on the pliant209 floor, with our backs to the wall, and lighted the saybullies that had done service for three days past. For more than an hour the head man and his satellites sat motionless, staring fixedly210 at us, and mumbling211 in an undertone without once turning their heads towards those they were addressing. The sun sank into the jungle and swift darkness fell. The parchment-skinned female drifted into the room and set on the floor an oil torch that gave a poor imitation of a light. At the dictation of the babu of Thenganyenam, I had jotted212 down a few vital words of Siamese. When conversation lagged, I put this newly-acquired vocabulary to the test by calling for food. The head man growled213, the female floated in once more and placed at our feet a small washtub of boiled rice.
422Now this Oriental staff of life is not without its virtues214; but to eat one’s fill of the tasteless stuff without any “trimmings” whatever is rather a pleasureless task. I dragged out my notebook and again ran my eyes down the list of Siamese words. Neither currie nor chicken was represented. The only word that appeared to be of any value under the circumstances was that for “sugar.” I bellowed216 it at the head man. He stared open-mouthed until I had repeated it several times.
“Sugar?” he echoed, with an inflection of interrogation and astonishment.
“Yes, sugar,” I cried, sprinkling an imaginary handful over the rice.
The councillors gazed at each other with wondering eyes, and the word passed from mouth to mouth—“sugar?”
“Sure, sugar!” cried James, taking up the refrain.
A man rose slowly to his feet, marched across to us, and, squatting217 before the dish, began to run his bony fingers through the rice.
“Sugar?” he queried218, peering into our faces. “No! no!” He took a pinch of the food between his fingers, put it into his mouth, and munched219 it slowly and quizzically. Then he shook his head vigorously and spat157 the mouthful out on the floor.
“No, no; sugar, no!” he cried.
“Of course there’s no sugar!” shouted James. “That’s why we’re making a bloody221 holler. Sugar, you thick-headed mummy!”
The official taster retired to his place; a silence fell over the company. We continued to shout. Suddenly a ray of intelligence lighted up the face of the head man. Could it be because we wanted sugar that we were raising such a hubbub, rather than because we fancied that foreign substance had been inadvertently spilled on our supper? He called to the female. When she appeared with a joint222 of bamboo filled with muddy brown sugar, the councillors rose gravely and grouped themselves about us. I sprinkled half the contents of the bamboo on the rice, stirred up the mess, and began to eat.
At the first mouthful such a roar of laughter went up from the assembly that I choked in my astonishment. Whoever would have guessed that these gloomy-faced dignitaries could laugh? The chieftan fell to shaking as with a fit, his advisers223 doubled up with mirth, and aroused the entire community with their shrieks224. Wild-eyed Siamese tumbled out of the neighboring huts. Within two minutes half the village had flocked into the room, and the other half was 423howling for admittance and a glimpse of those strange beings who ate their rice with sugar!
The surging mob must surely have burst the walls of the frail225 hut asunder226, had not the head man risen to the dignity of his position, and driven all but the high and mighty227 among his subjects forth into the night. Among those who remained after the general exodus228 was a babu. He was a Siamese youth who had spent some years in Rangoon, and his extraordinary erudition, like the garments he wore in excess of the diaphanous229 native costume, weighed heavily upon him. At the instigation of the head man, he subjected us to a searching cross-examination, and later communicated to us the result of a debate of some two hours’ duration. The jungle to the eastward was next to impassable to natives; obviously such notoriously weak and helpless beings as white men could not endure its hardships. There was in M?sawt a squad230 of soldiers with whom we could travel to Rehang when their relief arrived—in a week or ten days. Meanwhile we must remain in the village as government guests.
James and I raised a vigorous protest against this proposition. The only reply to our outburst was the assertion of the head man that we should stay whether we liked it or not. As the night was well advanced, we feigned231 capitulation and made ready to retire. The village chief lighted us into one of the small rooms of his dwelling and left us to turn in on the bamboo floor.
Had we anticipated any great difficulty in escaping in the morning it would have been a simple matter to have taken French leave during the night. Bolts and bars were unknown in M?sawt, and even had our door been fastened, it would have needed only a few kicks at the flimsy walls of our chamber to make an exit where we chose. We had no desire to lose a night’s rest, however, and fell asleep with the conviction that the head man would not be as energetic in executing his order as in giving it.
Nor was he. While the mists still hovered over M?sawt, we packed our “swag” and entered the council chamber in marching array. The chief was already astir, but the only effort he made to thwart232 us was to shout somewhat meekly233 when we stepped out into the dripping dawn.
At the eastern end of the town began a faint suggestion of a path, but it soon faded away and we pushed and tore our way through the jungle, guided only by the pocket compass. The militant vegetation wrought havoc234 to our rags and cut and gashed235 us from brow to 424ankles; the perspiration236 ran in stinging streams along our lacerated skins and dripped from our faces. Though we fought the undergrowth tooth and nail it is doubtful if we advanced two miles an hour.
The sun was high when we came upon the first evidence that man had passed that way before—a clearing not over six feet square, in the center of which was a slimy pool and a few recently-cut joints237 of bamboo. With these we drank our fill of the tepid238 water and had thrown ourselves down in the shade when we were startled to our feet by the sound of human voices. The anticipation239 of an attack by murderous dacoits turned quickly to that of a forcible return to M?sawt, as there burst into the clearing a squad of soldiers.
There were seven in the party, a sergeant240 and four privates, armed with muskets241, and two coolie carriers, each bowed under the weight of two baskets slung243 on a bamboo pole. After the first gasp244 of astonishment the soldiers sprang for the bamboo cups beside the waterhole, while the servants knelt down to set their burdens on the grass. The fear that the troopers had been sent to apprehend245 us was quickly dispelled246 by their acquiescence247 in permitting us to handle their weapons. They were bound for Rehang, but why they had been released from garrison duty at the frontier village so long before the time set, we could not learn.
A formidable force was this indeed. There was far less suggestion of the soldier about the fellows than of half-grown youths playing at a military game. The sergeant, larger than the others, came barely to James’ chin; and the Australian was not tall. The privates were undeveloped little runts, any one of whom the average American school boy could have tied in a knot and tossed aside into the jungle. There was little of the martial air either in their demeanor248 or in their childlike countenances249. They were dressed in regulation khaki, except that their trousers came only to their knees, leaving their scrawny legs bare. On their heads were flat forage250 caps of the German type; from their belts hung bayonets; and around the waist of each was tied a stocking-like sack of rice.
We conversed251 with them at some length, so adept252 had we become in the language of signs. Long after I had forgotten the exact means employed in communicating our thoughts, the ideas that we exchanged remained. Among other things I attempted to impress upon the sergeant the fact that my own country held possessions not far from his own. He caught the idea well enough, except that, where I had said Philippines, he understood Siam. His sneers253 were most scathing254. 425The bare suggestion that the white man held any sway over Muang Thai—the free country—was ludicrous. Even the carriers grinned sarcastically255. A strange thing is patriotism256. Here were these citizens of a poor little state, stranded257 between the possessions of two great powers, boasting of their unalienable independence, utterly258 oblivious259 of the fact that their national existence could not last a week if one of those powers ceased to glare jealously at her rival. When they had eaten a jungle lunch, the soldiers stretched out for their siesta260, and we went on alone.
It was long hours afterward261 that we made out through a break in the undergrowth two miserable262 huts. Not having tasted food since the night before, we dashed eagerly forward. Two emaciated263 hags, dressed in short skirts and ugly, broad-brimmed hats of attap leaves, were clawing the mud of a tiny garden patch before the first hovel. I called for food and shook a handful of coppers264 in their faces, but, though they certainly understood, they made no reply. We danced excitedly about them, shrieking our Siamese vocabulary in their ears. Still they stared, with half-open mouths, displaying uneven265 rows of repellant black teeth. We had anticipated such a reception. Even the missionary of Moulmein had warned us that the jungle folk of Siam would not sell food to travelers. The age of barter266 has not yet penetrated267 these mountain fastnesses. What value, after all, were copper coins in any quantity to the inhabitants of this howling wilderness268?
