The models and plans of palaces that had been from time to time prepared by Captain Graham, had imparted to the royal mind a new architectural impulse; and after much deliberation with himself, he had finally come to the resolution of expending1 the timber requisite2 towards the erection of a chaste3 Gothic edifice4. In the selection of the design. His Majesty5 displayed unlooked-for taste; for although as a penman his talents rank immeasurably in advance of the most accomplished6 of his scriveners, his skill as an artist had proved very circumscribed7. It was nearly exhausted8 in the delineation9 of a nondescript bird, perched upon a tree-top, and did wuth difficulty extend to the one-legged fowler, gun in hand, who was conjectured10 to be planning its destruction. At the royal desire, I had frequently executed likenesses of the court favourites, and they were invariably acknowledged with much merriment; but, although repeatedly urged, no persuasion11 could induce the despot to sit for his own, from a firm belief in the old superstition12, that whosoever should possess it, could afterwards deal with him as he listed.
“You are writing a book,” he remarked to me on one occasion, with a significant glance, as I was in the act of completing a full-length portrait of himself, which I had contrived13 to make unobserved from his blind side—“I know this to be the case, because I never inquire what you are doing that they do not tell me you are using a pen, or else painting pictures. This is a good thing, and it pleases me. You will speak favourably14 of myself; but you shall not insert my portrait, as you have done that of the Negoos of Zingero.” Such was the title with which His Christian15 Majesty was invariably pleased to dignify16 his heathen brother, Moselekatse, whose acquaintance he had made through the frontispiece to my “Wild Sports in Southern Africa.”
The Abyssinians have from time immemorial expended17 an entire tree in the reduction to suitable dimensions of every beam or plank18 employed in their primitive19 habitations; and it is not therefore surprising that Sáhela Selássie should have been equally delighted and astonished at the economy of time, labour, and material attending the use of the cross-cut saw. From age to age, and generation to generation, the Ethiopian plods20 on like his forefathers21, without even a desire for improvement. Ignorance and indolence confine him to a narrow circle of observation from which he is afraid to move. Strong prejudices are arrayed against the introduction of novelties, and eternal reference is made to ancestral custom. But in a country where the absence of timber is so remarkable22 and inconvenient23, the advantages extended by this novel implement24 of handicraft was altogether undeniable.
“You English are indeed a strange people,” quoth the monarch25, after the first plank had been fashioned by the European escort. “I do not understand your stories of the road in your country that is dug below the waters of a river, nor of the carriages that gallop26 without horses; but you are a strong people, and employ wonderful inventions.”
Meanwhile the platform required for the new building advanced slowly to completion. The crowd of idle applicants27 for justice who daily convened28 before the tribunal of “the four chairs” were pressed into the service; and whenever His Majesty returned from an excursion in the meadow, the entire cortege might be seen carrying each a stone before his saddle in imitation of the royal example. Early one morning Graham received a message from the impatient despot to announce that the day being auspicious29, he was desirous of seeing one post at least erected30 without delay. Greatly to his satisfaction the door-frames, which had previously31 been prepared by the carpenters of my escort, were simultaneously32 raised; and it being ascertained33 that the sub-conservator of forests had neglected to make the requisite supplies of timber, the delinquent34 was, with his wife and family, sentenced to vacate his habitation forthwith, and to bivouac sub divo during twenty days upon the Angollála meadow—a punishment not unfrequently inflicted35 for venial36 derelictions of duty, and attended during the more inclement37 seasons with no ordinary inconvenience.
But the endless succession of holydays, during which no work can be performed, interfered38 in a much greater degree with the completion of the rising structure—it being superstitiously39 imagined that any portion of a work erected on the festival of a saint, with the aid of edged tools, will infallibly entail40 a curse from above. No little delay arose also from the whims41 and caprices of His Majesty, who could never satisfy himself that the doors and windows occupied the proper places. On this subject his ideas wandered perpetually to the ruins of a certain palace on the banks of the Nile, which he had visited whilst hunting the wild buffalo—“It is overgrown with trees and bushes,” was his lucid42 description, “and it has two hundred windows, and four hundred pillars of stone, and none can tell whence it came.”
