Next to them rode Sherif Mohammed Ali abu Sharrain, an old patriarch with a long, curling grey beard and an upright carriage of himself. His three hundred riders were Ashraf, of the Aiaishi (Juheina) stock, known Sherifs, but only acknowledged in the mass, since they had not inscribed4 pedigrees. They wore rusty-red tunics5 henna-dyed, under black cloaks, and carried swords. Each had a slave crouched6 behind him on the crupper to help him with rifle and dagger7 in the fight, and to watch his camel and cook for him on the road. The slaves, as befitted slaves of poor masters, were very little dressed. Their strong, black legs gripped the camels’ woolly sides as in a vice8, to lessen9 the shocks inevitable10 on their bony perches11, while they had knotted up their rags of shirts into the plaited thong12 about their loins to save them from the fouling13 of the camels and their staling on the march. Semna water was medicinal, and our animals’ dung flowed like green soup down their hocks that day.
Behind the Ashraf came the crimson14 banner of our last tribal15 detachment, the Rifaa, under Owdi ibn Zuweid, the old wheedling16 sea-pirate who had robbed the Stotzingen Mission and thrown their wireless17 and their Indian servants into the sea at Yenbo. The sharks presumably refused the wireless, but we had spent fruitless hours dragging for it in the harbour. Owdi still wore a long, rich, fur-lined German officer’s greatcoat, a garment little suited to the climate but, as he insisted, magnificent booty. He had about a thousand men, three-quarters of them on foot, and next him marched Rasim, the gunner commandant, with his four old Krupp guns on the pack-mules, just as we had lifted them from the Egyptian Army.
Rasim was a sardonic18 Damascene, who rose laughing to every crisis and slunk about sore-headed with grievances19 when things went well. On this day there were dreadful murmurings, for alongside him rode Abdulla el Deleimi, in charge of machine-guns, a quick, clever, superficial but attractive officer, much of the professional type, whose great joy was to develop some rankling20 sorrow in Rasim till it discharged full blast on Feisal or myself. To-day I helped him by smiling to Rasim that we were moving at intervals21 of a quarter-day in echelon22 of sub-tribes. Rasim looked over the new-washed underwood, where raindrops glistened23 in the light of the sun setting redly across the waves below a ceiling of clouds, and looked too at the wild mob of Beduins racing24 here and there on foot after birds and rabbits and giant lizards25 and jerboas and one another: and assented26 sourly, saying that he too would shortly become a sub-tribe, and echelon himself half a day to one side or other, and be quit of flies.
At first starting a man in the crowd had shot a hare from the saddle, but because of the risk of wild shooting Feisal had then forbidden it, and those later put up by our camels’ feet were chased with sticks. We laughed at the sudden commotion27 in the marching companies: cries, and camels swerving28 violently, their riders leaping off and laying out wildly with their canes29 to kill or to be pickers-up of a kill. Feisal was happy to see the army win so much meat, but disgusted at the shameless Juheina appetite for lizards and jerboas.
We rode over the flat sand, among the thorn trees, which here were plentiful30 and large, till we came out on the sea-beach and turned northward31 along a broad, well-beaten track, the Egyptian pilgrim road. It ran within fifty yards of the sea, and we could go up it thirty or forty singing files abreast32. An old lava-bed half buried in sand jutted33 out from the hills four or five miles inland, and made a promontory34. The road cut across this, but at the near side were some mud flats, on which shallow reaches of water burned in the last light of the west. This was our expected stage, and Feisal signalled the halt. We got off our camels and stretched ourselves, sat down or walked before supper to the sea and bathed by hundreds, a splashing, screaming, mob of fish-like naked men of all earth’s colours.
Supper was to look forward to, as a Juheina that afternoon had shot a gazelle for Feisal. Gazelle meat we found better than any other in the desert, because this beast, however barren the land and dry the water-holes, seemed to own always a fat juicy body.
