Abdullah and his friends, Shakir, Fauzan, and the two sons of Hamza among the Sherifs, with Sultan el Abbud and Hoshan, from the Ateiba, and ibn Mesfer, the guest-master, would spend much of the day and all the evening hours tormenting9 Mohammed Hassan. They stabbed him with thorns, stoned him, dropped sun-heated pebbles10 down his back, set him on fire. Sometimes the jest would be elaborate, as when they laid a powder trail under the rugs, and lured11 Mohammed Hassan to sit on its end. Once Abdullah shot a coffee-pot off his head thrice from twenty yards, and then rewarded his long-suffering servility with three months’ pay.
Abdullah would sometimes ride a little, or shoot a little, and return exhausted12 to his tent for massage13; and afterwards reciters would be introduced to soothe14 his aching head. He was fond of Arabic verses and exceptionally well read. The local poets found him a profitable audience. He was also interested in history and letters, and would have grammatical disputations in his tent and adjudge money prizes.
He affected15 to have no care for the Hejaz situation, regarding the autonomy of the Arabs as assured by the promises of Great Britain to his father, and leaning at ease against this prop16. I longed to tell him that the half-witted old man had obtained from us no concrete or unqualified undertaking17 of any sort, and that their ship might founder18 on the bar of his political stupidity; but that would have been to give away my English masters, and the mental tug19 of war between honesty and loyalty20, after swaying a while, settled again expediently21 into deadlock22.
Abdulla professed23 great interest in the war in Europe, and studied it closely in the Press. He was also acquainted with Western politics, and had learned by rote24 the courts and ministries25 of Europe, even to the name of the Swiss President. I remarked again how much the comfortable circumstance that we still had a King made for the reputation of England in this world of Asia. Ancient and artificial societies like this of the Sherifs and feudal26 chieftains of Arabia found a sense of honourable27 security when dealing28 with us in such proof that the highest place in our state was not a prize for merit or ambition.
Time slowly depressed29 my first, favourable30, opinion of Abdulla’s character. His constant ailments31, which once aroused compassion32, became fitter for contempt when their causes were apparent in laziness and self-indulgence, and when he was seen to cherish them as occupations of his too-great leisure. His casual attractive fits of arbitrariness now seemed feeble tyranny disguised as whims33; his friendliness34 became caprice; his good humour love of pleasure. The leaven35 of insincerity worked through all the fibres of his being. Even his simplicity36 appeared false upon experience; and inherited religious prejudice was allowed rule over the keenness of his mind because it was less trouble to him than uncharted thought. His brain often betrayed its intricate pattern, disclosing idea twisted tightly over idea into a strong cord of design; and thus his indolence marred37 his scheming, too. The webs were constantly unravelling38 through his carelessness in leaving them unfinished. Yet they never separated into straight desires, or grew into effective desires. Always he watched out of the corner of his bland39 and open eye our returns to his innocent-sounding questions, reading an insect-subtlety40 of significant meaning into every hesitation41 or uncertainty42 or honest mistake.
One day I entered to find him sitting upright and wide-eyed with a spot of red in either cheek. Sergeant43 Frost, his old tutor, had just come from Colonel Bremond, innocent bearer of a letter which pointed44 out how the British were wrapping up the Arabs on all sides — at Aden, at Gaza, at Bagdad — and hoped that Abdulla realized his situation. He asked hotly what I thought of it. In answer, I fell back on artifice45, and replied in a pretty phrase that I hoped he would suspect our honesty when he found us backbiting46 our allies in private letters. The delicately poisoned Arabic pleased him, and he paid us the edged compliment of saying that he knew we were sincere, since otherwise we would not be represented at Jeddah by Colonel Wilson. There, characteristically, his subtlety hanged itself, not perceiving the double subtlety which negatived him. He did not understand that honesty might be the best-paying cat’s paw of rogues47, and Wilson, too, downright readily or quickly to suspect evil in the dignitaries above him.
