章节正文
Bickley's permission, I offered them to her and to the Ancient,
first peeling them with my fingers. They ate of them greedily, a
full meal, and would have gone on had not the stern Bickley,
fearing untoward consequences, removed the basket. Again the
results were wonderful, for half an hour afterwards they seemed
to be quite strong. With my assistance the Glittering Lady, as I
still call her, for at that time I did not know her name, rose
from the chair, and, leaning on me, tottered a few steps forward.
Then she stood looking at the sky and all the lovely panorama of
nature beneath, and stretching out her arms as though in worship.
Oh! how beautiful she seemed with the sunlight shining on her
heavenly face!
Now for the first time I heard her voice. It was soft and deep,
yet in it was a curious bell-like tone that seemed to vibrate
like the sound of chimes heard from far away. Never have I
listened to such another voice. She pointed to the sun whereof
the light turned her radiant hair and garments to a kind of
golden glory, and called it by some name that I could not
understand. I shook my head, whereon she gave it a different name
taken, I suppose, from another language. Again I shook my head
and she tried a third time. To my delight this word was
practically the same that the Orofenans used for "sun."
"Yes," I said, speaking very slowly, "so it is called by the
people of this land."
She understood, for she answered in much the same language:
"What, then, do you call it?"
"Sun in the English tongue," I replied.
"Sun. English," she repeated after me, then added, "How are you
named, Wanderer?"
"Humphrey," I answered.
"Hum锟絝e-锟絩y!" she said as though she were learning the word,
"and those?"
"Bastin and Bickley," I replied.
Over these patronymics she shook her head; as yet they were too
much for her.
"How are you named, Sleeper?" I asked.
"Yva," she answered.
"A beautiful name for one who is beautiful," I declared with
enthusiasm, of course always in the rich Orofenan dialect which
by now I could talk well enough.
She repeated the words once or twice, then of a sudden caught
their meaning, for she smiled and even coloured, saying hastily
with a wave of her hand towards the Ancient who stood at a
distance between Bastin and Bickley, "My father, Oro; great man;
great king; great god!"
At this information I started, for it was startling to learn
that here was the original Oro, who was still worshipped by the
Orofenans, although of his actualexistence they had known
nothing for uncounted time. Also I was glad to learn that he was
her father and not her old husband, for to me that would have
been horrible, a desecration too deep for words.
"How long did you sleep, Yva?" I asked, pointing towards the
sepulchre in the cave.
After a little thought she understood and shook her head
hopelessly, then by an afterthought, she said,
"Stars tell Oro to-night."
So Oro was an astronomer as well as a king and a god. I had
guessed as much from those plates in the coffin which seemed to
have stars engraved on them.
At this point our conversation came to an end, for the Ancient
himself approached, leaning on the arm of Bickley who was engaged
in an animatedargument with Bastin.
"For Heaven's sake!" said Bickley, "keep your theology to
yourself at present. If you upset the old fellow and put him in a
temper he may die."
"If a man tells me that he is a god it is my duty to tell him
that he is a liar," replied Bastin obstinately.
"Which you did, Bastin, only fortunately he did not understand
you. But for your own sake I advise you not to take liberties. He
is not one, I think, with whom it is wise to trifle. I think he
seems thirsty. Go and get some water from the rain pool, not from
the lake."
Bastin departed and presently returned with an aluminum jug
full of pure water and a glass. Bickley poured some of it into a
glass and handed it to Yva who bent her head in thanks. Then she
did a curious thing. Having first lifted the glass with both
hands to the sky and held it so for a few seconds, she turned and
with an obeisance poured a little of it on the ground before her
father's feet.
A libation, thought I to myself, and evidently Bastin agreed
with me, for I heard him mutter,
"I believe she is making a heathen offering."
Doubtless we were right, for Oro accepted the homage by a
little motion of the head. After this, at a sign from him she
drank the water. Then the glass was refilled and handed to Oro
who also held it towards the sky. He, however, made no libation
but drank at once, two tumblers of it in rapid succession.
By now the direct sunlight was passing from the mouth of the
cave, and though it was hot enough, both of them shivered a
little. They spoke together in some language of which we could
not understand a word, as though they were debating what their
course of action should be. The dispute was long and earnest. Had
we known what was passing, which I learned afterwards, it would
have made us sufficientlyanxious, for the point at issue was
nothing less than whether we should or should not be forthwith
destroyed--an end, it appears, that Oro was quite capable of
bringing about if he so pleased. Yva, however, had very clear
views of her own on the matter and, as I gather, even dared to
threaten that she would protect us by the use of certain powers
at her command, though what these were I do not know.
