Chapter 49

In the morning I could not move. I was pinned byweakness to the tarpaulin¹. Even thinking was exhausting. Iapplied myself to thinking straight. At length, as slowly as acaravan of camels crossing a desert, some thoughts cametogether.
The day was like the previous one, warm and overcast², theclouds low, the breeze light. That was one thought. The boatwas rocking gently, that was another.
I thought of sustenance³ for the first time. I had not had adrop to drink or a bite to eat or a minute of sleep in threedays. Finding this obvious explanation for my weakness broughtme a little strength.
Richard Parker was still on board. In fact, he was directlybeneath me. Incredible that such a thing should need consentto be true, but it was only after much deliberation, uponassessing various mental items and points of view, that Iconcluded that it was not a dream or a delusion⁴ or amisplaced memory or a fancy or any other such falsity, but asolid, true thing witnessed while in a weakened, highly agitatedstate. The truth of it would be confirmed as soon as I felt wellenough to investigate.
How I had failed to notice for two and a half days a450-pound Bengal tiger in a lifeboat twenty-six feet long was aconundrum I would have to try to crack later, when I hadmore energy. The feat⁵ surely made Richard Parker the largeststowaway, proportionally speaking, in the history of navigation.
From tip of nose to tip of tail he took up over a third of thelength of the ship he was on.
You might think I lost all hope at that point. I did. And asa result I perked⁶ up and felt much better. We see that insports all the time, don't we? The tennis challenger startsstrong but soon loses confidence in his playing. The championracks up the games. But in the final set, when the challengerhas nothing left to lose, he becomes relaxed again, insouciant,daring. Suddenly he's playing like the devil and the championmust work hard to get those last points. So it was with me.
To cope with a hyena⁷ seemed remotely possible, but I was soobviously outmatched by Richard Parker that it wasn't evenworth worrying about. With a tiger aboard, my life was over.
That being settled, why not do something about my parchedthroat?
I believe it was this that saved my life that morning, that Iwas quite literally⁸ dying of thirst. Now that the word hadpopped into my head I couldn't think of anything else, as ifthe word itself were salty and the more I thought of it, theworse the effect. I have heard that the hunger for air exceedsas a compelling sensation the thirst for water. Only for a fewminutes, I say. After a few minutes you die and the discomfortof asphyxiation⁹ goes away. Whereas thirst is a drawn-out affair.
Look: Christ on the Cross died of suffocation¹⁰, but His onlycomplaint was of thirst. If thirst can be so taxing that evenGod Incarnate¹¹ complains about it, imagine the effect on aregular human. It was enough to make me go raving¹² mad. Ihave never known a worse physical hell than this putrid¹³ tasteand pasty feeling in the mouth, this unbearable¹⁴ pressure at theback of the throat, this sensation that my blood was turning toa thick syrup¹⁵ that barely flowed. Truly, by comparison, a tigerwas nothing.
And so I pushed aside all thoughts of Richard Parker andfearlessly went exploring for fresh water.
The divining rod in my mind dipped sharply and a springgushed water when I remembered that I was on a genuine,regulation lifeboat and that such a lifeboat was surely outfittedwith supplies. That seemed like a perfectly¹⁶ reasonableproposition. What captain would fail in so elementary a way toensure the safety of his crew? What ship chandler would notthink of making a little extra money under the noble guise¹⁷ ofsaving lives? It was settled. There was water aboard. All I hadto do was find it.
Which meant I had to move.
I made it to the middle of the boat, to the edge of thetarpaulin. It was a hard crawl. I felt I was climbing the side ofa volcano and I was about to look over the rim¹⁸ into a boilingcauldron of orange lava¹⁹. I lay flat. I carefully brought my headover. I did not look over any more than I had to. I did notsee Richard Parker. The hyena was plainly visible, though. Itwas back behind what was left of the zebra. It was looking atme.
I was no longer afraid of it. It wasn't ten feet away, yet myheart didn't skip a beat. Richard Parker's presence had at leastthat useful aspect. To be afraid of this ridiculous dog whenthere was a tiger about was like being afraid of splinters whentrees are falling down. I became very angry at the animal.
"You ugly, foul²⁰ creature," I muttered. The only reason I didn'tstand up and beat it off the lifeboat with a stick was lack ofstrength and stick, not lack of heart.
Did the hyena sense something of my mastery? Did it say toitself, "Super alpha is watching me – I better not move"? Idon't know. At any rate, it didn't move. In fact, in the way itducked its head it seemed to want to hide from me. But itwas no use hiding. It would get its just deserts soon enough.
Richard Parker also explained the animals' strange behaviour.
Now it was clear why the hyena had confined itself to such anabsurdly small space behind the zebra and why it had waitedso long before killing²¹ it. It was fear of the greater beast andfear of touching²² the greater beast's food. The strained,temporary peace between Orange Juice and the hyena, and myreprieve, were no doubt due to the same reason: in the faceof such a superior predator²³, all of us were prey²⁴, and normalways of preying²⁵ were affected²⁶. It seemed the presence of atiger had saved me from a hyena – surely a textbook exampleof jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
But the great beast was not behaving like a great beast, tosuch an extent that the hyena had taken liberties. RichardParker's passivity, and for three long days, needed explaining.
Only in two ways could I account for it: sedation andseasickness. Father regularly sedated²⁷ a number of the animalsto lessen²⁸ their stress. Might he have sedated Richard Parkershortly before the ship sank? Had the shock of the shipwreck– the noises, the falling into the sea, the terrible struggle toswim to the lifeboat – increased the effect of the sedative²⁹? Hadseasickness taken over after that? These were the only plausibleexplanations I could come up with.
I lost interest in the question. Only water interested me.
I took stock of the lifeboat.

