One high horn shrilled2 and ceased. The silence that followed was shaken only by the sound of many footsteps keeping time with a drum struck softly at a slow heartpace. Through cracks in the roof of the Hall of the Throne, gaps between columns where a whole section of masonry3 and tile had collapsed4, unsteady sunlight shone aslant5. It was an hour after sunrise. The air was still and cold. Dead leaves of weeds that had forced up between marble pavement-tiles were outlined with frost, and crackled, catching7 on the long black robes of the priestesses.
They came, four by four, down the vast hall between double rows of columns. The drum beat dully. No voice spoke8, no eye watched. Torches carried by black-clad girls burned reddish in the shafts9 of sunlight, brighter in the dusk between. Outside, on the steps of the Hall of the Throne, the men stood, guards, trumpeters, drummers; within the great doors only women had come, dark-robed and hooded11, walking slowly four by four towards the empty throne.
Two came, tall women looming13 in their black, one of them thin and rigid14, the other heavy, swaying with the planting of her feet. Between these two walked a child of about six. She wore a straight white shift. Her head and arms and legs were bare, and she was barefoot. She looked extremely small. At the foot of the steps leading up to the throne, where the others now waited in dark rows, the two tall women halted. They pushed the child forward a little.
The throne on its high platform seemed to be curtained on each side with great webs of blackness dropping from the gloom of the roof; whether these were curtains, or only denser15 shadows, the eye could not make certain. The throne itself was black, with a dull glimmer16 of precious stones or gold on the arms and back, and it was huge. A man sitting in it would have been dwarfed17; it was not of human dimensions. It was empty. Nothing sat in it but shadows.
Alone, the child climbed up four of the seven steps of red-veined marble. They were so broad and high that she had to get both feet onto one step before attempting the next. On the middle step, directly in front of the throne, stood a large, rough block of wood, hollowed out on top. The child knelt on both knees and fitted her head into the hollow, turning it a little sideways. She knelt there without moving.
A figure in a belted gown of white wool stepped suddenly out of the shadows at the right of the throne and strode down the steps to the child. His face was masked with white. He held a sword of polished steel five feet long. Without word or hesitation18 he swung the sword, held in both hands, up over the little girl's neck. The drum stopped beating.
As the blade swung to its highest point and poised19, a figure in black darted20 out from the left side of the throne, leapt down the stairs, and stayed the sacrificer's arms with slenderer arms. The sharp edge of the sword glittered in mid-air. So they balanced for a moment, the white figure and the black, both faceless, dancer-like above the motionless child whose white neck was bared by the parting of her black hair.
In silence each leapt aside and up the stairs again, vanishing in the darkness behind the enormous throne. A priestess came forward and poured out a bowl of some liquid on the steps beside the kneeling child. The stain looked black in the dimness of the hall.
The child got up and descended21 the four stairs laboriously22. When she stood at the bottom, the two tall priestesses put on her a black robe and hood10 and mantle23, and turned her around again to face the steps, the dark stain, the throne.
"O let the Nameless Ones behold24 the girl given to them, who is verily the one born ever nameless. Let them accept her life and the years of her life until her death, which is also theirs. Let them find her acceptable. Let her be eaten!"
Other voices, shrill1 and harsh as trumpets25, replied: "She is eaten! She is eaten!"
The little girl stood looking from under her black cowl up at the throne. The jewels inset in the huge clawed arms and the back were glazed26 with dust, and on the carven back were cobwebs and whitish stains of owl12 droppings. The three highest steps directly before the throne, above the step on which she had knelt, had never been climbed by mortal feet. They were so thick with dust that they looked like one slant6 of gray soil, the planes of the red-veined marble wholly hidden by the unstirred, untrodden siftings of how many years, how many centuries.
"She is eaten! She is eaten!"
Now the drum, abrupt27, began to sound again, beating a quicker pace.