While the event hung doubtful Tommy, who was growing bored with
these long proceedings, picked up a bough still covered with
flowers which, after their pretty fashion, the Orofenans had
placed on the top of one of the baskets of food. This small bough
he brought and laid at the feet of Oro, no doubt in the hope that
he would throw it for him to fetch, a game in which the dog
delighted. For some reason Oro saw an omen in this simple canine
performance, or he may have thought that the dog was making an
offering to him, for he put his thin hand to his brow and thought
a while, then motioned to Bastin to pick up the bough and give it
to him.
Next he spoke to his daughter as though assenting to something,
for I saw her sigh in relief. No wonder, for he was conveying his
decision to spare our lives and admit us to their fellowship.
After this again they talked, but in quite a different tone and
manner. Then the Glittering Lady said to me in her slow and
archaic Orofenan:
"We go to rest. You must not follow. We come back perhaps
tonight, perhaps next night. We are quite safe. You are quite
safe under the beard of Oro. Spirit of Oro watch you. You
understand?"
I said I understood, whereon she answered:
"Good-bye, O Humfe-ry."
"Good-bye, O Yva," I replied, bowing.
Thereon they turned and refusing all assistance from us,
vanished into the darkness of the cave leaning upon each other
and walking slowly.
Chapter XII
Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Years!
"You seem to have made the best of your time, old fellow," said
Bickley in rather a sour voice.
"I never knew people begin to call each other by their
Christian names so soon," added Bastin, looking at me with a
suspicious eye.
"I know no other," I said.
"Perhaps not, but at any rate you have another, though you
don't seem to have told it to her. Anyway, I am glad they are
gone, for I was getting tired of being ordered by everybody to
carry about wood and water for them. Also I am terribly hungry as
I can't eat before it is light. They have taken most of the best
fruit to which I was looking forward, but thank goodness they do
not seem to care for pork."
"So am I," said Bickley, who really looked exhausted. "Get the
food, there's a good fellow. We'll talk afterwards."
When we had eaten, somewhat silently, I asked Bickley what he
made of the business; also whither he thought the sleepers had
gone.
"I think I can answer the last question," interrupted Bastin.
"I expect it is to a place well known to students of the Bible
which even Bickley mentions sometimes when he is angry. At any
rate, they seem to be very fond of heat, for they wouldn't part
from it even in their coffins, and you will admit that they are
not quite natural, although that Glittering Lady is so attractive
as regards her exterior."
Bickley waved these remarks aside and addressed himself to me.
"I don't know what to think of it," he said; "but as the
experience is not natural and everything in the Universe, so far
as we know it, has a natural explanation, I am inclined to the
belief that we are suffering from hallucinations, which in their
way are also quite natural. It does not seem possible that two
people can really have been asleep for an unknown length of time
enclosed in vessels of glass or crystal, kept warm by radium or
some such substance, and then emerge from them comparatively
strong and well. It is contrary to natural law."
"How about microbes?" I asked. "They are said to last
practically for ever, and they are living things. So in their
case your natural law breaks down."
"That is true," he answered. "Some microbes in a sealed tube
and under certain conditions do appear to possess indefinite
powers of life. Also radium has an indefinite life, but that is a
mineral. Only these people are not microbes nor are they
minerals. Also, experience tells us that they could not have
lived for more than a few months at the outside in such
circumstances as we seemed to find them."
"Then what do you suggest?"
"I suggest that we did not really find them at all; that we
have all been dreaming. You know that there are certain gases
which produce illusions, laughing gas is one of them, and that
these gases are sometimes met with in caves. Now there were very
peculiar odours in that place under the statue, which may have
worked upon our imaginations in some such way. Otherwise we are
up against a miracle, and, as you know, I do not believe in
miracles."
"I do," said Bastin calmly. "You'll find all about it in the
Bible if you will only take the trouble to read. Why do you talk
such rubbish about gases?"
"Because only gas, or something of the sort, could have made us
imagine them."
"Nonsense, Bickley! Those people were here right enough. Didn't
they eat our fruit and drink the water I brought them without
ever saying thank you? Only, they are not human. They are evil
spirits, and for my part I don't want to see any more of them,
though I have no doubt Arbuthnot does, as that Glittering Lady
threw her arms round his neck when she woke up, and already he is
calling her by her Christian name, if the word Christian can be
used in connection with her. The old fellow had the impudence to
tell us that he was a god, and it is remarkable that he should
have called himself Oro, seeing that the devil they worship on
the island is also called Oro and the place itself is named
Orofena."