We waded through the mire269 to the next hutch. Under it were squatted two men and a woman, and a half-dozen mud-bespattered brats271 sprawled about a crude veranda overhead. This family, too, received us coldly, answering neither yes nor no to our request for food. We climbed the rickety bamboo ladder into the hut and began to forage for ourselves. The men scrambled272 up after us. When I picked up a basket of rice, the bolder of the pair grasped it with both hands. I pushed him aside and he retreated meekly to a far corner. In other baskets we found dried fish, a few bananas, and a goodly supply of eggs. Beside the flat mud fire-place were two large kettles and a bundle of fagots. While James broke up branches and started a blaze, I brought rain water from a bamboo bucket, in cocoanut shells, and filled the kettles.
Chimney was there none, nor hole in the roof; and the smoke all but choked and blinded us before the task was done. The rice and fish we boiled in one conglomerate274 mess, pouring it out on a flat leaf 426basket when it approached an edible275 condition, and dashing out on the veranda for a breath of fresh air. The householder remained motionless in his corner. Having found, after long search, a bamboo joint filled with coarse salt, we seasoned the steaming repast and fell upon it. James had the bad fortune to choke on a fish bone, but recovered in time to swear volubly when he discovered in the concoction276 what looked suspiciously like a strip of loin-cloth. By the time we had despatched the rice, a dozen eggs, and as many bananas, we were ready to push on. I handed the downcast native a tecal—the rupee of Siam—which he clutched with a satisfied grunt69, as well he might, for a shopkeeper would not have demanded a fourth as much for what we had confiscated277.
Just at sunset we burst into the straggling village of Banpáwa. Some forty howling storms had added to our entertainment during the day and we had forded an even greater number of streams. My jacket was torn to ribbons; my back and shoulders were sadly sunburned; in a struggle with a tenacious278 thicket I had been bereft279 of a leg of my trousers; and the Australian was as pitiable an object to look upon.
Near the center of the village was an unpretentious Buddhist281 monastery282 beside which the priests had erected283 a shelter for travelers, a large thatch284 roof supported by slender bamboo pillars. Under it were huddled285 nearly a score of Laos carriers, surrounded by bales and bundles; Banpáwa being an important station of the route followed by these human freight trains of the Siamese jungle. They were surly, taciturn fellows, who, though they stared open-mouthed when we appeared, treated us like men under a ban of excommunication.
Physically286 they were sights to feast one’s eyes upon; splendidly developed, though short of stature287, with great knots of muscles standing out on their glistening288 brown bodies. A small loin-cloth was their only attire207. Above it their skins were thickly tattooed289 to their necks with fantastic figures, all in red, representations of strange and repulsive290 beasts, among which that of a swollen fat pig was most often duplicated. Below the indispensable garment the figures were blue, even more closely crowded together, but stopping short at the knees.
It is said that this custom of making pictorial291 supplements of themselves was first forced upon the Laos by a wrathful king. A youthful servant, received as an attendant in the royal harem, was rapidly becoming a great favorite among the secluded292 ladies, when one sad day 427the appalling293 information leaked out that the supposed country maid was really a man. When the culprit had been duly drawn294 and quartered, an imperative295 edict went forth from the palace of his raging majesty296, commanding every male in the kingdom to submit forthwith to the tattooers’ needles. Even to-day, this custom, mentioned by Marco Polo, is still universal among the males.
We sought to buy food from our sullen297 companions. They growled for answer. Like the soldiers, each wore round his waist a bag of rice; a few were preparing their evening meals over fagot fires at the edge of the shelter; but not a grain would they sell. A raging storm broke while we were wandering from one to another, shaking money in their faces. When it had abated somewhat, we hobbled out into the night to appeal to the villagers. There were some twenty huts in the clearing, into each of which we climbed, in spite of our aching legs. Every householder returned us the same pantomimic answer—he never sold food, but he was sure his next door neighbor did, and the neighbor was as sure that it was in the next hovel that our money would make us welcome.
We played this game of puss-wants-a-corner for an hour, and we were still “it” when we reached the last dwelling. The village was really too populous a community in which to repeat the tactics that had won us dinner; but hunger made us somewhat indifferent to consequences. We climbed boldly into the hut and caught up a kettle. The householder shrieked like a man on the rack; and, before we had kindled298 a fire, a mob of his fellow townsmen swarmed into the shack and fell upon us. They were not particularly fierce fighters. We shook and kicked them off like puppies, but when the last one had tumbled down the ladder we awoke to the sad intelligence that they had carried off in their retreat every pot, pan, and comestible on the premises299. Besides the bare walls there remained only a naked brown baby that rolled about the middle of the floor, howling lustily.
The village population was screaming around the shanty300 in a way that made us glad we had a hostage. James sat down, gazed sadly at the wailing301 brat270 and shook his head.
“No good,” he announced. “Not fat enough. Anyway there’s no kettle to cook it in. Let’s vamoose.”
We turned towards the door. A man was peering over the edge of the veranda. By the silken band around his brow we knew him for a Burman; and he spoke Hindustanee. We gathered from his excited chatter in that language that he had come to lead us to a place where 428food was sold. As we reached the ground the throng302 parted to let us pass, but the frenzied303 natives danced screaming about us, shaking sticks and cudgels in our faces. A few steps from the hovel some bold spirit struck me a resounding304 whack305 on the back of the head. It was no light blow, but the weapon was a hollow bamboo and no damage resulted. When I turned to fall upon my assailant the whole crew took to their heels and fled into the night.
“All I’ve got to say,” panted James, as we hurried on after our guide, “is, I’m bloody glad that’s not a bunch of Irishmen. Where would the pioneer beachcombers of the Malay Peninsula be now if that collection of dish-rags knew how to scrap306?”
The Burman led us through a half-mile of mire and brush, and a stream that was almost waist-deep, to a suburb of Banpáwa. Four huts housed the commuters. After long parley307 our guide gained us admittance to one of the dwellings and sat down to keep us company until our rice and fish had been boiled. He was something of a cosmopolite, fairly clever in piecing together a language of gestures and the few words we had in common. The conversation turned naturally—in view of the fact that we were two as ragged215 sahibs as one would run across in a lifetime of wandering—to the question of personal attire. Our sponsor was well dressed for the time and place, and the whim308 suddenly came upon him to substitute a tropical helmet for the silk band about his brow. He offered James a rupee for his topee, and pondered long over the refusal of the offer. Then he rose to depart, but halted on the edge of the night to hold up two fingers.
“Dō rúpika! Achá, sahib?” he pleaded.
“You’re crazy!” retorted the Australian, “Think I want to get a sunstroke?”
The Burman shrugged309 his shoulders with a disgruntled air and splashed sadly away.
Our host was a sulky “wild man” in the prime of life, his mate a buxom310 matron who had not yet lost the comeliness311 inherent in any healthy, well-developed female of the human species. The pair, evidently, had been long married, for they had but seven children.
A section of the bamboo floor of the tiny hut was raised a few feet above the level of the rest, forming a sort of divan312. On this we squatted with the family, chatting over our after-supper saybullies. The wife, for all her race, was a true sister of Pandora. What especially awakened her curiosity was the color of our skins; though they were not, at that moment, particularly white. She was seated 429next to James, suckling two lusty infants, and gazing with monkeylike fascination313 at the hand of the Australian that rested on the divan beside her. Hugging the babes to her breast with one arm, she edged nearer and ran her fingers across the back of the Australian’s sunburned paw. To her astonishment the color would not rub off. She pushed up a sleeve of his jacket and began to examine the forearm; when my companion, till then absorbed in conversation, snatched his hand away with an exclamation314 of annoyance315. No sooner had he let it fall again, than she resumed the examination.
“Quit it!” cried James, turning upon her, “Or I’ll pay you back in your own coin.” The husband snarled316 fiercely, sprang to his feet, and, crowding in between his wife and the Australian, glared savagely317 at him as long as the evening lasted.
