The game trails converged1 at a point where the steep, eroded2 bank had been broken down into an approach to a pool. The dust was deep here, and arose in a cloud as a little band of zebra scrambled3 away. The borders of this pool were a fascinating palimpsest: the tracks of many sorts of beast had been impressed there in the mud. Both Kingozi and Simba examined them with an approach to interest, though to an observer the examination would have seemed but the most casual of glances. They saw the indications of zebra, wildebeeste, hartebeeste, gazelles of various sorts, the deep, round, well-like prints of the rhinoceros4, and all the other usual inhabitants of the veldt. But over these their eyes passed lightly. Only three things could here interest these seasoned African travellers. Simba espied5 one of them, and pointed6 it out, just at the edge of the narrow border of softer mud.
"There is the lion," said he. "A big one. He was here this morning. But no buffalo7, _bwana_; and no elephant."
The water in the pool was muddy and foul8. Thousands of animals drank from it daily; and after drinking had stood or wallowed in it. The flavour would be rich of the barnyard, which even a strong infusion9 of tea could not disguise. _Kingozi_ had often been forced to worse; but here he hoped for better.
The safari10 had dumped down the loads at the top of the bank, and were resting in utter relaxation11. The march was over, and they waited.
Bwana Kingozi threw off the carefully calculated listless slouch that had conserved12 his strength for an unknown goal. His work was not yet done.
"Simba," he directed, "go that way, down the river[1] and look for another pool--of good water. Take the big rifle."
[Footnote 1: Every watercourse with any water at all, even in occasional pools, is _m'to_--a river--in Africa.]
"And I to go in the other direction?" asked Cazi Moto.
Bwana Kingozi considered, glancing at the setting sun, and again up the dry stream-bed where, as far as the eye could reach, were no more indications of water.
"No," he decided13. "It is late. Soon the lions will be hunting. I will go."
The men sprawled14 in abandon. After an interval15 a shrill16 whistle sounded from the direction in which Bwana Kingozi had disappeared. The men stretched and began to rise to their feet slowly. The short rest had stiffened17 them and brought home the weariness to their bones. They grumbled18 and muttered, and only the omnipresence of Cazi Moto and the threat of his restless whip roused them to activity. Down the stream they limped sullenly20.
Kingozi stood waiting near the edge of the bank. The thicket21 here was very dense22.
"Water there," he briefly23 indicated. "The big tent here; the opening in that direction. Cook fire over there. Loads here."
The men who had been standing24, the burdens still on their heads, moved forward. The tent porter--who, by the way, was the strongest and most reliable of the men, so that always, even on a straggling march, the tent would arrive first--threw it down at the place selected and at once began to undo25 the cords. The bearers of the kitchen, who were also reliable travellers, set about the cook camp.
A big Monumwezi unstrapped a canvas chair, unfolded it, and placed it near his master. The other loads were arranged here, in a certain long-ordained order; the meat piled there. Several men then went to the assistance of Mali-ya-bwana, the tent bearer; and the others methodically took up various tasks. Some began with their _pangas_ to hew26 a way to the water through the dense thicket that had kept it sweet; others sought firewood; still others began to pitch the tiny drill tents--each to accommodate six men--in a wide circle of which the pile of loads was the centre. As the men fell into the ordered and habitual27 routine their sullenness28 and weariness vanished.
Kingozi dropped into the canvas chair, fumbled29 for a pipe, filled and lighted it. With a sigh of relief he laid aside his cork30 helmet. The day had not only been a hard one, but an anxious one, for this country was new to every member of the little expedition, native guides had been impossible to procure31, and the chances of water had been those of an arid32 region.
The removal of the helmet for the first tune33 revealed the man's features. A fine brow, upstanding thick and wavy34 hair, and the clearest of gray eyes suddenly took twenty years from the age at first made probable by the heavy beard. With the helmet pulled low this was late middle age; now bareheaded it was only bearded youth. Nevertheless at the corners of the eyes were certain wrinkles, and in the eyes themselves a direct competent steadiness that was something apart from the usual acquisition of youth, something the result of experience not given to most.
He smoked quietly, his eye wandering from one point to another of the new- born camp's activities. One after another the men came to report the completion of their tasks.
"_Pita ya maji tayiari_," said Sanguiki coming from the new-made water trail.
"_I zuru_," approved Kingozi.
"_Hema tayiari_," reported Simba, reaching his hand for the light rifle.