"As to where they have gone," continued Bickley, taking no
first peeling them with my fingers. They ate of them greedily, a
full meal, and would have gone on had not the stern Bickley,
fearing untoward consequences, removed the basket. Again the
results were wonderful, for half an hour afterwards they seemed
to be quite strong. With my assistance the Glittering Lady, as I
still call her, for at that time I did not know her name, rose
from the chair, and, leaning on me, tottered a few steps forward.
Then she stood looking at the sky and all the lovely panorama of
nature beneath, and stretching out her arms as though in worship.
Oh! how beautiful she seemed with the sunlight shining on her
heavenly face!
Now for the first time I heard her voice. It was soft and deep,
yet in it was a curious bell-like tone that seemed to vibrate
like the sound of chimes heard from far away. Never have I
listened to such another voice. She pointed to the sun whereof
the light turned her radiant hair and garments to a kind of
golden glory, and called it by some name that I could not
understand. I shook my head, whereon she gave it a different name
taken, I suppose, from another language. Again I shook my head
and she tried a third time. To my delight this word was
practically the same that the Orofenans used for "sun."
"Yes," I said, speaking very slowly, "so it is called by the
people of this land."
She understood, for she answered in much the same language:
"What, then, do you call it?"
"Sun in the English tongue," I replied.
"Sun. English," she repeated after me, then added, "How are you
named, Wanderer?"
"Humphrey," I answered.
"Hum锟絝e-锟絩y!" she said as though she were learning the word,
"and those?"
"Bastin and Bickley," I replied.
Over these patronymics she shook her head; as yet they were too
much for her.
"How are you named, Sleeper?" I asked.
"Yva," she answered.
"A beautiful name for one who is beautiful," I declared with
enthusiasm, of course always in the rich Orofenan dialect which
by now I could talk well enough.
She repeated the words once or twice, then of a sudden caught
their meaning, for she smiled and even coloured, saying hastily
with a wave of her hand towards the Ancient who stood at a
distance between Bastin and Bickley, "My father, Oro; great man;
great king; great god!"
At this information I started, for it was startling to learn
that here was the original Oro, who was still worshipped by the
Orofenans, although of his actualexistence they had known
nothing for uncounted time. Also I was glad to learn that he was
her father and not her old husband, for to me that would have
been horrible, a desecration too deep for words.
"How long did you sleep, Yva?" I asked, pointing towards the
sepulchre in the cave.
After a little thought she understood and shook her head
hopelessly, then by an afterthought, she said,
"Stars tell Oro to-night."
So Oro was an astronomer as well as a king and a god. I had
guessed as much from those plates in the coffin which seemed to
have stars engraved on them.
At this point our conversation came to an end, for the Ancient
himself approached, leaning on the arm of Bickley who was engaged
in an animatedargument with Bastin.
"For Heaven's sake!" said Bickley, "keep your theology to
yourself at present. If you upset the old fellow and put him in a
temper he may die."
"If a man tells me that he is a god it is my duty to tell him
that he is a liar," replied Bastin obstinately.
"Which you did, Bastin, only fortunately he did not understand
you. But for your own sake I advise you not to take liberties. He
is not one, I think, with whom it is wise to trifle. I think he
seems thirsty. Go and get some water from the rain pool, not from
the lake."
Bastin departed and presently returned with an aluminum jug
full of pure water and a glass. Bickley poured some of it into a
glass and handed it to Yva who bent her head in thanks. Then she
did a curious thing. Having first lifted the glass with both
hands to the sky and held it so for a few seconds, she turned and
with an obeisance poured a little of it on the ground before her
father's feet.
A libation, thought I to myself, and evidently Bastin agreed
with me, for I heard him mutter,
"I believe she is making a heathen offering."
Doubtless we were right, for Oro accepted the homage by a
little motion of the head. After this, at a sign from him she
drank the water. Then the glass was refilled and handed to Oro
who also held it towards the sky. He, however, made no libation
but drank at once, two tumblers of it in rapid succession.
By now the direct sunlight was passing from the mouth of the
cave, and though it was hot enough, both of them shivered a
little. They spoke together in some language of which we could
not understand a word, as though they were debating what their
course of action should be. The dispute was long and earnest. Had
we known what was passing, which I learned afterwards, it would
have made us sufficientlyanxious, for the point at issue was
nothing less than whether we should or should not be forthwith
destroyed--an end, it appears, that Oro was quite capable of
bringing about if he so pleased. Yva, however, had very clear
views of her own on the matter and, as I gather, even dared to
threaten that she would protect us by the use of certain powers
at her command, though what these were I do not know.
