After that, as a matter of course and on general principles, she would have it out with Lumai, whose soft voice always was for quiet and repose5, and who always, at the end of a tongue-lashing, took himself off to the canoe house for a couple of days. Here, Lenerengo was helpless. Into the canoe house of the stags no Mary might venture. Lenerengo had never forgotten the fate of the last Mary who had broken the taboo6. It had occurred many years before, when she was a girl, and the recollection was ever vivid of the unfortunate woman hanging up in the sun by one arm for all of a day, and for all of a second day by the other arm. After that she had been feasted upon by the stags of the canoe house, and for long afterward7 all women had talked softly before their husbands.
Jerry did discover liking8 for Lamai, but it was not strong nor passionate9. Rather was it out of gratitude10, for only Lamai saw to it that he received food and water. Yet this boy was no Skipper, no Mister Haggin. Nor was he even a Derby or a Bob. He was that inferior man-creature, a nigger, and Jerry had been thoroughly11 trained all his brief days to the law that the white men were the superior two-legged gods.
He did not fail to recognize, however, the intelligence and power that resided in the niggers. He did not reason it out. He accepted it. They had power of command over other objects, could propel sticks and stones through the air, could even tie him a prisoner to a stick that rendered him helpless. Inferior as they might be to the white-gods, still they were gods of a sort.
It was the first time in his life that Jerry had been tied up, and he did not like it. Vainly he hurt his teeth, some of which were loosening under the pressure of the second teeth rising underneath12. The stick was stronger than he. Although he did not forget Skipper, the poignancy13 of his loss faded with the passage of time, until uppermost in his mind was the desire to be free.
But when the day came that he was freed, he failed to take advantage of it and scuttle14 away for the beach. It chanced that Lenerengo released him. She did it deliberately15, desiring to be quit of him. But when she untied16 Jerry, he stopped to thank her, wagging his tail and smiling up at her with his hazel-brown eyes. She stamped her foot at him to be gone, and uttered a harsh and intimidating17 cry. This Jerry did not understand, and so unused was he to fear that he could not be frightened into running away. He ceased wagging his tail, and, though he continued to look up at her, his eyes no longer smiled. Her action and noise he identified as unfriendly, and he became alert and watchful18, prepared for whatever hostile act she might next commit.
Again she cried out and stamped her foot. The only effect on Jerry was to make him transfer his watchfulness19 to the foot. This slowness in getting away, now that she had released him, was too much for her short temper. She launched the kick, and Jerry, avoiding it, slashed20 her ankle.
War broke on the instant, and that she might have killed Jerry in her rage was highly probable had not Lamai appeared on the scene. The stick untied from Jerry’s neck told the tale of her perfidy21 and incensed22 Lamai, who sprang between and deflected23 the blow with a stone poi-pounder that might have brained Jerry.
Lamai was now the one in danger of grievous damage, and his mother had just knocked him down with a clout24 alongside the head when poor Lumai, roused from sleep by the uproar25, ventured out to make peace. Lenerengo, as usual, forgot everything else in the fiercer pleasure of berating26 her spouse27.
The conclusion of the affair was harmless enough. The children stopped their crying, Lamai retied Jerry with the stick, Lenerengo harangued28 herself breathless, and Lumai departed with hurt feelings for the canoe house where stags could sleep in peace and Marys pestered29 not.
That night, in the circle of his fellow stags, Lumai recited his sorrows and told the cause of them—the puppy dog which had come on the Arangi. It chanced that Agno, chief of the devil devil doctors, or high priest, heard the tale, and recollected30 that he had sent Jerry to the canoe house along with the rest of the captives. Half an hour later he was having it out with Lamai. Beyond doubt, the boy had broken the taboos31, and privily32 he told him so, until Lamai trembled and wept and squirmed abjectly33 at his feet, for the penalty was death.
It was too good an opportunity to get a hold over the boy for Agno to misplay it. A dead boy was worth nothing to him, but a living boy whose life he carried in his hand would serve him well. Since no one else knew of the broken taboo, he could afford to keep quiet. So he ordered Lamai forthright34 down to live in the youths’ canoe house, there to begin his novitiate in the long series of tasks, tests and ceremonies that would graduate him into the bachelors’ canoe house and half way along toward being a recognized man.
* * * * *
In the morning, obeying the devil devil doctor’s commands, Lenerengo tied Jerry’s feet together, not without a struggle in which his head was banged about and her hands were scratched. Then she carried him down through the village on the way to deliver him at Agno’s house. On the way, in the open centre of the village where stood the kingposts, she left him lying on the ground in order to join in the hilarity35 of the population.