We turned in soon afterward, eleven of us, on the divan. Though the front wall of the shack was lacking, we needed no covering; even when the rain poured we sweated as in the glare of sunlight. The sucklings took turns in maintaining a continual wailing through the night; the other brats amused themselves in walking and tumbling over our prostrate319 forms; a lizard27 chorus sang their monotonous320 selections with unusual vim321 and vigor220. If we slept at all it was in brief, semi-conscious snatches.
With daylight, came the Burman to repeat his attempt to purchase my companion’s helmet. James spurned322 the offer as before.
“Then yours, sahib,” pleaded the fellow, in Hindustanee. “One rupee!”
“One?” I cried. “My dear fellow, do you know that the Swedish consul323 of Ceylon once wore that topee?”
“One rupee,” repeated the Burman, not having understood.
“Tell him to chase himself,” said James.
“Still,” I mused318, “if he’d give two dibs it’d almost double our stake.”
“Are you crazy?” shouted the Australian. “The sun would knock you out in an hour.”
“But two more chips might just carry us through,” I retorted, “and starving’s worse than the sun. I’ll risk it.”
“Will you sell?” demanded the Burman.
“Two rupees.”
“One!” shrieked the Oriental, “Two for the sahib’s which is new, One for yours.”
There ensued a half-hour of bargaining, but the Burman gave in 430at last, and, dropping two tecals in my hand, marched proudly away with that illustrious old topee, that I had won in fair barter with the Norseman, set down on his ears.
I handed one of the tecals to our scowling324 host and we hit the trail again. Out of sight of the hamlet we halted to don the extra suits in our bundles. The Australian gazed sorrowfully at his buskins while I slipped on my second pair of shoes. From the rags and tatters I was discarding I made a band to wind around my brow, after the fashion of Burma. Even with the top of my head exposed to sun and rain, as it was for days, I suffered no evil effects.
The territory beyond Banpáwa was more savage than any we had yet encountered; everywhere a rank vegetation so thick that our feet rarely reached the ground. Now and again we plunged into a thicket only to be caught as in a net, and, powerless to advance, retreated with rent garments and bleeding hands and faces to fight our way around the impenetrable spot. We were now in the very heart of the mountains. Range after range of unbroken jungle succeeded each other. From every summit there spread out a boundless326 forest of teak and bamboo, turgid with riotous undergrowth. Mountains that were just blue wreaths in the morning climbed higher and higher into the sky—rolling ranges without a yard of clearing to break the monotony of waving tree tops—and beyond them more mountains, identical in formation. Level spaces were there none. Descents so steep that the force of gravity sent us plunging327 headlong through thorn-bristling thickets, ended in the uncanny depths of V-shaped valleys at the very base of steeper ascents328 which we mounted hand over hand as a sailor climbs a rope. In our ears sounded the incessant329 humming of insects; now and then a snake squirmed off through the bushes; more than once there came faintly to us the roar of some distant brute330. Of animate331 nature, most numerous were the apes that swarmed in the dense56 network of branches overhead, and scampered332 screaming away, at our intrusion, into the oppressive depths of the forest.
Though the rains continued unabated, there were fewer streams in these higher altitudes, and those were mere17 rivulets of silt333 fighting their way down the slopes. At every mudhole we halted to drink; for within us burned a thirst such as no man knows who has not suffered it in the jungle-girdled waist line of Mother Earth. Chocolate-colored water we drank, water alive with squirming animal life, in pools 431out of which wriggled334 brilliant green snakes. Often I rose to my feet to find a leech159 clinging to my nether335 lip.
As the day grew, a raging hunger fell upon us. In a sharp valley we came upon a tree on the trunk of which hung a dozen or more jack-fruits within easy reach. We grasped one and attempted to pull it down. The short, fibrous stem was as stout41 as a manila rope, and knife had we none. We wrapped our arms around the fruit and tugged336 with the strength of despair; as well have tried to pull up a ship’s anchor by hand. We chopped at the stem with sharp stones; we hunted up great rocks and attempted to split the fruit open on the tree, screaming with rage and bruising337 our fingers. Streams of perspiration coursed down our sun-scorched skins, hunger and thirst redoubled, and still our efforts availed us nothing. When we gave up and plunged on, our assault on the fruit had barely scratched the adamantine rind.
Weary and famished338, matted with mud from crown to toe, and bleeding from innumerable superficial lacerations, we were still grappling with the throttling339 vegetation well on in the afternoon when James, a bit in advance, uttered a triumphant340 shriek.
“A path! A path!” he cried, “and a telegraph wire!”
Certain that hunger and the sun had turned his brain, I tore my way through the thicket that separated us. His cry had been awakened by no mirage341 of delirium342. A path there was, narrow and steep, but showing evidences of recent travel, and, overhead, a sagging343 telegraph wire running from tree to tree. The compass had brought us again to that elusive344 route followed by the native porters.
A half-hour along it and we came to a little plain, intersected by a swift stream, in the backwater of which swam a covey of snow-white ducks. On the western bank stood a weather-beaten bungalow, over the door of which was a faded shield bearing the white elephant of Siam. Above it disappeared the telegraph wire. Our thirst quenched345, we mounted the narrow steps and shouted to attract attention. There was no response. We pushed open the door and entered. The room was some eight feet square and entirely346 unfurnished, but in one corner hung an unpainted telephone instrument of crude and ancient construction. A spider had spun347 his web across the mouth of the receiver and there were no signs that the hut had been occupied within modern times.
“Nothing doing here,” said James. “Let’s swim the creek348.”
432On the opposite bank was a bamboo rest-house, smaller than that of Banpáwa, but with a floor raised some feet above the fever-breeding ground. Back of it, among the trees, stood a cluster of seven huts. We made the round of them, seeking food; but returned to the rest-house with nothing but the information that the village was called Kathái Ywá. Nine Laos carriers had arrived, among whom were several we had seen the evening before. They had, perhaps, some secret grudge349 against white men, for they not only refused to sell us rice, but scowled350 and snarled when we drew near them. The day was not yet done. We should have pushed on had not James fallen victim to a burning jungle fever.
With plenty of water at hand, hunger grew apace. For a time the forlorn hope that some more tractable351 human might wander into Kathái Ywá buoyed352 us up. But each new arrival was more stupid and surly than his forerunner353. The sun touched the western tree-tops. James lay on his back, red-eyed with fever. Eat we must, if we were to have strength to continue in the morning. I made a second circuit of the village, hoping to win by bluster354 what we had not with cajolery. The community rose en masse and swarmed upon me. The males carried long, overgrown knives; the females, cudgels. I returned hastily to the rest-house.
The sight of the telephone wire awakened within me the senseless notion that I might summon assistance from some neighboring village. I left my shoes and trousers in charge of the Australian and dashed through the stream and into the government bungalow. At the first call I “got” someone. Who or where he was I could not guess. I bawled355 into the receiver English, French, German, and all the Hindustanee I could muster356. When I paused for breath the unknown subscriber357 had “rung off.” I jangled the bell and shook and pounded the apparatus358 for five minutes. A glass-eyed lizard ran out along the wire and stared down upon me. His mate in the thatch above screeched359 mockingly. Then another voice sounded faintly in my ear.
“Hello!” I shouted, “Who’s this? We want to eat. D’ you speak English? Dō sahib hai, Kathái Ywá. Send us some—”
A flood of meaningless jabber360 interrupted me. Two words I caught,—that old, threadbare phrase “n?melay-voo.” I had rung up a Burman; but he was no babu.
“English!” I shrieked. “Anyone there that speaks English? We’re sahibs! Hello! Hello, I say! Hello—”
A Laos carrier crossing the stream that separates Burma from Siam
433No answer. Central had cut me off again. I rang the bell until my arm was lame128 and listened breathlessly. All was still. I dropped the receiver and tumbled out of the hut determined361 to throttle362 one of the Laos carriers. In the middle of the stream I slipped on a stone and fell on my knees, the water to my armpits. The startled ducks ran away before me. I snatched up a club and pursued them through the village and back to the creek again, the inhabitants screaming in my wake. I threw the weapon at the nearest fowl. It was only a joint of bamboo and fell short. The ducks took to the water. I plunged in after them and once more fell sprawling363.