While the event hung doubtful Tommy, who was growing bored with
these long proceedings, picked up a bough still covered with
flowers which, after their pretty fashion, the Orofenans had
placed on the top of one of the baskets of food. This small bough
he brought and laid at the feet of Oro, no doubt in the hope that
he would throw it for him to fetch, a game in which the dog
delighted. For some reason Oro saw an omen in this simple canine
performance, or he may have thought that the dog was making an
offering to him, for he put his thin hand to his brow and thought
a while, then motioned to Bastin to pick up the bough and give it
to him.
Next he spoke to his daughter as though assenting to something,
for I saw her sigh in relief. No wonder, for he was conveying his
decision to spare our lives and admit us to their fellowship.
After this again they talked, but in quite a different tone and
manner. Then the Glittering Lady said to me in her slow and
archaic Orofenan:
"We go to rest. You must not follow. We come back perhaps
tonight, perhaps next night. We are quite safe. You are quite
safe under the beard of Oro. Spirit of Oro watch you. You
understand?"
I said I understood, whereon she answered:
"Good-bye, O Humfe-ry."
"Good-bye, O Yva," I replied, bowing.
Thereon they turned and refusing all assistance from us,
vanished into the darkness of the cave leaning upon each other
and walking slowly.
Chapter XII
Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Years!
"You seem to have made the best of your time, old fellow," said
Bickley in rather a sour voice.
"I never knew people begin to call each other by their
Christian names so soon," added Bastin, looking at me with a
suspicious eye.
"I know no other," I said.
"Perhaps not, but at any rate you have another, though you
don't seem to have told it to her. Anyway, I am glad they are
gone, for I was getting tired of being ordered by everybody to
carry about wood and water for them. Also I am terribly hungry as
I can't eat before it is light. They have taken most of the best
fruit to which I was looking forward, but thank goodness they do
not seem to care for pork."
"So am I," said Bickley, who really looked exhausted. "Get the
food, there's a good fellow. We'll talk afterwards."
When we had eaten, somewhat silently, I asked Bickley what he
made of the business; also whither he thought the sleepers had
gone.
"I think I can answer the last question," interrupted Bastin.
"I expect it is to a place well known to students of the Bible
which even Bickley mentions sometimes when he is angry. At any
rate, they seem to be very fond of heat, for they wouldn't part
from it even in their coffins, and you will admit that they are
not quite natural, although that Glittering Lady is so attractive
as regards her exterior."
Bickley waved these remarks aside and addressed himself to me.
"I don't know what to think of it," he said; "but as the
experience is not natural and everything in the Universe, so far
as we know it, has a natural explanation, I am inclined to the
belief that we are suffering from hallucinations, which in their
way are also quite natural. It does not seem possible that two
people can really have been asleep for an unknown length of time
enclosed in vessels of glass or crystal, kept warm by radium or
some such substance, and then emerge from them comparatively
strong and well. It is contrary to natural law."
"How about microbes?" I asked. "They are said to last
practically for ever, and they are living things. So in their
case your natural law breaks down."
"That is true," he answered. "Some microbes in a sealed tube
and under certain conditions do appear to possess indefinite
powers of life. Also radium has an indefinite life, but that is a
mineral. Only these people are not microbes nor are they
minerals. Also, experience tells us that they could not have
lived for more than a few months at the outside in such
circumstances as we seemed to find them."
"Then what do you suggest?"
"I suggest that we did not really find them at all; that we
have all been dreaming. You know that there are certain gases
which produce illusions, laughing gas is one of them, and that
these gases are sometimes met with in caves. Now there were very
peculiar odours in that place under the statue, which may have
worked upon our imaginations in some such way. Otherwise we are
up against a miracle, and, as you know, I do not believe in
miracles."
"I do," said Bastin calmly. "You'll find all about it in the
Bible if you will only take the trouble to read. Why do you talk
such rubbish about gases?"
"Because only gas, or something of the sort, could have made us
imagine them."
"Nonsense, Bickley! Those people were here right enough. Didn't
they eat our fruit and drink the water I brought them without
ever saying thank you? Only, they are not human. They are evil
spirits, and for my part I don't want to see any more of them,
though I have no doubt Arbuthnot does, as that Glittering Lady
threw her arms round his neck when she woke up, and already he is
calling her by her Christian name, if the word Christian can be
used in connection with her. The old fellow had the impudence to
tell us that he was a god, and it is remarkable that he should
have called himself Oro, seeing that the devil they worship on
the island is also called Oro and the place itself is named
Orofena."