Not only was old Bashti a stern law-giver, but he was a unique one. He had selected this day at the one time to administer punishment to two quarrelling women, to give a lesson to all other women, and to make all his subjects glad once again that they had him for ruler. Tiha and Wiwau, the two women, were squat36 and stout37 and young, and had long been a scandal because of their incessant38 quarrelling. Bashti had set them a race to run. But such a race. It was side-splitting. Men, women, and children, beholding39, howled with delight. Even elderly matrons and greybeards with a foot in the grave screeched40 and shrilled41 their joy in the spectacle.
The half-mile course lay the length of the village, through its heart, from the beach where the Arangi had been burned to the beach at the other end of the sea-wall. It had to be covered once in each direction by Tiha and Wiwau, in each case one of them urging speed on the other and the other desiring speed that was unattainable.
Only the mind of Bashti could have devised the show. First, two round coral stones, weighing fully42 forty pounds each, were placed in Tiha’s arms. She was compelled to clasp them tightly against her sides in order that they might not roll to the ground. Behind her, Bashti placed Wiwau, who was armed with a bristle43 of bamboo splints mounted on a light long shaft44 of bamboo. The splints were sharp as needles, being indeed the needles used in tattooing45, and on the end of the pole they were intended to be applied46 to Tiha’s back in the same way that men apply ox-goads to oxen. No serious damage, but much pain, could be inflicted48, which was just what Bashti had intended.
Wiwau prodded50 with the goad47, and Tiha stumbled and wabbled in gymnastic efforts to make speed. Since, when the farther beach had been reached, the positions would be reversed and Wiwau would carry the stones back while Tiha prodded, and since Wiwau knew that for what she gave Tiha would then try to give more, Wiwau exerted herself to give the utmost while yet she could. The perspiration51 ran down both their faces. Each had her partisans52 in the crowd, who encouraged and heaped ridicule53 with every prod49.
Ludicrous as it was, behind it lay iron savage54 law. The two stones were to be carried the entire course. The woman who prodded must do so with conviction and dispatch. The woman who was prodded must not lose her temper and fight her tormentor55. As they had been duly forewarned by Bashti, the penalty for infraction56 of the rules he had laid down was staking out on the reef at low tide to be eaten by the fish-sharks.
As the contestants57 came opposite where Bashti and Aora his prime minister stood, they redoubled their efforts, Wiwau goading58 enthusiastically, Tiha jumping with every thrust to the imminent59 danger of dropping the stones. At their heels trooped the children of the village and all the village dogs, whooping60 and yelping61 with excitement.
“Long time you fella Tiha no sit ’m along canoe,” Aora bawled62 to the victim and set Bashti cackling again.
At an unusually urgent prod, Tiha dropped a stone and was duly goaded63 while she sank to her knees and with one arm scooped64 it in against her side, regained65 her feet, and waddled66 on.
“Me cross along you too much,” she told Wiwau. “Bime by, close—”
But she never completed the threat. A warmly administered prod broke through her stoicism and started her tottering68 along.
The shouting of the rabble69 ebbed70 away as the queer race ran on toward the beach. But in a few minutes it could be heard flooding back, this time Wiwau panting with the weight of coral stone and Tiha, a-smart with what she had endured, trying more than to even the score.
Opposite Bashti, Wiwau lost one of the stones, and, in the effort to recover it, lost the other, which rolled a dozen feet away from the first. Tiha became a whirlwind of avenging71 fury. And all Somo went wild. Bashti held his lean sides with merriment while tears of purest joy ran down his prodigiously72 wrinkled cheeks.
And when all was over, quoth Bashti to his people: “Thus shall all women fight when they desire over much to fight.”
Only he did not say it in this way. Nor did he say it in the Somo tongue. What he did say was in bêche-de-mer, and his words were:
“Any fella Mary he like ’m fight, all fella Mary along Somo fight ’m this fella way.”