Before I could scramble273 to my feet a shout sounded near at hand, and I looked up to see the squad of soldiers breaking out of the jungle. They halted before the government bungalow and watched my approach with deep-set grins. The sergeant, understanding my gestures, offered us places around the common rice heap. I returned to the rest-house for my nether garments. The villagers were driving their panting ducks homeward. The Australian struggled to his feet and we waded the stream once more, joining the soldiers on the veranda of the government bungalow. Their porters brought huge wet leaves to protect the floor, and built a fire within. A half-hour later the troopers rose to their feet shouting, “Kin-kow! Kin-kow!” easily understood from its similarity to the familiar Chinese word “chow,” and we followed them into the smoke-choked building. In a civilized364 land I would not have tasted such a mess as was spread out on a banana leaf in the center of the floor, to win a wager365. At that moment it seemed a repast fit for an epicure366.
We slept with the soldiers in the telephone bungalow. James’ fever burned itself out and he awoke with the dawn ready to push on. For the first few miles we followed a path below the telephone wire. In stumbling over the uneven ground my shoe-laces broke at frequent intervals367. Well on in the morning I halted to replace them with stout vines. The Australian drew on ahead. Before I had overtaken him the path forked and the wire disappeared in the forest between the diverging368 routes. I hallooed to my companion, but the rain was coming down in torrents369, and the voice does not carry far in the jungle. I struck into one of the paths; but in a very few minutes it faded and was lost. I found myself alone in the trackless wilderness.
Here was a serious mishap370 indeed. The Australian had carried off the compass; our money was in my bundle. Separated we were 434equally helpless, and what chance was there of finding each other again in hundreds of miles of unblazed wilds?
I set a course by the sun and for three hours fought my way up the precipitous face of a mountain. To crash and roll down the opposite slope required less than a third of that time. In the valley, tucked away under soaring teak trees, was a lonely little hut. A black-toothed female in scanty371 skirt squatted in the square of shade under the cabin, pounding rice in a hollowed log. The jungle was humming its un-cadenced tune47. I climbed to the veranda and lay down, certain that I had seen the last of James, the Australian.
Under the hut sounded the thump372, thump, thump of the pestle373. What exponents374 of the “simple life,” of which we hear so much where it does not exist, are these jungle dwellers375 of Siam! They are as independent of the outside world as their neighbors, the apes, in the tree-tops. The youthful “wild man” takes his mate and a dah and wanders off into the wilderness. He needs nothing else to win a livelihood376 and rear a family. The dah is a long, heavy knife, a cross between a butcher’s cleaver377 and a Cuban machete. It is the one and universal tool and weapon of the indigène of the Malay ranges. With it he builds his house, gathers his food, and defends himself against his enemies. His dwelling is a mere human nest, as truly a nest as the home of the swallow or the squirrel. The walls are of bamboo, tied together with vines and creepers; the floor, of split bamboo; the eight-foot pillars that support his hut, the ladder at the doorway378, the rafters, are all of the same material. Attap leaves for the roof grow everywhere. Cocoanut shells do duty as plates and cups; a joint of the omnipresent bamboo makes a light and handy pitcher379 or pot. To lay up a stock of bananas for flood time is the work of a few hours; a few yards of clearing supplies the householder rice in abundance. If he has a taste for “fire-water,” an intoxicating380 drink can be made from the sap of the palm tree. Two loin-cloths a year may be fashioned from the skin of an animal or from a thick, woolly leaf that grows in swampy381 places. Take away the dah and there is nothing that is not of the jungle, save one import from the outside world—tobacco. The “wild man” and his mate are inveterate382 smokers383.
But it was not by loafing in the shade that I should beat my way through to civilization. I rose to my feet and rearranged my “swag.” If only I could hire a guide. Hark! The sound of a human voice came faintly to my ear. No doubt the owner of the hut, and of the slightly-clad female, was returning from a morning expedition. I 435listened attentively384. Then off to the right in the jungle rang out a familiar song:—
“Oh, I long to see my dear old home again,
And the cottage in the little winding lane.
You can hear the birds a-singing,
And pluck the roses blooming;
Oh, I long to see my old home again.”
It was the Australian’s favorite ballad385. I shouted at the top of my lungs, and, springing to the ground with one leap, crashed into the jungle. A thicket caught me in its sinewy386 grasp. I tore savagely at the entangling387 branches. The voice of the Australian rang out once more:—
“Oh, why did I leave my little back room, out in Bloomsburee?
Where I could live on a quid a week, in such luxuree....”
He was further away now. I snatched myself loose and plunged on after him, leaving a sleeve of my jacket in the thicket.
“Hello, James! Hello!” I bellowed. He was singing with a volume that filled his ears. I opened my mouth to shout again, and fell through a bush into a clearly-marked path. Above it sagged388 the telephone wire and just in sight through the overhanging branches plodded389 the Australian.
“Gee, but you’re slow,” he laughed, when I had overtaken him.
“When d’you find the path?” I demanded.
“Haven’t lost it,” he answered. “Why? Did you?”
“Haven’t seen it for five hours,” I replied.
“Holy dingoes!” he gasped390, “Thought you were close behind, or I’d have felt mighty little like singing.”
We had no difficulty in keeping to the route for the rest of the day, and passed several carriers westward bound. With never a hut to raid, we fasted. Yet had we but known it there was food all about us. What a helpless being is civilized man without the accessories of civilization! It fell to uncouth391 jungle dwellers to bring home to us our own ignorance.
Weak from hunger, we had halted at the edge of a mountain stream well on in the afternoon, when we were overtaken by the soldiers. They had packed away their uniforms and wore only loin-cloths and caps.
“Kin-kow? Kin-kow?” cried the sergeant, with an interrogatory gesture.
436We nodded sadly. He chuckled392 to himself and waved his arms about him, as if to say that there was food everywhere. We shrugged our shoulders skeptically. He laughed like a man prepared to prove his point and addressed himself to the squad. Two of the soldiers picked up cudgels, and, returning along the path to a half-rotten log, began to move back and forth on opposite sides of it, striking it sharp blows here and there. They came back with a half-dozen lizards, those great, green reptiles that sing their “she-kak!” all night long in the thatch of Indian bungalows393. Meanwhile two others of the squad were kneeling at the edge of a mudhole. From time to time they plunged their bare arms into it, drawing out frogs and dropping them, still alive, into a joint of bamboo. The sergeant took a dah and cut down a small tree at the edge of the jungle. A servant dug some reddish-brown roots on the opposite bank of the stream, while his mate started a fire by rubbing two sticks together.
In a few minutes all were reassembled beside us. The lizards were skinned, cut up with lumps of red currie in an iron pot, and set to boiling. A servant drew out the frogs one by one, struck them on the head with a stick, and tossed them to his companion. The latter rolled them up inside mud balls and threw them into the fire. The sergeant split open his tree, extracted a pith some four inches in diameter, cut it into slices, toasted them on the point of his dah, and tossed them onto a large leaf spread out at our feet. The reddish roots were beaten to a pulp394 on the face of the rock and sprinkled over the toasted slices. Rice was boiled, the soldiers, grinning knowingly, took up their refrain of “kin-kow! kin-kow!” and the meal began. Before it was finished, both the jungle and its inhabitants had risen several degrees in our estimation. Extracted from their shell of mud, the frogs were found to be baked into brown balls, and tasted not unlike fried fish. The toasted pith resembled pickled beets395. But best of all was the lizard currie. James and I ate more than our share, and offered mutual396 condolence that the pair sent to pound the old tree trunk had not remained longer at their task.
We went on with the soldiers, halting soon after dark at the bank of the largest stream we had yet encountered. There was no village in the vicinity, but the government had erected a military rest-house on the bank. In this we spent the night with the troopers, after partaking of a frog and lizard supper.
Beyond, the territory was less mountainous and the path well-marked; 437but whatever advantage we gained thereby397 was offset398 by another difficulty. The river beside which we had left the soldiers was deep and swift, and wound back and forth across our course with a regularity399 that was disheartening. In the first few morning hours we swam it no less than fourteen times. It was the ninth crossing that we had cause longest to remember. Reaching the narrow, sandy bank a bit before my companion, I stripped, and, rolling my clothing up in the oilcloth, tied the bundle to my head, and plunged in. James began to disrobe as I reached the opposite shore. Without removing his ragged shirt, or his helmet, he fastened on his “swag” as I had done, and struck out. Being an excellent swimmer he advanced with long, clean strokes. Unfortunately he did not take care to keep his head pointed400 up-stream. The powerful current caught him suddenly broadside, dragged him under, and dashed him against a submerged snag. He righted himself quickly, but in that brief struggle lost both his bundle and his helmet, and in an effort to save both caught only the topee. The “swag” raced down stream. I sprang to my feet and dashed along the sandy shore in hot pursuit. The stream was far swifter than I. The tangled109 undergrowth brought me to a sudden halt, and the Australian’s worldly possessions were swallowed up in the jungle.
I returned to find him sitting disconsolately401 on the bank. Luckily there was but one tecal in his bundle, but with it had gone his shoes, trousers, jacket, the odds402 and ends he had picked up on his travels, his military and citizenship403 papers, the pocket compass, and even that bottle of “Superior Currie Dressing”; in short, everything he possessed404 except a helmet and a tattered405 shirt.
But James was not a man to be long cast down by minor406 misfortunes. He tied the shirt about his loins and we proceeded. Relieved of his burden, he marched more easily and crossed the streams with far less difficulty than I. But in less than an hour his shoulders, back, and legs were painted a fiery407 red by the implacable sun; and the stones and jagged brambles tore and bruised408 his feet until he left a blood stain at every step.
We were again overtaken by the soldiers about noonday and halted for another jungle meal. Off once more, we forged ahead for a time, but found it prudent409 to wait for the troopers to lead the way; for the route was beset410 with unexpected pitfalls411. As once, in fighting our way along the bank of the river, we crashed headlong through the 438bushes into the dry, stony412 bed of a tributary—fifteen feet below. This mishap left little of my clothing, and gave the Australian the appearance of a modern Saint Sebastian.
A wider path began where we rejoined the soldiers. The higher mountain ranges fell away; but if the foothills were less lofty they were as steep, and the slopes were often clear of vegetation and reeking413 in mud. At the top of such a ridge414 we overtook an equine caravan415 returning from some village off to the southwest. Burdened with huge pack saddles, the horses began the perilous416 descent reluctantly. Suddenly three of them lost their footing, sat down on their haunches, and rolled over and over, their packs flying in every direction. James laughed loudly and slapped me on the back. The blow disturbed my equilibrium417. My feet shot from under me, and, slipping, sliding, rolling, clutching in vain for support, I pitched down the five-hundred yard slope and splashed headfirst into a muddy stream at the bottom several seconds in advance of the horses.
Another mile left me barefooted and nearly as naked as my companion. Now and again we overtook a band of Laos carriers, once a young Buddhist priest in tattered yellow, attended by two servants. We had seen him somewhere a day or two before and remembered him not only by his garb but on account of the licentious418 cast of his coarse features. He joined our party uninvited and tramped along with us, puffing419 at a long saybully and chattering volubly. The soldiers greeted his sallies with roars of laughter and winked420 at us in a way to suggest that the tales he told would have made the efforts of Boccaccio seem Sunday-school stories. We deplored421 more than ever our ignorance of the Siamese tongue.
James was protesting that he could not continue another yard when we came most unexpectedly to the edge of the jungle. Before us stretched a vast paddy field, deeply inundated422. The soldiers led the way along the tops of the ridges423 toward a dense grove424 two miles distant. The howling of a hundred curs heralded425 our approach, and as many chattering humans swarmed about us when we paused in a large, deep-shaded village at the edge of a river fully325 a mile wide. It could be no other than the Menam Chow Pya—the “great river” of Siam. Along the low eastern bank stretched a veritable city with white, two-story buildings, before which were anchored large native junks. It was Rehang. The soldiers told us so with shouts of joy and ran away to don their uniforms.
We threw off what was left of our garments and plunged into the 439stream to wash off the blood and grime of the jungle. When we had prepared ourselves for entrance into civilization the soldiers were gone. We appealed to the villagers to set us across the river. They refused. We took possession of one of a dozen dug-out logs drawn up along the shore, and the village swarmed down upon us in a great avalanche426 of men, women, children, and yellow curs. We caught up two paddles and laid about us. In two minutes we were alone.
We pushed the dug-out into the stream and were climbing in when two ugly, wrinkled females ran down the bank and offered to ferry us across. They pointed the craft up-stream and fell to paddling, their flabby breasts beating against their paunches with every stroke, their bony knees rising and falling regularly. They were expert water dogs, however, and crossed the swift stream without mishap, landing us at a crazy wooden wharf427 in the center of the town.
In every published map of Siam you will find Rehang noted—somewhere within a hundred miles of its actual situation. Not that the city deserves such distinction. The geographer428 must have some name to fill in this vast space on his chart or he lays himself open to a charge of ignorance. On nearer sight the white, two-story buildings were rather pathetic, dilapidated structures. The avenue between them was not much better paved than the jungle paths, and deeper in mud. The sanitary429 squad, evidently, had not yet returned from an extended vacation. Here and there a dead cat or dog had been tossed out to be trampled430 under foot. There was no dearth431 of inhabitants; one could not but wonder how the town could house such a population. But the passing throng was merely a larger gathering432 of those same uncouth “wild men” of the jungle villages. The fear of being arrested for unseemly exposure soon left us. James, in national costume, attracted much less attention than I, in the remnants of jacket and trousers.
Just one advance agent of modern civilization had reached Rehang. Bill posters had decorated several blank walls with huge lithographs433 announcing, in Siamese letters a foot high, the merits of a well-known sewing machine. That we had expected, of course. In the back waters of modern progress are a few hamlets where Milwaukee beer is unknown, but the traveler who extends his explorations so far into the wilds as to discover a community ignorant of the existence of the American sewing machine merits decoration by the Royal Geographical434 Society.
It was easy, however, to overlook the backwardness of this tumble-down 440thorp on the banks of the Menam; at least it was a market town. James dashed into the first booth with a whoop435 of delight and startled the keeper out of his wits by demanding a whole three cents’ worth of cigarettes. Saybullies might do well enough as a last resort, but the Australian did not propose to be reduced to such extremities436 again. He splashed on through the reeking streets blowing great clouds of smoke from his nostrils437 and forgetting for the time even the smarting of his torn and sun-scorched skin.
Half the merchants of the town were Chinamen. We stopped at a shop kept by three wearers of the pig-tail and, dragging a bench into the center of the room, called for food. One of the keepers, moving as if he deeply resented our intrusion, set canned meat before us, and brought us as a can-opener, after long delay, a hatchet438 with a blade considerably439 wider than the largest tin.
When we rose to depart, the Celestials440 quickly lost their apathy441. They demanded ten tecals. I gave them two. The market price of the stuff was certainly not over a half of that sum. A triple scream rent the air and a half-dozen Monguls bounded into the shop and danced like ogres about us. One caught up the hatchet and swung it high above his head. James snatched it from him, kicked him across the room, and threw the weapon among the heaped-up wares442. We fought our way to the street. The keeper nearest us gave one stentorian443 bellow that was answered from every side. Chinamen tumbled out through every open doorway, out of every hole in the surrounding shop walls; they sprang up from under the buildings, dropped from the low roofs, swarmed out of the alleyways, for all the world like rats; screaming, yelping444, snarling, clawing the air as they ran, their cues streaming behind them. In the twinkling of an eye the mob at our heels had increased to a hundred. We refused to sacrifice our dignity by running. The frenzied Celestials scratched us savagely with their overgrown finger nails, caught at our legs, spattered us with mud. Not one of them used his fists. When we turned upon them they recoiled445 as from a squad of cavalry446 and we could retaliate447 only by catching a flying pig-tail in either hand to send a pair of yellow-skinned rascals448 sprawling in the mud. They came back at us after every stand before we had taken a dozen steps. Our backs were a network of finger-nail scratches. We cast our eyes about us for some weapon and found two bemired sticks. Before we could use them our assailants turned and fled, still screaming at the top of their lungs.