"As to where they have gone," continued Bickley, taking no
- permission [pə´miʃən]
n.允许；同意；许可 (初中英语单词) - greedily [´gri:dili] ad.贪婪地 (初中英语单词)
- assistance [ə´sistəns] n.协作；援助；帮助 (初中英语单词)
- sunlight [´sʌnlait] n.日光 (初中英语单词)
- pointed [´pɔintid] a.尖(锐)的；中肯的 (初中英语单词)
- learning [´lə:niŋ] n.学习；学问；知识 (初中英语单词)
- dialect [´daiəlekt] n.方言，土语，地方话 (初中英语单词)
- actual [´æktʃuəl] a.现实的；实际的 (初中英语单词)
- existence [ig´zistəns] n.存在；生存；生活 (初中英语单词)
- horrible [´hɔrəbəl] a.可怕的；恐怖的 (初中英语单词)
- argument [´ɑ:gjumənt] n.辩论；争论；论证 (初中英语单词)
- advise [əd´vaiz] vt.忠告；建议；通知 (初中英语单词)
- trifle [´traifəl] n.琐事，小事；少量 (初中英语单词)
- presently [´prezəntli] ad.不久；目前 (初中英语单词)
- evidently [´evidəntli] ad.明显地 (初中英语单词)
- dispute [di´spju:t] v.&n.争论，辩论；争吵 (初中英语单词)
- earnest [´ə:nist] a.认真的 n.认真；诚恳 (初中英语单词)
- sufficiently [sə´fiʃəntli] ad.充分地，足够地 (初中英语单词)
- anxious [´æŋkʃəs] a.担忧的；渴望的 (初中英语单词)
- capable [´keipəbəl] a.有能力；能干的 (初中英语单词)
- relief [ri´li:f] n.救济；援救；减轻 (初中英语单词)
- terribly [´terəbli] ad.可怕地 (初中英语单词)
- goodness [´gudnis] n.优良；美德；精华 (初中英语单词)
- silently [´sailəntli] ad.寂静地；沉默地 (初中英语单词)
- explanation [,eksplə´neiʃən] n.解释；说明；辩解 (初中英语单词)
- suffering [´sʌfəriŋ] n.痛苦；灾害 (初中英语单词)
- crystal [´kristəl] n.水晶 a.水晶的 (初中英语单词)
- emerge [i´mə:dʒ] vi.出现；显露；暴露 (初中英语单词)
- contrary [´kɔntrəri] a.相反的 n.相反 (初中英语单词)
- statue [´stætʃu:] n.塑像，雕像 (初中英语单词)
- otherwise [´ʌðəwaiz] ad.另外 conj.否则 (初中英语单词)
- miracle [´mirəkl] n.奇迹；令人惊奇的 (初中英语单词)
- calmly [´kɑ:mli] ad.平静地；无风浪地 (初中英语单词)
- connection [kə´nekʃən] n.联系；关系；联运 (初中英语单词)
- remarkable [ri´mɑ:kəbl] a.值得注意的；显著的 (初中英语单词)
- worship [´wə:ʃip] n.&v.崇拜；敬仰 (初中英语单词)
- radiant [´reidiənt] a.发光的 n.光源(体) (高中英语单词)
- repeated [ri´pi:tid] a.反复的；重复的 (高中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- startling [´stɑ:tliŋ] a.惊人的 (高中英语单词)
- astronomer [ə´strɔnəmə] n.天文学家 (高中英语单词)
- coffin [´kɔfin] n.棺材，柩 (高中英语单词)
- fortunately [´fɔ:tʃənətli] ad.幸运地 (高中英语单词)
- heathen [´hi:ðən] n.异教徒 (高中英语单词)
- homage [´hɔmidʒ] n.敬意，尊敬 (高中英语单词)
- motion [´məuʃən] n.手势 vt.打手势 (高中英语单词)
- learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
- doubtful [´dautful] a.怀疑的，可疑的 (高中英语单词)
- universe [´ju:nivə:s] n.天地；全人类；银河系 (高中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- theology [θi´ɔlədʒi] n.神学 (英语四级单词)
- aluminum [,ælju´miniəm, ,ælə´miniəm] n.铝 (英语四级单词)
- rubbish [´rʌbiʃ] n.垃圾；碎屑；废话 (英语四级单词)
- whereon [weər´ɔn] ad.在什么上面；因此 (英语六级单词)
- speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (英语六级单词)
- animated [´ænimeitid] a.栩栩如生的；活跃的 (英语六级单词)
- departed [di´pɑ:tid] a.已往的；已故的 (英语六级单词)
- indefinite [in´definit] a.模糊的；无限期的 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
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