Silent and shuffling28, the procession formed and moved away from the throne, eastward29 towards the bright, distant square of the doorway30. On either side, the thick double columns, like the calves31 of immense pale legs, went up to the dusk under the ceiling. Among the priestesses, and now all in black like them, the child walked, her small bare feet treading solemnly over the frozen weeds, the icy stones. When sunlight slanting32 through the ruined roof flashed across her way, she did not look up.
Guards held the great doors wide. The black procession came out into the thin, cold light and wind of early morning. The sun dazzled, swimming above the eastern vastness. Westward33, the mountains caught its yellow light, as did the facade34 of the Hall of the Throne. The other buildings, lower on the hill, still lay in purplish shadow, except for the Temple of the God-Brothers across the way on a little knoll35: its roof, newly gilt36, flashed the day back in glory. The black line of priestesses, four by four, wound down the Hill of the Tombs, and as they went they began softly to chant. The tune37 was on three notes only, and the word that was repeated over and over was a word so old it had lost its meaning, like a signpost still standing38 when the road is gone. Over and over they chanted the empty word. All that day of the Remaking of the Priestess was filled with the low chanting of women's voices, a dry unceasing drone.
The little girl was taken from room to room, from temple to temple. In one place salt was placed upon her tongue; in another she knelt facing west while her hair was cut short and washed with oil and scented39 vinegar; in another she lay face down on a slab40 of black marble behind an altar while shrill voices sang a lament41 for the dead. Neither she nor any of the priestesses ate food or drank water all that day. As the evening star set, the little girl was put to bed, naked between sheepskin rugs, in a room she had never slept in before. It was in a house that had been locked for years, unlocked only that day. The room was higher than it was long, and had no windows. There was a dead smell in it, still and stale. The silent women left her there in the dark.
She held still, lying just as they had put her. Her eyes were wide open. She lay so for a long time.
She saw light shake on the high wall. Someone came quietly along the corridor, shielding a rushlight so it showed no more light than a firefly. A husky whisper: "Ho, are you there, Tenar?"
The child did not reply.
A head poked42 in the doorway, a strange head, hairless as a peeled potato, and of the same yellowish color. The eyes were like potato-eyes, brown and tiny. The nose was dwarfed by great, fiat43 slabs44 of cheek, and the mouth was a lipless slit45. The child stared unmoving at this face. Her eyes were large, dark, and fixed46.
"Ho, Tenar, my little honeycomb, there you are!" The voice was husky, high as a woman's voice but not a woman's voice. "I shouldn't be here, I belong outside the door, on the porch, that's where I go. But I had to see how my little Tenar is, after all the long day of it, eh, how's my poor little honeycomb?"
He moved towards her, noiseless and burly, and put out his hand as if to smooth back her hair.
"I am not Tenar any more," the child said, staring up at him. His hand stopped; he did not touch her.
"No," he said, after a moment, whispering. "I know. I know. Now you're the little Eaten One. But I..."
She said nothing.
"It was a hard day for a little one," the man said, shuffling, the tiny light flickering47 in his big yellow hand.
"You should not be in this House, Manan."
"No. No. I know. I shouldn't be in this House. Well, good night, little one... Good night."
The child said nothing. Manan slowly turned around and went away. The glimmer died from the high cell walls. The little girl, who had no name any more but Arha, the Eaten One, lay on her back looking steadily48 at the dark.
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1
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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shrilled
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| （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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masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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aslant
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| adv.倾斜地；adj.斜的 | |
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slant
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| v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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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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shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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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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denser
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| adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的 | |
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glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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dwarfed
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| vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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laboriously
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| adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地 | |
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mantle
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| n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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trumpets
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| 喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 )； 小号； 喇叭形物； （尤指）绽开的水仙花 | |
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glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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shuffling
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| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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31
calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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facade
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| n.(建筑物的)正面，临街正面；外表 | |
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knoll
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| n.小山，小丘 | |
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gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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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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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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scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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40
slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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lament
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| n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹 | |
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42
poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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43
fiat
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| n.命令，法令，批准；vt.批准，颁布 | |
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slabs
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| n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片 | |
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45
slit
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| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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46
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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47
flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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48
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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