The sort of jungle through which we cut our way for three weeks. Gerald James, my Australian companion, in the foreground
Not far beyond, we turned in at the largest edifice in the town—the 441Rehang barracks. Among the half-hundred little brown soldiers lounging about the entrance were our intermittent449 comrades of the few days past. It was plain that they had told our story. The recruits gathered about us, laughing and plying pantomimic questions. How had we liked lizard currie? What had turned our dainty skins so blood red? What ignorant and helpless beings were white men, were they not?
Suddenly, amid the general chatter, I caught a hint that there was a European on the floor above. We sprang towards the stairway at the end of the veranda. The soldiers shrieked in dismay and snatched at our rags. We must not go up; it was contrary to stringent450 barrack rules. A guardsman on duty at the foot of the stairs held his musket242 out horizontally and shouted a tremulous command. James caught him by the shoulder and sent him spinning along the veranda. We dashed up the steps. Two doors stood ajar. James sprang to one while I pushed open the other.
“Hello!” I shouted, “Where’s the white—”
A triumphant roar from my companion sent me hurrying after him. He was dancing gleefully just inside the second door, and shaking a white man ferociously451 by the hand, an astonished white man in khaki uniform with officer’s stripes. I reminded the Australian of his costume and he subsided. The European invited us inside and sent a servant for tea, biscuits and cigars. Our host was commander of the Rehang garrison—a Dane, but with a fluent command of English. That we had been wandering through the jungle was all too evident; but that we had come overland from Burma was a tale he would not credit until the sergeant had been called in to confirm our assertions. Forgetting his military duties, the commander plied100 us with wondering questions until dusk fell, and then ordered three of the newly-arrived squad to arrange for our accommodation.
The sergeant, plainly overawed at finding us on such intimate terms with his dreaded452 chief, led the way through the barracks. The garrison grounds were extensive. Within the inclosure was a Buddhist monastery, resembling, if less pretentious280 than, the Tavoy of Rangoon. Here were the same irregular patches of untilled ground, where priests wandered and chattered453 in the twilight454; the same disorderly array of gaudy455 temples, gay little pagodas456 with tinkling silver bells, and frail priestly dwellings.
On the veranda of one of the latter the soldiers spread a pair of army blankets. We were for turning in at once. Our seneschals would not hear of it. For a half-hour they trotted back and forth 442between our bungalow and that of the commander, bearing steaming dishes. The little table they had set up was groaning457 under its burden before the sergeant signed to us to begin. There was broiled458 fish, a mutton roast, a great steak, a spitted fowl, fruits and vegetables of astounding459 variety and quantity. The sergeant laughed aloud at our astonishment when he drew out a pair of knives and forks from his pocket. Then he tapped his head meditatively460 with a skinny finger and ran off again into the night. He came back with a box of cigars and a quart bottle of whiskey!
Neither of us being particularly addicted461 to the use of fire-water, we wet our whistles and fell upon the fish. When I looked up again, the sergeant was watching me with the fixed stare of a half-starved cat.
“Kin-kow?” I asked, pointing at the steak.
The trooper shook his head almost fiercely.
“Try him on the gasoline,” suggested James.
I poured out a glass of whiskey and held it out to him. In accordance with Oriental etiquette462, he refused it seven times with a pained expression. At the eighth offer he smiled nervously463. At the ninth he raised his hand hesitatingly and dropped it again. At the tenth he took the glass gingerly between his slim fingers, eyed it askance, tasted the liquor half fearfully, smacked464 his lips, gulped465 down a liberal half of the potion, and handed the glass to the privates behind him.
The mutton roast engrossed466 our attention. When it was finished, I found the officer grinning down upon me. I filled the glass again. He cocked his head on one side in the beginning of a shake and kept it there. His refusals had lost force. With the third glass there was no refusal. The fourth he poured out for himself. By the time we were picking the chicken bones, the three warriors467 were dancing gleefully about us. We sat down on the blanket for a smoke. The sergeant, shrieking his undying affection, threw himself down between us and began to embrace us in turn. When we kicked him off the veranda he locked arms with the privates and waltzed away across the parade-ground, screaming a high-pitched native song at the top of his lungs. The quart bottle stood on the table—empty.
We spent the night on the veranda. We did not sleep there. Our sun-scorched skins would not permit it; even had they burned less fiercely, we could not have slept. One would have fancied the monastery a gigantic hen yard, with the priests transformed into chanticleers 443during the hours of darkness. After every shower the unveiled moon was greeted with a din23 of crowing that was nothing short of infernal. In the brief respite468 each gathering storm brought us, we tossed about wide-awake on our asperous couch, listening to the symphonic tinkling of the pagoda bells.
With dawn came a summons from the Dane. We hurried to his bungalow and joined him at breakfast. He had gathered together two pairs of shoes and four khaki uniforms. They were from his own tailor in Bangkok, still very serviceable, though fitting us a bit too snugly469, and chafing470 our blistered skins. Rolling up the extra garments and swinging them over our shoulders, we bade our host farewell. As we left the garrison inclosure we came upon the sergeant, sitting on the ground, his knees drawn up to his chin, his face buried in his hands—a very personification of the baneful471 morning after.
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1
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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yarn
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| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
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tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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crave
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| vt.渴望得到，迫切需要，恳求，请求 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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espied
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| v.看到( espy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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broach
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| v.开瓶，提出(题目) | |
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stammering
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的现在分词 ) | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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palatial
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| adj.宫殿般的，宏伟的 | |
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15
bungalow
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| n.平房，周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
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rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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tapestries
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| n.挂毯( tapestry的名词复数 )；绣帷，织锦v.用挂毯（或绣帷）装饰( tapestry的第三人称单数 ) | |
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sumptuously
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| 奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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salaaming
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| 行额手礼( salaam的现在分词 ) | |
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veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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26
toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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lizard
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| n.蜥蜴，壁虎 | |
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lizards
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| n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 ) | |
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tandem
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| n.同时发生；配合；adv.一个跟着一个地；纵排地；adj.（两匹马）前后纵列的 | |
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reins
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| 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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hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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rudiments
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| n.基础知识，入门 | |
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apprenticeship
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| n.学徒身份；学徒期 | |
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overhauled
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| v.彻底检查( overhaul的过去式和过去分词 )；大修；赶上；超越 | |
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lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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37
sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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38
deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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deluges
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| v.使淹没( deluge的第三人称单数 )；淹没；被洪水般涌来的事物所淹没；穷于应付 | |
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40
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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42
stoutest
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| 粗壮的( stout的最高级 )； 结实的； 坚固的； 坚定的 | |
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43
exponent
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| n.倡导者，拥护者；代表人物；指数，幂 | |
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44
prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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45
earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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46
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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47
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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48
curry
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| n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革 | |
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49
solicitous
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| adj.热切的，挂念的 | |
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50
spouse
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| n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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51
plying
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的现在分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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52
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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53
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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54
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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55
densest
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| 密集的( dense的最高级 )； 密度大的； 愚笨的； （信息量大得）难理解的 | |
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56
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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57
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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58
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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59
inebriated
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| adj.酒醉的 | |
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60
militant
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| adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士 | |
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61
commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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62
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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63
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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64
flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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65
intruding
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| v.侵入，侵扰，打扰( intrude的现在分词)；把…强加于 | |
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66
garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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67
query
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| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
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68
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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69
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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70
unintelligibly
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| 难以理解地 | |
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71
dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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72
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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73
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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74
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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75
wavy
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| adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的 | |
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76
accomplishments
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| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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77
occident
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| n.西方；欧美 | |
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78
blindfolded
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| v.（尤指用布）挡住（某人）的视线( blindfold的过去式 )；蒙住（某人）的眼睛；使不理解；蒙骗 | |
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79
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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80
confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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81
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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82
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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83
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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84
itinerary
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| n.行程表，旅行路线；旅行计划 | |
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85
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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86
tabulated
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| 把（数字、事实）列成表( tabulate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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87
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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88
reptiles
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| n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
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89
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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90
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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91
bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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92
leopard
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| n.豹 | |
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93
prominence
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| n.突出；显著；杰出；重要 | |
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94
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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95
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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96
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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97
thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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98
pouch
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| n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件 | |
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99
civilizing
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| v.使文明，使开化( civilize的现在分词 ) | |
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100
plied
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的过去式和过去分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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101
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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102
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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103
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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104
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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105
strap
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| n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎 | |
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106
mincing
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| adj.矫饰的；v.切碎；切碎 | |
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107
virile
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| 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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108
entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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109
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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110
erratic
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| adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的 | |
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111
labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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112
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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113
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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114
wade
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| v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉 | |
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115
waded
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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116
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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117
enigma
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| n.谜，谜一样的人或事 | |
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118
asininity
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| n.愚钝 | |
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119
statistical
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| adj.统计的，统计学的 | |
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120
bellow
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| v.吼叫，怒吼；大声发出，大声喝道 | |
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121
rivulet
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| n.小溪，小河 | |
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122
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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123
sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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124
gushing
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| adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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125
domesticated
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| adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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126
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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127
riotous
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| adj.骚乱的；狂欢的 | |
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128
lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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129
thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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130
drenching
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| n.湿透v.使湿透( drench的现在分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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131
rivulets
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| n.小河，小溪( rivulet的名词复数 ) | |
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132
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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133
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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134
bellowing
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的现在分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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135
abated
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| 减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 )； 减去； 降价； 撤消（诉讼） | |
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136
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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137
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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138
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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139
zigzag
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| n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行 | |
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140
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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141
census
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| n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查 | |
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142
trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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143