Wilson never told even a half-truth. If instructed to inform the King diplomatically that the subsidy48 of the month could not at present be increased, he would ring up Mecca and say, ‘Lord, Lord, there is no more money’. As for lying, he was not merely incapable49 of it, but also shrewd enough to know that it was the worst gambit against players whose whole life had passed in a mist of deceits, and whose perceptions were of the finest. The Arab leaders showed a completeness of instinct, a reliance upon intuition, the unperceived foreknown, which left our centrifugal minds gasping50. Like women, they understood and judged quickly, effortlessly, unreasonably51. It almost seemed as though the Oriental exclusion52 of woman from politics had conferred her particular gifts upon the men. Some of the speed and secrecy53 of our victory, and its regularity54, might perhaps be ascribed to this double endowment’s offsetting55 and emphasizing the rare feature that from end to end of it there was nothing female in the Arab movement, but the camels.
The outstanding figure of Abdulla’s entourage was Sherif Shakir, a man of twenty-nine, and companion since boyhood of the four Emirs. His mother was Circassian, as had been his grandmother. From them he obtained his fair complexion56; but the flesh of his face was torn away by smallpox57. From its white ruin two restless eyes looked out, very bright and big; for the faintness of his eyelashes and eyebrows58 made his stare directly disconcerting. His figure was tall, slim, almost boyish from the continual athletic59 activity of the man. His sharp, decided60, but pleasant voice frayed61 out if he shouted. His manner while delightfully62 frank, was abrupt63, indeed imperious; with a humour as cracked as his cackling laugh.
This bursting freedom of speech seemed to respect nothing on earth except King Hussein: towards himself he exacted deference64, more so than did Abdulla, who was always playing tricks with his companions, the bevy65 of silk-clad fellows who came about him when he would be easy. Shakir joined wildly in the sport, but would smartingly punish a liberty. He dressed simply, but very cleanly, and, like Abdulla, spent public hours with toothpick and toothstick. He took no interest in books and never wearied his head with meditation66, but was intelligent and interesting in talk. He was devout67, but hated Mecca, and played backgammon while Abdulla read the Koran. Yet by fits he would pray interminably.
In war he was the man at arms. His feats68 made him the darling of the tribes. He, in return, described himself as a Bedawi, and an Ateibi, and imitated them. He wore his black hair in plaits down each side of his face, and kept it glossy69 with butter, and strong by frequent washings in camel urine. He encouraged nits, in deference to the Beduin proverb that a deserted70 head showed an ungenerous mind: and wore the brim, a plaited girdle of thin leathern thongs71 wrapped three or four times round the loins to confine and support the belly72. He owned splendid horses and camels: was considered the finest rider in Arabia: ready for a match with anyone.
Shakir gave me the sense that he preferred a fit of energy to sustained effort: but there was balance and shrewdness behind his mad manner. Sherif Hussein had used him on embassies to Cairo before the war, to arrange private business with the Khedive of Egypt. The Beduin figure must have looked strange in the stucco splendour of the Abdin. Abdulla had unlimited73 admiration74 for Shakir and tried to see the world with his eyes of gay carelessness. Between them they seriously complicated my mission to Wadi Ais.