Kingozi glanced toward the tent and nodded. A licking little fire flickered35 in the cook camp. The tiny porter's tents had completed their circle, and in front of each new smoke was beginning to rise. Cazi Moto glided36 up and handed him the _kiboko_, the rhinoceros-hide whip, the symbol of authority. Everything was in order.
The white man rose a little stiffly and walked over to the pile of meat. For a moment he examined it contemplatively, aroused himself with an apparent effort, and began to separate it into four piles. He did not handle the meat himself, but silently indicated each portion with his _kiboko_, and Simba or Cazi Moto swiftly laid it aside.
"This for the gun-bearer camp," commanded Kingozi, touching37 with his foot the heavy "backstraps" and the liver--the next choicest bits after tenderloin. He raised his voice.
"Kavirondo!" he called.
Several tall, well-formed black savages39 of this tribe arose from one of the little fires and approached. The white man indicated one of the piles of meat.
"Wakamba!" he summoned; then "Monumwezi"; and finally "Baganda!"
Thus the four tribes represented in his caravan40 were supplied. The men returned to their fires, and began the preparation of their evening meal.
Kingozi turned to his own tent with a sigh of relief. Within it a cot had been erected41, blankets spread. An officer's tin box stood open at one end. On the floor was a portable canvas bath. While the white man was divesting42 himself of his accoutrements, Cazi Moto entered bearing a galvanized pail full of hot water which he poured into the tub. He disappeared only to return with a pail of cold water to temper the first.
"Bath is ready, _bwana_," said he, and retired43, carefully tying the tent flaps behind him.
Fifteen minutes later Kingozi emerged. He wore now a suit of pajamas44 tucked into canvas "mosquito boots," with very thin soles. He looked scrubbed and clean, the sheen of water still glistening45 on his thick wavy hair.
The canvas camp chair had been placed before two chop boxes piled one atop the other to form a crude table on which were laid eating utensils46. As soon as Cazi Moto saw that his master was ready, he brought the meal. It consisted simply of a platter of curry47 composed of rice and the fresh meat that had been so recently killed that it had not time to get tough. This was supplemented by bread and tea in a tall enamelware vessel48 known as a _balauri_. From the simplicity49 of this meal one experienced would have deduced--even had he not done so from a dozen other equally significant nothings--that this was no sporting excursion, but an expedition grimly in earnest about something.
The sun had set, and almost immediately the darkness descended51, as though the light had been turned off at a switch. The earth shrunk to a pool of blackness, and the heavens expanded to a glory of tropical stars. All visible nature contracted to the light thrown by the flickering52 fires before the tiny white tents. The tatterdemalion crew had, after the curious habit of Africans, cast aside its garments, and sat forth53 in a bronze and savage38 nakedness. All day long under the blistering54 sun your safari man will wear all that he hath, even unto the heavy overcoat discarded by the latest arrival from England's winter; but when the chill of evening descends55, then he strips happily. The men were fed now, and were content. A busy chatter56, the crooning of songs, laughter, an occasional shout testified to this. A general relaxation took the camp.
The white man finished his meal and lighted his pipe. Even yet his day's work was not quite done, and he was unwilling57 to yield himself to rest until all tasks were cleared away.
"Cazi Moto!" he called.
Instantly, it seemed, the headman stood at his elbow.
"To-morrow," said Kingozi deliberately58, and paused in decision so long that Cazi Moto ventured a "Yes, _bwana_."
"To-morrow we rest here. It will be your _cazi_ (duty) to find news of the next water, or to find the water. See if there are people in this country. Take one man with you. Let the men rest and eat."
"Yes, _bwana_."
"Are there sick?"
"Two men."
"Let them come."
Cazi Moto raised his voice.
"_N'gonjwa!_" he summoned them.
Kingozi looked at them in silence for a moment.
"What is the matter with you?" he asked of the first, a hulking, stupid- looking Kavirondo with the muscles of a Hercules.
The man replied, addressing Cazi Moto, as is etiquette59; and although Kingozi understood perfectly60, he awaited his headman's repetition of the speech as though the Kavirondo had spoken a strange language.
"Fever, eh?" commented Kingozi aloud to himself, for the first time speaking his own tongue. "We'll soon see. Cazi Moto," he instructed in Swahili, "the medicine."
He thrust a clinical thermometer beneath the Kavirondo's tongue, glancing at a wrist watch as he did so.