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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144
shrieking
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| v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
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145
abbreviated
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| adj. 简短的，省略的 动词abbreviate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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146
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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147
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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148
martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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149
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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150
enunciation
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| n.清晰的发音；表明，宣言；口齿 | |
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151
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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152
turnip
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| n.萝卜，芜菁 | |
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153
scoffed
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| 嘲笑，嘲弄( scoff的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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154
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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155
fowl
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| n.家禽，鸡，禽肉 | |
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156
hubbub
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| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
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157
spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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158
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 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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159
leech
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| n.水蛭，吸血鬼，榨取他人利益的人；vt.以水蛭吸血；vi.依附于别人 | |
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160
leeches
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| n.水蛭( leech的名词复数 )；蚂蟥；榨取他人脂膏者；医生 | |
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161
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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162
trickled
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| v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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163
oozing
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的现在分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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164
congealed
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| v.使凝结，冻结( congeal的过去式和过去分词 )；（指血）凝结 | |
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165
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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166
assassinated
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| v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏 | |
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167
inscribed
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| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
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168
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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169
tawny
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| adj.茶色的，黄褐色的；n.黄褐色 | |
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170
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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171
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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172
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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173
blistered
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| adj.水疮状的，泡状的v.（使）起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 )；（使表皮等）涨破，爆裂 | |
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174
inflexible
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| adj.不可改变的，不受影响的，不屈服的 | |
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175
rubble
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| n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾 | |
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176
chafed
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| v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的过去式 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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177
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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178
snarling
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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179
wreaking
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| 诉诸（武力），施行（暴力），发（脾气）( wreak的现在分词 ) | |
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180
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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181
inflicting
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的现在分词 ) | |
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182
radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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183
alterations
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| n.改动( alteration的名词复数 )；更改；变化；改变 | |
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184
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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185
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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186
populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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187
oasis
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| n.（沙漠中的）绿洲，宜人的地方 | |
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188
puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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189
tinkling
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| n.丁当作响声 | |
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190
pagoda
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| n.宝塔（尤指印度和远东的多层宝塔），（印度教或佛教的）塔式庙宇 | |
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191
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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192
sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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193
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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194
edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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195
garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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196
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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197
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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198
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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199
detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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200
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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201
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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202
mien
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| n.风采；态度 | |
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203
pompous
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的 | |
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204
visualization
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| n.想像，设想 | |
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205
shack
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| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
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206
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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207
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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208
poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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209
pliant
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| adj.顺从的；可弯曲的 | |
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210
fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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211
mumbling
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的现在分词 ) | |
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212
jotted
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| v.匆忙记下( jot的过去式和过去分词 )；草草记下，匆匆记下 | |
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213
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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214
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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215
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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216
bellowed
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的过去式和过去分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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217
squatting
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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218
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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219
munched
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| v.用力咀嚼（某物），大嚼( munch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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220
vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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221
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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222
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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223
advisers
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| 顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授 | |
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224
shrieks
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| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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225
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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226
asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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227
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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228
exodus
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| v.大批离去，成群外出 | |
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229
diaphanous
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| adj.(布)精致的，半透明的 | |
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230
squad
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| n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组 | |
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231
feigned
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| a.假装的，不真诚的 | |
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232
thwart
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| v.阻挠，妨碍，反对；adj.横(断的) | |
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233
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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234
havoc
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| n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱 | |
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235
gashed
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| v.划伤，割破( gash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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236
perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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237
joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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238
tepid
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| adj.微温的，温热的，不太热心的 | |
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239
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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240
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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241
muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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242
musket
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| n.滑膛枪 | |
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243
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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244
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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245
apprehend
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| vt.理解，领悟，逮捕，拘捕，忧虑 | |
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246
dispelled
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| v.驱散，赶跑( dispel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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247
acquiescence
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| n.默许；顺从 | |
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248
demeanor
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| n.行为；风度 | |
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249
countenances
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| n.面容( countenance的名词复数 )；表情；镇静；道义支持 | |
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250
forage
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| n.(牛马的)饲料，粮草；v.搜寻，翻寻 | |
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251
conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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252
adept
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| adj.老练的，精通的 | |
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253
sneers
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| 讥笑的表情（言语）( sneer的名词复数 ) | |
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254
scathing
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| adj.（言词、文章）严厉的，尖刻的；不留情的adv.严厉地，尖刻地v.伤害，损害（尤指使之枯萎）( scathe的现在分词) | |
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255
sarcastically
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| adv.挖苦地，讽刺地 | |
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256
patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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257
stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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258
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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259
oblivious
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| adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的 | |
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260
siesta
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| n.午睡 | |
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261
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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262
miserable
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|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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263
emaciated
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| adj.衰弱的，消瘦的 | |
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264
coppers
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| 铜( copper的名词复数 )； 铜币 | |
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265
uneven
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| adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的 | |
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266
barter
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| n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易 | |
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267
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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268
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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269
mire
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| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
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270
brat
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| n.孩子；顽童 | |
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271
brats
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| n.调皮捣蛋的孩子( brat的名词复数 ) | |
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272
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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273
scramble
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| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
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274
conglomerate
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| n.综合商社，多元化集团公司 | |
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275
edible
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| n.食品，食物；adj.可食用的 | |
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276
concoction
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| n.调配(物)；谎言 | |
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277
confiscated
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| 没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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278
tenacious
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| adj.顽强的，固执的，记忆力强的，粘的 | |
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279
bereft
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| adj.被剥夺的 | |
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280
pretentious
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| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
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281
Buddhist
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| adj./n.佛教的，佛教徒 | |
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282
monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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283
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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284
thatch
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| vt.用茅草覆盖…的顶部；n.茅草(屋) | |
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285
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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286
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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287
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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288
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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289
tattooed
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| v.刺青，文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击 | |
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290
repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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291
pictorial
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| adj.绘画的；图片的；n．画报 | |
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292
secluded
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| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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293
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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294
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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295
imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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296
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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297
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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298
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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299
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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300
shanty
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| n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子 | |
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301
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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302
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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303
frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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304
resounding
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| adj. 响亮的 | |
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305
whack
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| v.敲击，重打，瓜分；n.重击，重打，尝试，一份 | |
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306
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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307
parley
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| n.谈判 | |
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308
whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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309
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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310
buxom
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| adj.（妇女）丰满的，有健康美的 | |
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311
comeliness
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| n. 清秀, 美丽, 合宜 | |
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312
divan
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| n.长沙发；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集 | |
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313
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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314
exclamation
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|
| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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315
annoyance
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|
| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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316
snarled
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|
| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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317
savagely