1 tarpaulin   

n.涂油防水布，防水衣，防水帽

参考例句：

• The pool furniture was folded,stacked,and covered with a tarpaulin.游泳池的设备都已经折叠起来，堆在那里，还盖上了防水布。
• The pool furniture was folded,stacked,and covered with a tarpaulin.游泳池的设备都已经折叠起来，堆在那里，还盖上了防水布。

2 overcast   

adj.阴天的，阴暗的，愁闷的；v.遮盖，（使）变暗，包边缝；n.覆盖，阴天

参考例句：

• The overcast and rainy weather found out his arthritis.阴雨天使他的关节炎发作了。
• The sky is overcast with dark clouds.乌云满天。

3 sustenance   

n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计

参考例句：

• We derive our sustenance from the land.我们从土地获取食物。
• The urban homeless are often in desperate need of sustenance.城市里无家可归的人极其需要食物来维持生命。

4 delusion   

n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑

参考例句：

• He is under the delusion that he is Napoleon.他患了妄想症，认为自己是拿破仑。
• I was under the delusion that he intended to marry me.我误认为他要娶我。

5 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

6 perked   

（使）活跃( perk的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）增值； 使更有趣

参考例句：

• The recent demand for houses has perked up the prices. 最近对住房的需求使房价上涨了。
• You've perked up since this morning. 你今天上午精神就好多了。

7 hyena   

n.土狼，鬣狗

参考例句：

• African hyena noted for its distinctive howl.非洲鬣狗，以其特别的嚎叫而闻名。
• The hyena's public image is not aided by its ridiculous appearance.鬣狗滑稽的外表无助于改善它在公众心中的形象。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 asphyxiation   

n. 窒息

参考例句：

• Objective Inquiry into the heavy asphyxiation rescues measure of the new born. 摘要目的探讨新生儿重度窒息抢救的措施。
• Self-contained breathing apparatus(SCBA) may be required to prevent asphyxiation of rescue personnel. 可能要求有自给式呼吸器(SCBA)，以防止救援人员窒息。

10 suffocation   

n.窒息

参考例句：

• The greatest dangers of pyroclastic avalanches are probably heat and suffocation. 火成碎屑崩落的最大危害可能是炽热和窒息作用。 来自辞典例句
• The room was hot to suffocation. 房间热得闷人。 来自辞典例句

11 incarnate   

adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的

参考例句：

• She was happiness incarnate.她是幸福的化身。
• That enemy officer is a devil incarnate.那个敌军军官简直是魔鬼的化身。

12 raving   

adj.说胡话的；疯狂的，怒吼的；非常漂亮的；令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话；疯话adv.胡言乱语地；疯狂地

参考例句：

• The man's a raving lunatic. 那个男子是个语无伦次的疯子。
• When I told her I'd crashed her car, she went stark raving bonkers. 我告诉她我把她的车撞坏了时，她暴跳如雷。

13 putrid   

adj.腐臭的；有毒的；已腐烂的；卑劣的

参考例句：

• To eat putrid food is liable to get sick.吃了腐败的食物容易生病。
• A putrid smell drove us from the room.一股腐臭的气味迫使我们离开这房间。

14 unbearable   

adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的

参考例句：

• It is unbearable to be always on thorns.老是处于焦虑不安的情况中是受不了的。
• The more he thought of it the more unbearable it became.他越想越觉得无法忍受。

15 syrup   

n.糖浆，糖水

参考例句：

• I skimmed the foam from the boiling syrup.我撇去了煮沸糖浆上的泡沫。
• Tinned fruit usually has a lot of syrup with it.罐头水果通常都有许多糖浆。

16 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

17 guise   

n.外表，伪装的姿态

参考例句：

• They got into the school in the guise of inspectors.他们假装成视察员进了学校。
• The thief came into the house under the guise of a repairman.那小偷扮成个修理匠进了屋子。

18 rim   

n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界

参考例句：

• The water was even with the rim of the basin.盆里的水与盆边平齐了。
• She looked at him over the rim of her glass.她的目光越过玻璃杯的边沿看着他。

19 lava   

n.熔岩，火山岩

参考例句：

• The lava flowed down the sides of the volcano.熔岩沿火山坡面涌流而下。
• His anger spilled out like lava.他的愤怒像火山爆发似的迸发出来。

20 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

21 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

22 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

23 predator   

n.捕食其它动物的动物；捕食者

参考例句：

• The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
• Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。

24 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

25 preying   

v.掠食( prey的现在分词 )；掠食；折磨；（人）靠欺诈为生

参考例句：

• This problem has been preying on my mind all day. 这个问题让我伤了整整一天脑筋。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• For a while he let his eyes idly follow the preying bird. 他自己的眼睛随着寻食的鸟毫无目的地看了一会儿。 来自辞典例句

26 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

27 sedated   

v.使昏昏入睡，使镇静( sedate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She's sedated,but she's probably scared out of her mind. 她很安静，但是她可能已经吓疯了。 来自电影对白
• Are you telling me the porn actually sedated you? 你是要告诉我，那毛片的确让你镇静下来吗？ 来自电影对白

28 lessen   

vt.减少，减轻；缩小

参考例句：

• Regular exercise can help to lessen the pain.经常运动有助于减轻痛感。
• They've made great effort to lessen the noise of planes.他们尽力减小飞机的噪音。

29 sedative   

adj.使安静的，使镇静的；n. 镇静剂，能使安静的东西

参考例句：

• After taking a sedative she was able to get to sleep.服用了镇静剂后，她能够入睡了。
• Amber bath oil has a sedative effect.琥珀沐浴油有镇静安神效用。