Yet here was strong need of a lively reporter. In this drab war the least irregularity was a joy to all, and McMahon’s strongest course was to exploit the latent imagination of the General Staff. I believed in the Arab movement, and was confident, before ever I came, that in it was the idea to tear Turkey into pieces; but others in Egypt lacked faith, and had been taught nothing intelligent of the Arabs in the field. By noting down something of the spirit of these romantics in the hills about the Holy Cities I might gain the sympathy of Cairo for the further measures necessary to help them.
The men received me cheerfully. Beneath every great rock or hush4 they sprawled5 like lazy scorpions6, resting from the heat, and refreshing7 their brown limbs with the early coolness of the shaded stone. Because of my khaki they took me for a Turk-trained officer who had deserted8 to them, and were profuse9 in good-humoured but ghastly suggestions of how they should treat me. Most of them were young, though the term ‘fighting man’ in the Hejaz meant anyone between twelve and sixty sane10 enough to shoot. They were a tough-looking crowd, dark-coloured, some negroid. They were physically11 thin, but exquisitely12 made, moving with an oiled activity altogether delightful13 to watch. It did not seem possible that men could be hardier14 or harder. They would ride immense distances day after day, run through sand and over rocks bare-foot in the heat for hours without pain, and climb their hills like goats. Their clothing was mainly a loose shirt, with sometimes short cotton drawers, and a head-shawl usually of red cloth, which acted towel or handkerchief or sack as required. They were corrugated15 with bandoliers, and fired joy-shots when they could.
They were in wild spirits, shouting that the war might last ten years. It was the fattest time the hills had ever known. The Sherif was feeding not only the fighting men, but their families, and paying two pounds a month for a man, four for a camel. Nothing else would have performed the miracle of keeping a tribal16 army in the field for five months on end. It was our habit to sneer17 at Oriental soldiers’ love of pay; but the Hejaz campaign was a good example of the limitations of that argument. The Turks were offering great bribes18, and obtaining little service — no active service. The Arabs took their money, and gave gratifying assurances in exchange; yet these very tribes would be meanwhile in touch with Feisal, who obtained service for his payment. The Turks cut the throats of their prisoners with knives, as though they were butchering sheep. Feisal offered a reward of a pound a head for prisoners, and had many carried in to him unhurt. He also paid for captured mules20 or rifles.
The actual contingents21 were continually shifting, in obedience22 to the rule of flesh. A family would own a rifle, and the sons serve in turn for a few days each. Married men alternated between camp and wife, and sometimes a whole clan23 would become bored and take a rest. Consequently the paid men were more than those mobilized; and policy often gave to great sheikhs, as wages, money that was a polite bribe19 for friendly countenance24. Feisal’s eight thousand men were one in ten camel-corps and the rest hill-men. They served only under their tribal sheikhs, and near home, arranging their own food and transport. Nominally25 each sheikh had a hundred followers26. Sherifs acted as group leaders, in virtue27 of their privileged position, which raised them above the jealousies28 which shackled29 the tribesmen.
Blood feuds30 were nominally healed, and really suspended in the Sherifian area: Billi and Juheina, Ateiba and Ageyl living and fighting side by side in Feisal’s army. All the same, the members of one tribe were shy of those of another, and within the tribe no man would quite trust his neighbour. Each might be, usually was, wholehearted against the Turk, but perhaps not quite to the point of failing to work off a family grudge31 upon a family enemy in the field. Consequently they could not attack. One company of Turks firmly entrenched32 in open country could have defied the entire army of them; and a pitched defeat, with its casualties, would have ended the war by sheer horror.
I concluded that the tribesmen were good for defence only. Their acquisitive recklessness made them keen on booty, and whetted33 them to tear up railways, plunder34 caravans35, and steal camels; but they were too free-minded to endure command, or to fight in team. A man who could fight well by himself made generally a bad soldier, and these champions seemed to me no material for our drilling; but if we strengthened them by light automatic guns of the Lewis type, to be handled by themselves, they might be capable of holding their hills and serving as an efficient screen behind which we could build up, perhaps at Rabegh, an Arab regular mobile column, capable of meeting a Turkish force (distracted by guerilla warfare) on terms, and of defeating it piecemeal36. For such a body of real soldiers no recruits would be forthcoming from Hejaz. It would have to be formed of the heavy unwarlike Syrian and Mesopotamian towns-folk already in our hands, and officered by Arabic-speaking officers trained in the Turkish army, men of the type and history of Aziz el Masri or Maulud. They would eventually finish the war by striking, while the tribesmen skirmished about, and hindered and distracted the Turks by their pin-prick raids.
The Hejaz war, meanwhile, would be one of dervishes against regular troops. It was the fight of a rocky, mountainous, barren country (reinforced by a wild horde37 of mountaineers) against an enemy so enriched in equipment by the Germans as almost to have lost virtue for rough-and-tumble war. The hill-belt was a paradise for snipers; and Arabs were artists in sniping. Two or three hundred determined38 men knowing the ranges should hold any section of them; because the slopes were too steep for escalade. The valleys, which were the only practicable roads, for miles and miles were not so much valleys as chasms39 or gorges40, sometimes two hundred yards across, but sometimes only twenty, full of twists and turns, one thousand or four thousand feet deep, barren of cover, and flanked each side by pitiless granite41, basalt and porphyry, not in polished slopes, but serrated and split and piled up in thousands of jagged heaps of fragments as hard as metal and nearly as sharp.
It seemed to my unaccustomed eyes impossible that, without treachery on the part of the mountain tribes, the Turks could dare to break their way through. Even with treachery as an ally, to pass the hills would be dangerous. The enemy would never be sure that the fickle42 population might not turn again; and to have such a labyrinth43 of defiles44 in the rear, across the communications, would be worse than having it in front. Without the friendship of the tribes, the Turks would own only the ground on which their soldiers stood; and lines so long and complex would soak up thousands of men in a fortnight, and leave none in the battle-front.
The sole disquieting45 feature was the very real success of the Turks in frightening the Arabs by artillery46. Aziz el Masri in the Turk-Italian war in Tripoli had found the same terror, but had found also that it wore off. We might hope that the same would happen here; but for the moment the sound of a fired cannon47 sent every man within earshot behind cover. They thought weapons destructive in proportion to their noise. They were not afraid of bullets, not indeed overmuch of dying: just the manner of death by shell-fire was unendurable. It seemed to me that their moral confidence was to be restored only by having guns, useful or useless, but noisy, on their side. From the magnificent Feisal down to the most naked stripling in the army the theme was artillery, artillery, artillery.
When I told them of the landing of the five-inch howitzers at Rabegh they rejoiced. Such news nearly balanced in their minds the check of their last retreat down Wadi Safra. The guns would be of no real use to them: indeed, it seemed to me that they would do the Arabs positive harm; for their virtues48 lay in mobility49 and intelligence, and by giving them guns we hampered50 their movements and efficiency. Only if we did not give them guns they would quit.
At these close quarters the bigness of the revolt impressed me. This well-peopled province, from Una Lejj to Kunfida, more than a fortnight’s camel march, had suddenly changed its character from a rout51 of casual nomad52 pilferers to an eruption53 against Turkey, fighting her, not certainly in our manner, but fiercely enough, in spite of the religion which was to raise the East against us in a holy war. Beyond anything calculable in figures, we had let loose a passion of anti-Turkish feeling which, embittered54 as it had been by generations of subjection, might die very hard. There was among the tribes in the fighting zone a nervous enthusiasm common, I suppose, to all national risings, but strangely disquieting to one from a land so long delivered that national freedom had become like the water in our mouths, tasteless.
Later I saw Feisal again, and promised to do my best for him. My chiefs would arrange a base at Yenbo, where the stores and supplies he needed would be put ashore55 for his exclusive use. We would try to get him officer-volunteers from among the prisoners of war captured in Mesopotamia or on the Canal. We would form gun crews and machine-gun crews from the rank and file in the internment56 camps, and provide them with such mountain guns and light machine-guns as were obtainable in Egypt. Lastly, I would advise that British Army officers, professionals, be sent down to act as advisers57 and liaison58 officers with him in the field.
This time our talk was of the pleasantest, and ended in warm thanks from him, and an invitation to return as soon as might be. I explained that my duties in Cairo excluded field work, but perhaps my chiefs would let me pay a second visit later on, when his present wants were filled and his movement was going forward prosperously. Meanwhile I would ask for facilities to go down to Yenbo, for Egypt, that I might get things on foot promptly59. He at once appointed me an escort of fourteen Juheina Sherifs, all kinsmen60 of Mohamed Ali ibn Beidawi, the Emir of the Juheina. They were to deliver me intact in Yenbo to Sheikh Abd el Kadir el Abdo, its Governor.
点击收听单词发音
1 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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2 mistiness | |
n.雾,模糊,不清楚 | |
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3 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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4 hush | |
int.嘘,别出声;n.沉默,静寂;v.使安静 | |
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5 sprawled | |
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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6 scorpions | |
n.蝎子( scorpion的名词复数 ) | |
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7 refreshing | |
adj.使精神振作的,使人清爽的,使人喜欢的 | |
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8 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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9 profuse | |
adj.很多的,大量的,极其丰富的 | |
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10 sane | |
adj.心智健全的,神志清醒的,明智的,稳健的 | |
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11 physically | |
adj.物质上,体格上,身体上,按自然规律 | |
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12 exquisitely | |
adv.精致地;强烈地;剧烈地;异常地 | |
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13 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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14 hardier | |
能吃苦耐劳的,坚强的( hardy的比较级 ); (植物等)耐寒的 | |
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15 corrugated | |
adj.波纹的;缩成皱纹的;波纹面的;波纹状的v.(使某物)起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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16 tribal | |
adj.部族的,种族的 | |
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17 sneer | |
v.轻蔑;嘲笑;n.嘲笑,讥讽的言语 | |
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18 bribes | |
n.贿赂( bribe的名词复数 );向(某人)行贿,贿赂v.贿赂( bribe的第三人称单数 );向(某人)行贿,贿赂 | |
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19 bribe | |
n.贿赂;v.向…行贿,买通 | |
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20 mules | |
骡( mule的名词复数 ); 拖鞋; 顽固的人; 越境运毒者 | |
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21 contingents | |
(志趣相投、尤指来自同一地方的)一组与会者( contingent的名词复数 ); 代表团; (军队的)分遣队; 小分队 | |
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22 obedience | |
n.服从,顺从 | |
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23 clan | |
n.氏族,部落,宗族,家族,宗派 | |
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24 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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25 nominally | |
在名义上,表面地; 应名儿 | |
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26 followers | |
追随者( follower的名词复数 ); 用户; 契据的附面; 从动件 | |
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27 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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28 jealousies | |
n.妒忌( jealousy的名词复数 );妒羡 | |
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29 shackled | |
给(某人)带上手铐或脚镣( shackle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30 feuds | |
n.长期不和,世仇( feud的名词复数 ) | |
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31 grudge | |
n.不满,怨恨,妒嫉;vt.勉强给,不情愿做 | |
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32 entrenched | |
adj.确立的,不容易改的(风俗习惯) | |
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33 whetted | |
v.(在石头上)磨(刀、斧等)( whet的过去式和过去分词 );引起,刺激(食欲、欲望、兴趣等) | |
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34 plunder | |
vt.劫掠财物,掠夺;n.劫掠物,赃物;劫掠 | |
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35 caravans | |
(可供居住的)拖车(通常由机动车拖行)( caravan的名词复数 ); 篷车; (穿过沙漠地带的)旅行队(如商队) | |
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36 piecemeal | |
adj.零碎的;n.片,块;adv.逐渐地;v.弄成碎块 | |
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37 horde | |
n.群众,一大群 | |
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38 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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39 chasms | |
裂缝( chasm的名词复数 ); 裂口; 分歧; 差别 | |
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40 gorges | |
n.山峡,峡谷( gorge的名词复数 );咽喉v.(用食物把自己)塞饱,填饱( gorge的第三人称单数 );作呕 | |
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41 granite | |
adj.花岗岩,花岗石 | |
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42 fickle | |
adj.(爱情或友谊上)易变的,不坚定的 | |
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43 labyrinth | |
n.迷宫;难解的事物;迷路 | |
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44 defiles | |
v.玷污( defile的第三人称单数 );污染;弄脏;纵列行进 | |
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45 disquieting | |
adj.令人不安的,令人不平静的v.使不安,使忧虑,使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 ) | |
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46 artillery | |
n.(军)火炮,大炮;炮兵(部队) | |
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47 cannon | |
n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮 | |
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48 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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49 mobility | |
n.可动性,变动性,情感不定 | |
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50 hampered | |
妨碍,束缚,限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51 rout | |
n.溃退,溃败;v.击溃,打垮 | |
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52 nomad | |
n.游牧部落的人,流浪者,游牧民 | |
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53 eruption | |
n.火山爆发;(战争等)爆发;(疾病等)发作 | |
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54 embittered | |
v.使怨恨,激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55 ashore | |
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸 | |
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56 internment | |
n.拘留 | |
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57 advisers | |
顾问,劝告者( adviser的名词复数 ); (指导大学新生学科问题等的)指导教授 | |
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58 liaison | |
n.联系,(未婚男女间的)暖昧关系,私通 | |
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59 promptly | |
adv.及时地,敏捷地 | |
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60 kinsmen | |
n.家属,亲属( kinsman的名词复数 ) | |
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