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|
| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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318
mused
|
|
| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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319
prostrate
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|
| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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320
monotonous
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|
| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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321
vim
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| n.精力，活力 | |
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322
spurned
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|
| v.一脚踢开，拒绝接受( spurn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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323
consul
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| n.领事；执政官 | |
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324
scowling
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|
| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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325
fully
|
|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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326
boundless
|
|
| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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327
plunging
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|
| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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328
ascents
|
|
| n.上升( ascent的名词复数 )；（身份、地位等的）提高；上坡路；攀登 | |
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329
incessant
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|
| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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330
brute
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|
| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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331
animate
|
|
| v.赋于生命，鼓励；adj.有生命的，有生气的 | |
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332
scampered
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|
| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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333
silt
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|
| n.淤泥，淤沙，粉砂层，泥沙层；vt.使淤塞；vi.被淤塞 | |
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334
wriggled
|
|
| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等） | |
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335
nether
|
|
| adj.下部的，下面的；n.阴间；下层社会 | |
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336
tugged
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|
| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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337
bruising
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|
| adj.殊死的；十分激烈的v.擦伤(bruise的现在分词形式) | |
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338
famished
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|
| adj.饥饿的 | |
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339
throttling
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|
| v.扼杀( throttle的现在分词 )；勒死；使窒息；压制 | |
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340
triumphant
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|
| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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341
mirage
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| n.海市蜃楼，幻景 | |
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342
delirium
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|
| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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343
sagging
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| 下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度 | |
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344
elusive
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|
| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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345
quenched
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|
| 解（渴）( quench的过去式和过去分词 )； 终止（某事物）； （用水）扑灭（火焰等）； 将（热物体）放入水中急速冷却 | |
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346
entirely
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|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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347
spun
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|
| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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348
creek
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|
| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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349
grudge
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|
| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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350
scowled
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|
| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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351
tractable
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|
| adj.易驾驭的；温顺的 | |
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352
buoyed
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|
| v.使浮起( buoy的过去式和过去分词 )；支持；为…设浮标；振奋…的精神 | |
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353
forerunner
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|
| n.前身，先驱（者），预兆，祖先 | |
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354
bluster
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|
| v.猛刮；怒冲冲的说；n.吓唬，怒号；狂风声 | |
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355
bawled
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|
| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的过去式和过去分词 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
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356
muster
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|
| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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357
subscriber
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|
| n.用户，订户；（慈善机关等的）定期捐款者；预约者；签署者 | |
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358
apparatus
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|
| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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359
screeched
|
|
| v.发出尖叫声( screech的过去式和过去分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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360
jabber
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|
| v.快而不清楚地说；n.吱吱喳喳 | |
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361
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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362
throttle
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|
| n.节流阀，节气阀，喉咙；v.扼喉咙，使窒息，压 | |
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363
sprawling
|
|
| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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364
civilized
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|
| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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365
wager
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|
| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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366
epicure
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|
| n.行家，美食家 | |
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367
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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368
diverging
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|
| 分开( diverge的现在分词 )； 偏离； 分歧； 分道扬镳 | |
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369
torrents
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|
| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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370
mishap
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|
| n.不幸的事，不幸；灾祸 | |
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371
scanty
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|
| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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372
thump
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|
| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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373
pestle
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|
| n.杵 | |
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374
exponents
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|
| n.倡导者( exponent的名词复数 )；说明者；指数；能手 | |
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375
dwellers
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|
| n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 ) | |
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376
livelihood
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|
| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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377
cleaver
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|
| n.切肉刀 | |
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378
doorway
|
|
| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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379
pitcher
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|
| n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手 | |
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380
intoxicating
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|
| a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的 | |
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381
swampy
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|
| adj.沼泽的，湿地的 | |
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382
inveterate
|
|
| adj.积习已深的，根深蒂固的 | |
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383
smokers
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| 吸烟者( smoker的名词复数 ) | |
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384
attentively
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|
| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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385
ballad
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|
| n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲 | |
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386
sinewy
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|
| adj.多腱的，强壮有力的 | |
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387
entangling
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|
| v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的现在分词 ) | |
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388
sagged
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|
| 下垂的 | |
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389
plodded
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|
| v.沉重缓慢地走（路）( plod的过去式和过去分词 )；努力从事；沉闷地苦干；缓慢进行（尤指艰难枯燥的工作） | |
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390
gasped
|
|
| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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391
uncouth
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|
| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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392
chuckled
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|
| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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393
bungalows
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|
| n.平房( bungalow的名词复数 )；单层小屋，多于一层的小屋 | |
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394
pulp
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|
| n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆 | |
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395
beets
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|
| 甜菜( beet的名词复数 )； 甜菜根； （因愤怒、难堪或觉得热而）脸红 | |
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396
mutual
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|
| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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397
thereby
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|
| adv.因此，从而 | |
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398
offset
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|
| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
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399
regularity
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|
| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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400
pointed
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|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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401
disconsolately
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|
| adv.悲伤地，愁闷地；哭丧着脸 | |
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402
odds
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|
| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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403
citizenship
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|
| n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份) | |
参考例句： |
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404
possessed
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|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
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405
tattered
|
|
| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
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406
minor
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|
| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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407
fiery
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|
| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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408
bruised
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|
| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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409
prudent
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|
| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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410
beset
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|
| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
参考例句： |
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411
pitfalls
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|
| （捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误 | |
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412
stony
|
|
| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
参考例句： |
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413
reeking
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|
| v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的现在分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象） | |
参考例句： |
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414
ridge
|
|
| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
参考例句： |
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415
caravan
|
|
| n.大蓬车；活动房屋 | |
参考例句： |
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416
perilous
|
|
| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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417
equilibrium
|
|
| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
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418
licentious
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|
| adj.放纵的，淫乱的 | |
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419
puffing
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|
| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
参考例句： |
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420
winked
|
|
| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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421
deplored
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|
| v.悲叹，痛惜，强烈反对( deplore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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422
inundated
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| v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付 | |
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423
ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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424
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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425
heralded
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| v.预示( herald的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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426
avalanche
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| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
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427
wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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428
geographer
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| n.地理学者 | |
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429
sanitary
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| adj.卫生方面的，卫生的，清洁的，卫生的 | |
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430
trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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431
dearth
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| n.缺乏，粮食不足，饥谨 | |
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432
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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433
lithographs
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| n.平版印刷品( lithograph的名词复数 ) | |
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434
geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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435
whoop
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| n.大叫，呐喊，喘息声；v.叫喊，喘息 | |
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436
extremities
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| n.端点( extremity的名词复数 )；尽头；手和足；极窘迫的境地 | |
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437
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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438
hatchet
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| n.短柄小斧；v.扼杀 | |
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439
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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440
celestials
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| n.天的，天空的( celestial的名词复数 ) | |
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441
apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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442
wares
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| n. 货物, 商品 | |
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443
stentorian
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| adj.大声的，响亮的 | |
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444
yelping
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| v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的现在分词 ) | |
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445
recoiled
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| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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446
cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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447
retaliate
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| v.报复，反击 | |
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448
rascals
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| 流氓( rascal的名词复数 )； 无赖； （开玩笑说法）淘气的人（尤指小孩）； 恶作剧的人 | |
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449
intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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450
stringent
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| adj.严厉的；令人信服的；银根紧的 | |
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451
ferociously
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| 野蛮地，残忍地 | |
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452
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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453
chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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454
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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455
gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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456
pagodas
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| 塔，宝塔( pagoda的名词复数 ) | |
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457
groaning
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| adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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458
broiled
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| a.烤过的 | |
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459
astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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460
meditatively
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| adv.冥想地 | |
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461
addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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462
etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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463
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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464
smacked
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| 拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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465
gulped
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| v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的过去式和过去分词 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住 | |
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466
engrossed
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| adj.全神贯注的 | |
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467
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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468
respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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469
snugly
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| adv.紧贴地；贴身地；暖和舒适地；安适地 | |
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470
chafing
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| n.皮肤发炎v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的现在分词 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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471
baneful
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| adj.有害的 | |
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