点击收听单词发音
1 bickering | |
v.争吵( bicker的现在分词 );口角;(水等)作潺潺声;闪烁 | |
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2 culminated | |
v.达到极点( culminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3 impartially | |
adv.公平地,无私地 | |
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4 progeny | |
n.后代,子孙;结果 | |
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5 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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6 taboo | |
n.禁忌,禁止接近,禁止使用;adj.禁忌的;v.禁忌,禁制,禁止 | |
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7 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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8 liking | |
n.爱好;嗜好;喜欢 | |
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9 passionate | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,激昂的,易动情的,易怒的,性情暴躁的 | |
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10 gratitude | |
adj.感激,感谢 | |
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11 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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12 underneath | |
adj.在...下面,在...底下;adv.在下面 | |
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13 poignancy | |
n.辛酸事,尖锐 | |
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14 scuttle | |
v.急赶,疾走,逃避;n.天窗;舷窗 | |
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15 deliberately | |
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地 | |
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16 untied | |
松开,解开( untie的过去式和过去分词 ); 解除,使自由; 解决 | |
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17 intimidating | |
vt.恐吓,威胁( intimidate的现在分词) | |
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18 watchful | |
adj.注意的,警惕的 | |
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19 watchfulness | |
警惕,留心; 警觉(性) | |
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20 slashed | |
v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 );鞭打;割破;削减 | |
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21 perfidy | |
n.背信弃义,不忠贞 | |
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22 incensed | |
盛怒的 | |
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23 deflected | |
偏离的 | |
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24 clout | |
n.用手猛击;权力,影响力 | |
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25 uproar | |
n.骚动,喧嚣,鼎沸 | |
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26 berating | |
v.严厉责备,痛斥( berate的现在分词 ) | |
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27 spouse | |
n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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28 harangued | |
v.高谈阔论( harangue的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29 pestered | |
使烦恼,纠缠( pester的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30 recollected | |
adj.冷静的;镇定的;被回忆起的;沉思默想的v.记起,想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31 taboos | |
禁忌( taboo的名词复数 ); 忌讳; 戒律; 禁忌的事物(或行为) | |
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32 privily | |
adv.暗中,秘密地 | |
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33 abjectly | |
凄惨地; 绝望地; 糟透地; 悲惨地 | |
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34 forthright | |
adj.直率的,直截了当的 [同]frank | |
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35 hilarity | |
n.欢乐;热闹 | |
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36 squat | |
v.蹲坐,蹲下;n.蹲下;adj.矮胖的,粗矮的 | |
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38 incessant | |
adj.不停的,连续的 | |
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39 beholding | |
v.看,注视( behold的现在分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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40 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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41 shrilled | |
(声音)尖锐的,刺耳的,高频率的( shrill的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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43 bristle | |
v.(毛发)直立,气势汹汹,发怒;n.硬毛发 | |
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44 shaft | |
n.(工具的)柄,杆状物 | |
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45 tattooing | |
n.刺字,文身v.刺青,文身( tattoo的现在分词 );连续有节奏地敲击;作连续有节奏的敲击 | |
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46 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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47 goad | |
n.刺棒,刺痛物;激励;vt.激励,刺激 | |
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48 inflicted | |
把…强加给,使承受,遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49 prod | |
vt.戳,刺;刺激,激励 | |
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50 prodded | |
v.刺,戳( prod的过去式和过去分词 );刺激;促使;(用手指或尖物)戳 | |
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51 perspiration | |
n.汗水;出汗 | |
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52 partisans | |
游击队员( partisan的名词复数 ); 党人; 党羽; 帮伙 | |
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53 ridicule | |
v.讥讽,挖苦;n.嘲弄 | |
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54 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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55 tormentor | |
n. 使苦痛之人, 使苦恼之物, 侧幕 =tormenter | |
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56 infraction | |
n.违反;违法 | |
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57 contestants | |
n.竞争者,参赛者( contestant的名词复数 ) | |
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58 goading | |
v.刺激( goad的现在分词 );激励;(用尖棒)驱赶;驱使(或怂恿、刺激)某人 | |
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59 imminent | |
adj.即将发生的,临近的,逼近的 | |
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60 whooping | |
发嗬嗬声的,发咳声的 | |
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61 yelping | |
v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的现在分词 ) | |
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62 bawled | |
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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63 goaded | |
v.刺激( goad的过去式和过去分词 );激励;(用尖棒)驱赶;驱使(或怂恿、刺激)某人 | |
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64 scooped | |
v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 );(敏捷地)抱起;抢先获得;用铲[勺]等挖(洞等) | |
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65 regained | |
复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 ); 赢回; 重回; 复至某地 | |
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66 waddled | |
v.(像鸭子一样)摇摇摆摆地走( waddle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67 stark | |
adj.荒凉的;严酷的;完全的;adv.完全地 | |
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68 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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69 rabble | |
n.乌合之众,暴民;下等人 | |
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70 ebbed | |
(指潮水)退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 ); 落; 减少; 衰落 | |
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71 avenging | |
adj.报仇的,复仇的v.为…复仇,报…之仇( avenge的现在分词 );为…报复 | |
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72 prodigiously | |
adv.异常地,惊人地,巨大地 | |
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