"Cazi Moto," he said calmly after three minutes, "this man is a liar61. He is not sick; he merely wants to get out of carrying a load."
The Kavirondo, his eyes rolling, shot forth a torrent62 of language.
"He says," Cazi Moto summarized all this, "that he was very sick, but that this medicine"--indicating the thermometer--"cured him."
"He lies again," said Kingozi. "This is not medicine, but magic that tells me when a man has uttered lies. This man must beware or he will get _kiboko_."
The Kavirondo scuttled63 away, and Kingozi gave his attention to the second patient. This man had an infected leg that required some minor64 surgery. When the job was over and Kingozi had washed his hands, he relighted his pipe and sat back in his chair with a sigh of content. The immediate50 foreground sank below his consciousness. He stared across the flickering fires at the velvet65 blackness; listened across the intimate, idle noise of the camp to the voice of the veldt.
For with the fall of darkness and the larger silence of darkness, the veldt awoke. Animals that had dozed66 through the hot hours and grazed through the cooler hours in somnolent67 content now quivered alert. There were runnings here and there, the stamp of hoofs68, sharp snortings as taut69 nerves stretched. Zebras uttered the absurd small-dog barks peculiar70 to them; ostriches71 boomed; jackals yapped; unknown birds uttered hasty wild calls. Numerous hyenas72, near and far away, moaned like lost souls. Kingozi listened as to the voice of an old acquaintance telling familiar things; the men chattered73 on, their whole attention within the globe of light from their fires.
But suddenly the noise stopped as though it had been cut by a knife. Total silence fell on the little encampment. The men, their various actions suspended, listened intently. From far away, apparently74, a low, vibrating rumble19 stole out of the night's immensity. It rose and seemed to draw near, growing hollow and great, until the very ground seemed to tremble as though a heavy train were passing, or the lower notes of a great organ had been played in a little church. And then it died down, and receded75 to the great distance again, and was ended by three low, grunting76 coughs.
The veldt was silent. The zebra barkings were still; the night birds had hushed; the hyenas and jackals and all the other night creatures down--it almost seemed--to the very insects had ceased their calls and cries and chirpings. One might imagine every living creature rigid77, alert, listening, as were these men about the little fires.
The tension relaxed. The men dropped more fuel on the fires, coaxing78 the flame brighter. A whispering comment rose from group to group.
"_Simba! simba! simba!_" they hissed79 one to the other.
A lion had roared!
收听单词发音 |
1
converged
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| v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的过去式 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集 | |
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eroded
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| adj. 被侵蚀的，有蚀痕的 动词erode的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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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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rhinoceros
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| n.犀牛 | |
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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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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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buffalo
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| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
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foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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infusion
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| n.灌输 | |
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safari
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| n.远征旅行(探险、考察)；探险队，狩猎队 | |
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relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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conserved
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| v.保护，保藏，保存( conserve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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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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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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rumble
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| n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说 | |
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sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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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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undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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hew
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| v.砍；伐；削 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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sullenness
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| n. 愠怒, 沉闷, 情绪消沉 | |
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fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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arid
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| adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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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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flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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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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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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caravan
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| n.大蓬车；活动房屋 | |
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41
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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divesting
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| v.剥夺( divest的现在分词 )；脱去（衣服）；2。从…取去…；1。（给某人）脱衣服 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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pajamas
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| n.睡衣裤 | |
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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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utensils
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| 器具，用具，器皿( utensil的名词复数 )； 器物 | |
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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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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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51
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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52
flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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54
blistering
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| adj.酷热的；猛烈的；使起疱的；可恶的v.起水疱；起气泡；使受暴晒n.[涂料] 起泡 | |
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55
descends
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| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
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56
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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57
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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scuttled
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| v.使船沉没( scuttle的过去式和过去分词 )；快跑，急走 | |
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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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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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66
dozed
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| v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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somnolent
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| adj.想睡的，催眠的；adv.瞌睡地；昏昏欲睡地；使人瞌睡地 | |
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hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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ostriches
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| n.鸵鸟( ostrich的名词复数 )；逃避现实的人，不愿正视现实者 | |
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hyenas
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| n.鬣狗( hyena的名词复数 ) | |
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73
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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74
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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75
receded
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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76
grunting
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| 咕哝的，呼噜的 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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78
coaxing
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱；“锻炼”效应 | |
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79
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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