点击收听单词发音
1 sociable | |
adj.好交际的,友好的,合群的 | |
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2 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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3 futility | |
n.无用 | |
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4 futile | |
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的 | |
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5 suppliants | |
n.恳求者,哀求者( suppliant的名词复数 ) | |
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6 adherents | |
n.支持者,拥护者( adherent的名词复数 );党羽;徒子徒孙 | |
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7 nominally | |
在名义上,表面地; 应名儿 | |
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8 tiresome | |
adj.令人疲劳的,令人厌倦的 | |
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9 tormenting | |
使痛苦的,使苦恼的 | |
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10 pebbles | |
[复数]鹅卵石; 沙砾; 卵石,小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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11 lured | |
吸引,引诱(lure的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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12 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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13 massage | |
n.按摩,揉;vt.按摩,揉,美化,奉承,篡改数据 | |
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14 soothe | |
v.安慰;使平静;使减轻;缓和;奉承 | |
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15 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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16 prop | |
vt.支撑;n.支柱,支撑物;支持者,靠山 | |
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17 undertaking | |
n.保证,许诺,事业 | |
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18 Founder | |
n.创始者,缔造者 | |
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19 tug | |
v.用力拖(或拉);苦干;n.拖;苦干;拖船 | |
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20 loyalty | |
n.忠诚,忠心 | |
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21 expediently | |
adv.方便地,得当地,便利地 | |
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22 deadlock | |
n.僵局,僵持 | |
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23 professed | |
公开声称的,伪称的,已立誓信教的 | |
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24 rote | |
n.死记硬背,生搬硬套 | |
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25 ministries | |
(政府的)部( ministry的名词复数 ); 神职; 牧师职位; 神职任期 | |
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26 feudal | |
adj.封建的,封地的,领地的 | |
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27 honourable | |
adj.可敬的;荣誉的,光荣的 | |
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28 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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29 depressed | |
adj.沮丧的,抑郁的,不景气的,萧条的 | |
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30 favourable | |
adj.赞成的,称赞的,有利的,良好的,顺利的 | |
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31 ailments | |
疾病(尤指慢性病),不适( ailment的名词复数 ) | |
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32 compassion | |
n.同情,怜悯 | |
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33 WHIMS | |
虚妄,禅病 | |
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34 friendliness | |
n.友谊,亲切,亲密 | |
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35 leaven | |
v.使发酵;n.酵母;影响 | |
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36 simplicity | |
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯 | |
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37 marred | |
adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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38 unravelling | |
解开,拆散,散开( unravel的现在分词 ); 阐明; 澄清; 弄清楚 | |
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39 bland | |
adj.淡而无味的,温和的,无刺激性的 | |
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40 subtlety | |
n.微妙,敏锐,精巧;微妙之处,细微的区别 | |
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41 hesitation | |
n.犹豫,踌躇 | |
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42 uncertainty | |
n.易变,靠不住,不确知,不确定的事物 | |
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43 sergeant | |
n.警官,中士 | |
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44 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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45 artifice | |
n.妙计,高明的手段;狡诈,诡计 | |
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46 backbiting | |
背后诽谤 | |
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47 rogues | |
n.流氓( rogue的名词复数 );无赖;调皮捣蛋的人;离群的野兽 | |
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48 subsidy | |
n.补助金,津贴 | |
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49 incapable | |
adj.无能力的,不能做某事的 | |
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50 gasping | |
adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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51 unreasonably | |
adv. 不合理地 | |
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52 exclusion | |
n.拒绝,排除,排斥,远足,远途旅行 | |
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53 secrecy | |
n.秘密,保密,隐蔽 | |
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54 regularity | |
n.规律性,规则性;匀称,整齐 | |
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55 offsetting | |
n.偏置法v.抵消( offset的现在分词 );补偿;(为了比较的目的而)把…并列(或并置);为(管道等)装支管 | |
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56 complexion | |
n.肤色;情况,局面;气质,性格 | |
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57 smallpox | |
n.天花 | |
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58 eyebrows | |
眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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59 athletic | |
adj.擅长运动的,强健的;活跃的,体格健壮的 | |
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60 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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61 frayed | |
adj.磨损的v.(使布、绳等)磨损,磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62 delightfully | |
大喜,欣然 | |
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63 abrupt | |
adj.突然的,意外的;唐突的,鲁莽的 | |
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64 deference | |
n.尊重,顺从;敬意 | |
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65 bevy | |
n.一群 | |
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66 meditation | |
n.熟虑,(尤指宗教的)默想,沉思,(pl.)冥想录 | |
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67 devout | |
adj.虔诚的,虔敬的,衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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68 feats | |
功绩,伟业,技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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69 glossy | |
adj.平滑的;有光泽的 | |
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70 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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71 thongs | |
的东西 | |
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72 belly | |
n.肚子,腹部;(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分,膛 | |
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73 unlimited | |
adj.无限的,不受控制的,无条件的 | |
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74 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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