The meal was the expected success. We retired35 early, feeling too full: but soon after Newcombe and myself had stretched out in our tent we were quickened by a wave of excitement travelling up the lines; running camels, shots, and shouts. A breathless slave thrust his head under the flap crying, ‘News! news! Sherif Bey is taken’. I jumped up and ran through the gathering36 crowd to Feisal’s tent, which was already beset37 by friends and servants. With Feisal sat, portentously38 and unnaturally39 collected in the din40, Raja, the tribesman who had taken to Abdulla word to move into Wadi Ais. Feisal was radiant, his eyes swollen41 with joy, as he jumped up and shouted to me through the voices, ‘Abdulla has captured Eshref Bey’. Then I knew how big and good the event was.
Eshref was a notorious adventurer in the lower levels of Turkish politics. In his boyhood, near his Smyrna home, he had been just a brigand42, but with years he became a revolutionary, and when he was finally captured Abd el Hamid exiled him to Medina for five coloured years. At first he was closely confined there, but one day he broke the privy43 window and escaped to Shehad, the bibulous44 Emir, in his suburb of Awali. Shahad was, as usual, at war with the Turks and gave him sanctuary45; but Eshref, finding ME dull, at last borrowed a fine mare46 and rode to the Turkish barracks. On its square was the officer-son of his enemy the Governor drilling a company of gendarmes47. He galloped48 him down, slung49 him across his saddle, and made away before the astonished police could protest.
He took to Jebel Ohod, an uninhabited place, driving his prisoner before him, calling him his ass3, and lading upon him thirty loaves and the skins of water necessary for their nourishment50. To recover his son, the Pasha gave Eshref liberty on parole and five hundred pounds. He bought camels, a tent, and a wife, and wandered among the tribes till the Young Turk revolution. Then he reappeared in Constantinople and became a bravo, doing Enver’s murders. His services earned the appointment of inspector51 of refugee-relief in Macedonia, and he retired a year later with an assured income from landed estate.
When war broke out he went down to Medina with funds, and letters from the Sultan to Arabian neutrals; his mission being to open communications with the isolated52 Turkish garrison53 in Yemen. His track on the first stage of the journey had happened to cross Abdulla’s, on his way to Wadi Ais, near Kheibar, and some of the Arabs, watching their camels during a midday halt, had been stopped by Eshref’s men and questioned. They said they were Heteym, and Abdulla’s army a supply caravan54 going to Medina. Eshref released one with orders to bring the rest for examination, and this man told Abdulla of soldiers camped up on the hill.
Abdulla was puzzled and sent horsemen to investigate. A minute later he was startled by the sudden chatter55 of a machine-gun. He leaped to the conclusion that the Turks had sent out a flying column to cut him off, and ordered his mounted men to charge them desperately56. They galloped over the machine-gun, with few casualties, and scattered57 the Turks. Eshref fled on foot to the hill-top. Abdulla offered a reward of a thousand pounds for him; and near dusk he was found, wounded, and captured by Sherif Fauzan el Harith, in a stiff fight.
In the baggage were twenty thousand pounds in coin, robes of honour, costly58 presents, some interesting papers, and camel loads of rifles and pistols. Abdulla wrote an exultant59 letter to Fakhri Pasha (telling him of the capture), and nailed it to an uprooted60 telegraph pole between the metals, when he crossed the railway next night on his unimpeded way to Wadi Ais. Raja had left him there, camped in quiet and in ease. The news was a double fortune for us.
Between the joyful61 men slipped the sad figure of the Imam, who raised his hand. Silence fell for an instant. Hear me,’ he said, and intoned an ode in praise of the event, to the effect that Abdulla was especially favoured, and had attained62 quickly to the glory which Feisal was winning slowly but surely by hard work. The poem was creditable as the issue of only sixteen minutes, and the poet was rewarded in gold. Then Feisal saw a gaudy63 jewelled dagger at Raja’s belt. Raja stammered64 it was Eshref’s. Feisal threw him his own and pulled the other off, to give it in the end to Colonel Wilson. What did my brother say to Eshref?’ Is this your return for our hospitality?’ While Eshref had replied like Suckling, ‘I can fight, Whether I am the wrong or right, Devoutly65!’