On lawful43 days, however, the soldiers continued to work as diligently44 as the quantities of hydromel would permit, with which they were supplied by the royal munificence45; and at length the Gothic hall was complete. It had been amusing in the interim46 to watch the persevering47 industry of an unfortunate gun-man of the body-guard, who was constructing a hut immediately below the palace. Whensoever the vigilant48 eye of the church permitted, he would add to the frail49 wall of his circular dwelling50 a few layers of loose stone which, with his own single labour, he had collected in the meadow; but each morning’s dawn revealed to his sorrowing eyes some monstrous51 breach52 in the unstable53 fabric54, which, like Penelope’s web, was never nearer to completion, and his patience being fairly exhausted, he finally gave up the task in despair.
The novel style of architecture introduced by the Gyptzis, so immeasurably superior in elegance55, stability, and comfort, to anything before witnessed in Shoa, and combining all these recommendations with so limited an expenditure56 of material, afforded an undeniable contrast to the adjacent tottering57 pile upon vaults58 on which Demetrius the Albanian had expended three years of labour. Beyond the rude fabrics59 of the neighbouring states, where the more common manufactures have attained60 a somewhat higher cultivation61, the palace of the king can boast of no embellishment saving the tawdry trappings which decorate the throne—gaudy tapestries62 of crimson63 velvet64 loaded with massive silver ornaments65, but ill in keeping with the clumsy mud walls to which they are appended, and serving to render the latter still more incongruous by so striking a contrast. But the new apartments were elegantly furnished throughout, and with their couches, ottomans, carpets, chairs, tables, and curtains, had assumed an aspect heretofore unknown in Abyssinia. “I shall turn it into a chapel,” quoth His Majesty, accosting66 Abba Raguel, and patting the little dwarf67 familiarly upon the back—“What say you to that plan, my father?”
As a last finishing touch, we suspended in the centre hall a series of large coloured engravings, which the cathedral of Saint Michael might well have envied, for they represented the chase of the tiger in all its varied68 phases. The domestication69 of the elephant, and its employment in war, or in the pageant70, had ever proved a stumbling-block to the king, who all his life had been content to reside in a house boasting neither windows nor chimneys, and who reigned71 not in the days when “the Negus, arrayed in the barbaric pomp of gold chains, collars, and bracelets72, and surrounded by his nobles and musicians, gave audience to the ambassador of Justinian, seated in the open field upon a lofty chariot drawn73 by four elephants superbly caparisoned.” (Gibbon.) The grotesque74 appearance of the “hugest of beasts” in his hunting harness, struck the chord of a new idea. “I will have a number caught on the Robi,” he exclaimed, “that you may tame them, and that I too may ride upon an elephant before I die.” A favourite governor from a remote frontier province was standing75 meanwhile with his forefinger76 in his mouth gazing in mute amazement77 at the wonders before him. “This place is not suited for the occupation of man,” he at length exclaimed in a reverie of surprise, as the monarch ceased:—“this is a palace designed only for the residence of the Deity78, and of Sáhela Selássie.”
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1 expending | |
v.花费( expend的现在分词 );使用(钱等)做某事;用光;耗尽 | |
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2 requisite | |
adj.需要的,必不可少的;n.必需品 | |
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3 chaste | |
adj.贞洁的;有道德的;善良的;简朴的 | |
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4 edifice | |
n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿,教室) | |
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5 majesty | |
n.雄伟,壮丽,庄严,威严;最高权威,王权 | |
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6 accomplished | |
adj.有才艺的;有造诣的;达到了的 | |
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7 circumscribed | |
adj.[医]局限的:受限制或限于有限空间的v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的过去式和过去分词 );划定…范围;限制;限定 | |
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8 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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9 delineation | |
n.记述;描写 | |
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10 conjectured | |
推测,猜测,猜想( conjecture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11 persuasion | |
n.劝说;说服;持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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12 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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13 contrived | |
adj.不自然的,做作的;虚构的 | |
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14 favourably | |
adv. 善意地,赞成地 =favorably | |
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15 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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16 dignify | |
vt.使有尊严;使崇高;给增光 | |
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17 expended | |
v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 );使用(钱等)做某事;用光;耗尽 | |
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18 plank | |
n.板条,木板,政策要点,政纲条目 | |
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19 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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20 plods | |
v.沉重缓慢地走(路)( plod的第三人称单数 );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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21 forefathers | |
n.祖先,先人;祖先,祖宗( forefather的名词复数 );列祖列宗;前人 | |
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22 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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23 inconvenient | |
adj.不方便的,令人感到麻烦的 | |
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24 implement | |
n.(pl.)工具,器具;vt.实行,实施,执行 | |
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25 monarch | |
n.帝王,君主,最高统治者 | |
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26 gallop | |
v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔;飞速发展 | |
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27 applicants | |
申请人,求职人( applicant的名词复数 ) | |
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28 convened | |
召开( convene的过去式 ); 召集; (为正式会议而)聚集; 集合 | |
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29 auspicious | |
adj.吉利的;幸运的,吉兆的 | |
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30 ERECTED | |
adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立 | |
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31 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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32 simultaneously | |
adv.同时发生地,同时进行地 | |
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33 ascertained | |
v.弄清,确定,查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34 delinquent | |
adj.犯法的,有过失的;n.违法者 | |
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35 inflicted | |
把…强加给,使承受,遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36 venial | |
adj.可宽恕的;轻微的 | |
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37 inclement | |
adj.严酷的,严厉的,恶劣的 | |
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38 interfered | |
v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 );调停;妨碍;干涉 | |
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39 superstitiously | |
被邪教所支配 | |
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40 entail | |
vt.使承担,使成为必要,需要 | |
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41 WHIMS | |
虚妄,禅病 | |
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42 lucid | |
adj.明白易懂的,清晰的,头脑清楚的 | |
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43 lawful | |
adj.法律许可的,守法的,合法的 | |
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44 diligently | |
ad.industriously;carefully | |
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45 munificence | |
n.宽宏大量,慷慨给与 | |
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46 interim | |
adj.暂时的,临时的;n.间歇,过渡期间 | |
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47 persevering | |
a.坚忍不拔的 | |
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48 vigilant | |
adj.警觉的,警戒的,警惕的 | |
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49 frail | |
adj.身体虚弱的;易损坏的 | |
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50 dwelling | |
n.住宅,住所,寓所 | |
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51 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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52 breach | |
n.违反,不履行;破裂;vt.冲破,攻破 | |
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53 unstable | |
adj.不稳定的,易变的 | |
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54 fabric | |
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织 | |
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55 elegance | |
n.优雅;优美,雅致;精致,巧妙 | |
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56 expenditure | |
n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出;使用,消耗 | |
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57 tottering | |
adj.蹒跚的,动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 );踉跄;蹒跚;摇摇欲坠 | |
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58 vaults | |
n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 );地下室;撑物跳高;墓穴 | |
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59 fabrics | |
织物( fabric的名词复数 ); 布; 构造; (建筑物的)结构(如墙、地面、屋顶):质地 | |
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60 attained | |
(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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61 cultivation | |
n.耕作,培养,栽培(法),养成 | |
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62 tapestries | |
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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63 crimson | |
n./adj.深(绯)红色(的);vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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64 velvet | |
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的 | |
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65 ornaments | |
n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 );点缀;装饰品;首饰v.装饰,点缀,美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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66 accosting | |
v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的现在分词 );跟…搭讪;(乞丐等)上前向…乞讨;(妓女等)勾搭 | |
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67 dwarf | |
n.矮子,侏儒,矮小的动植物;vt.使…矮小 | |
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68 varied | |
adj.多样的,多变化的 | |
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69 domestication | |
n.驯养,驯化 | |
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70 pageant | |
n.壮观的游行;露天历史剧 | |
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71 reigned | |
vi.当政,统治(reign的过去式形式) | |
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72 bracelets | |
n.手镯,臂镯( bracelet的名词复数 ) | |
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73 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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74 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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75 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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76 forefinger | |
n.食指 | |
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77 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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78 deity | |
n.神,神性;被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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