‘How many millions did the Arabs get?’ gasped66 greedy old Mohammed Ali, when he heard of Abdulla to the elbows in the captured chest, flinging gold by handfuls to the tribes. Raja was everywhere in hot demand, and he slept a richer man that night, deservedly, for Abdulla’s march to Ais made the Medina situation sure. With Murray pressing in Sinai, Feisal nearing Wejh, and Abdulla between Wejh and Medina, the position of the Turks in Arabia became defensive67 only. The tide of our ill-fortune had turned; and the camp seeing our glad faces was noisy until dawn.
Next day we rode easily. A breakfast suggested itself, upon our finding some more little water-pools, in a bare valley flowing down from El Sukhur, a group of three extraordinary hills like granite68 bubbles blown through the earth. The journey was pleasant, for it was cool; there were a lot of us; and we two Englishmen had a tent in which we could shut ourselves up and be alone. A weariness of the desert was the living always in company, each of the party hearing all that was said and seeing all that was done by the others day and night. Yet the craving69 for solitude70 seemed part of the delusion71 of self-sufficiency, a factitious making-rare of the person to enhance its strangeness in its own estimation. To have privacy, as Newcombe and I had, was ten thousand times more restful than the open life, but the work suffered by the creation of such a bar between the leaders and men. Among the Arabs there were no distinctions, traditional or natural, except the unconscious power given a famous sheikh by virtue72 of his accomplishment73; and they taught me that no man could be their leader except he ate the ranks’ food, wore their clothes, lived level with them, and yet appeared better in himself.
In the morning we pressed towards Abu Zereibat with the early sun incandescent74 in a cloudless sky, and the usual eye-racking dazzle and dance of sunbeams on polished sand or polished flint. Our path rose slightly at a sharp limestone75 ridge76 with eroded77 flanks, and we looked over a sweeping78 fall of bare, black gravel79 between us and the sea, which now lay about eight miles to the westward: but invisible.
Once we halted and began to feel that a great depression lay in front of us; but not till two in the afternoon after we had crossed a basalt outcrop did we look out over a trough fifteen miles across, which was Wadi Hamdh, escaped from the hills. On the north-west spread the great delta80 through which Hamdh spilled itself by twenty mouths; and we saw the dark lines, which were thickets81 of scrub in the flood channels of the dried beds, twisting in and out across the flat from the hill-edge beneath us, till they were lost in the sun-haze thirty miles away beyond us to our left, near the invisible sea. Behind Hamdh rose sheer from the plain a double hill, Jebel Raal: hog-backed but for a gash82 which split it in the middle. To our eyes, sated with small things, it was a fair sight, this end of a dry river longer than the Tigris; the greatest valley in Arabia, first understood by Doughty83, and as yet unexplored; while Raal was a fine hill, sharp and distinctive84, which did honour to the Hamdh.
Full of expectation we rode down the gravel slopes, on which tufts of grass became more frequent, till at three o’clock we entered the Wadi itself. It proved a bed about a mile wide, filled with clumps85 of asla bushes, round which clung sandy hillocks each a few feet high. Their sand was not pure, but seamed with lines of dry and brittle86 clay, last indications of old flood levels. These divided them sharply into layers, rotten with salty mud and flaking87 away, so that our camels sank in, fetlock-deep, with a crunching88 noise like breaking pastry89. The dust rose up in thick clouds, thickened yet more by the sunlight held in them; for the dead air of the hollow was a-dazzle.
The ranks behind could not see where they were going, which was difficult for them, as the hillocks came closer together, and the river-bed slit90 into a maze91 of shallow channels, the work of partial floods year after year. Before we gained the middle of the valley everything was over-grown by brushwood, which sprouted92 sideways from the mounds93 and laced one to another with tangled94 twigs95 as dry, dusty and brittle as old bone. We tucked in the streamers of our gaudy saddle-bags, to prevent their being jerked off by the bushes, drew cloaks tight over our clothes, bent96 our heads down to guard our eyes and crashed through like a storm amongst reeds. The dust was blinding and choking, and the snapping of the branches, grumbles97 of the camels, shouts and laughter of the men, made a rare adventure.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
persistently
|
|
| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
westward
|
|
| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
ass
|
|
| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
inscribed
|
|
| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
tunics
|
|
| n.（动植物的）膜皮( tunic的名词复数 )；束腰宽松外衣；一套制服的短上衣；（天主教主教等穿的）短祭袍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
crouched
|
|
| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
dagger
|
|
| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
vice
|
|
| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
lessen
|
|
| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
inevitable
|
|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
perches
|
|
| 栖息处( perch的名词复数 )； 栖枝； 高处； 鲈鱼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
thong
|
|
| n.皮带；皮鞭；v.装皮带 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
fouling
|
|
| n.（水管、枪筒等中的）污垢v.使污秽( foul的现在分词 )；弄脏；击球出界；（通常用废物）弄脏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
crimson
|
|
| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
tribal
|
|
| adj.部族的，种族的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
wheedling
|
|
| v.骗取（某物），哄骗（某人干某事）( wheedle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
wireless
|
|
| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
sardonic
|
|
| adj.嘲笑的，冷笑的，讥讽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
grievances
|
|
| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
rankling
|
|
| v.（使）痛苦不已，（使）怨恨不已( rankle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
intervals
|
|
| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
echelon
|
|
| n.梯队；组织系统中的等级；v.排成梯队 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
glistened
|
|
| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
racing
|
|
| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
lizards
|
|
| n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
assented
|
|
| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
commotion
|
|
| n.骚动，动乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
swerving
|
|
| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
canes
|
|
| n.（某些植物，如竹或甘蔗的）茎( cane的名词复数 )；（用于制作家具等的）竹竿；竹杖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
plentiful
|
|
| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
northward
|
|
| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
abreast
|
|
| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
jutted
|
|
| v.（使）突出( jut的过去式和过去分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
promontory
|
|
| n.海角；岬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
retired
|
|
| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
gathering
|
|
| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
beset
|
|
| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
portentously
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
unnaturally
|
|
| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
din
|
|
| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
swollen
|
|
| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
brigand
|
|
| n.土匪，强盗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
privy
|
|
| adj.私用的；隐密的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
bibulous
|
|
| adj.高度吸收的，酗酒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
sanctuary
|
|
| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
mare
|
|
| n.母马，母驴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
gendarmes
|
|
| n.宪兵，警官( gendarme的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
galloped
|
|
| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
slung
|
|
| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
nourishment
|
|
| n.食物，营养品；营养情况 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
inspector
|
|
| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
isolated
|
|
| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
garrison
|
|
| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
caravan
|
|
| n.大蓬车；活动房屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
chatter
|
|
| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
desperately
|
|
| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
scattered
|
|
| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
costly
|
|
| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
exultant
|
|
| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
uprooted
|
|
| v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的过去式和过去分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
joyful
|
|
| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
attained
|
|
| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
gaudy
|
|
| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
stammered
|
|
| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
devoutly
|
|
| adv.虔诚地，虔敬地，衷心地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
gasped
|
|
| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
defensive
|
|
| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
granite
|
|
| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
craving
|
|
| n.渴望,热望 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
solitude
|
|
| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
delusion
|
|
| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
virtue
|
|
| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
accomplishment
|
|
| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
incandescent
|
|
| adj.遇热发光的， 白炽的，感情强烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
limestone
|
|
| n.石灰石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
ridge
|
|
| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
eroded
|
|
| adj. 被侵蚀的，有蚀痕的 动词erode的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
sweeping
|
|
| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
gravel
|
|
| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
delta
|
|
| n.（流的）角洲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
thickets
|
|
| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
gash
|
|
| v.深切，划开；n.(深长的)切(伤)口；裂缝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
doughty
|
|
| adj.勇猛的，坚强的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
distinctive
|
|
| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
clumps
|
|
| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
brittle
|
|
| adj.易碎的；脆弱的；冷淡的；(声音)尖利的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
flaking
|
|
| 刨成片，压成片； 盘网 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
crunching
|
|
| v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
pastry
|
|
| n.油酥面团，酥皮糕点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
slit
|
|
| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
maze
|
|
| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
sprouted
|
|
| v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
mounds
|
|
| 土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
tangled
|
|
| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
twigs
|
|
| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
grumbles
|
|
| 抱怨( grumble的第三人称单数 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |