漫游东西世界(外研社双语读库)(txt+pdf+epub+mobi电子书下载)

作者：（英） E. V. 卢卡斯（E. V. Lucas）

出版社：外语教学与研究出版社

格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT

漫游东西世界(外研社双语读库)试读：

Although India is a land of walkers, there is no sound of footfalls. Most of the feet are bare and all are silent: dark strangers overtake one like ghosts.

尽管在印度这片土地上，有很多人在走路，却听不见他们的脚步声。大多数人光着脚板，所有的脚板踩在地上都不发出一点声响：皮肤黝黑的陌生人，像幽灵一样超到你的前面。

Both in the cities and the country some one is always walking. There are carts and motorcars, and on the roads about Delhi a curious service of camel omnibuses, but most of the people walk, and they walk ever. In the bazaars they walk in their thousands; on the long, dusty roads, miles from anywhere, there are always a few, approaching or receding.

无论城里还是乡下，总有人在漫步。尽管有马车，有汽车，德里附近的公路上还有一种奇特的骆驼公共交通车，但大多数人依然选择步行，而且总在走着。集市里，成千上万的人在漫步；尘土飞扬的漫长公路上，即使前不着村、后不着店，也总能看到那么几个人向你走来或是渐渐远去。

It is odd that the only occasion on which Indians break from their walk into a run or a trot is when they are bearers at a funeral, or have an unusually heavy head-load, or carry a piano. Why there is so much piano-carrying in Calcutta I cannot say, but the streets (as I feel now) have no commoner spectacle than six or eight merry, half-naked fellows, trotting along, laughing and jesting under their burden, all with an odd, swinging movement of the arms.

奇怪的是，只有在葬礼上抬着棺材时，头上顶着的东西格外沉重时，或抬着钢琴时，印度人才会奔跑或是小跑起来。我说不清为什么加尔各答总是有那么多钢琴要抬，但是街上（我现在觉得）最常见的场景就是，六至八个快活的，半裸着身子的人，一路小跑，抬着担子，嬉笑打趣，每个人的胳膊都以一种奇特的节奏摆动着。

One of one's earliest impressions of the Indians is that their hands are inadequate. They suggest no power.

印度人给人的第一印象之一是四肢无力、缺乏力量。

Not only is there always some one walking, but there is always some one resting. They repose at full length wherever the need for sleep takes them; or they sit with pointed knees. Coming from England one is struck by so much inertness; for though the English labourer can be lazy enough he usually rests on his feet, leaning against walls: if he is a land labourer, leaning with his back to the support; if he follows the sea, leaning on his stomach.

不仅总是有人在漫步，而且总有人在休息。只要他们想睡觉，就会平躺下来或抱膝而坐。英国人惊讶于他们的懒散，因为英国的劳动者再懒散也不过是站着休息，倚靠着墙壁。地里劳作的人仰靠着休息；海上的水手们俯倚着休息。

It was interesting to pass on from India and its prostrate philosophers with their infinite capacity for taking naps, to Japan, where there seems to be neither time nor space for idlers. Whereas in India one has continually to turn aside in order not to step upon a sleeping figure—the footpath being a favourite dormitory—in Japan no one is ever doing nothing, and no one appears to be weary or poor.

暂且不论印度，不论那些永远睡不够、喜欢趴着的哲学家，转而看日本——这个时间和空间上都容不下游手好闲之人的国家，就会发现一种有趣的对照。在印度，你总得让到一边以避免踩到躺在地上睡觉的人——而人行道是一处很受欢迎的宿处——在日本，每个人时时刻刻都在做事，没有一个人看起来疲惫或虚弱。

India, save for a few native politicians and agitators, strikes one as a land destitute of ambition. In the cities there are infrequent signs of progress; in the country none. The peasants support life on as little as they can, they rest as much as possible and their carts and implements are prehistoric. They may believe in their gods, but fatalism is their true religion. How little they can be affected by civilisation I learned from a tiny settlement of bush-dwellers not twenty miles from Bombay, close to that beautiful lake which has been transformed into a reservoir, where bows and arrows are still the only weapons and rats are a staple food. And in an hour's time, in a car, one could be telephoning one's friends or watching a cinema!

除去本国的寥寥几个政客和煽动者，印度给人的印象是一个没有野心的国家。在城里，很少看到体现进步的标志；在乡下，则完全找不到进步的踪影。农民用尽可能少的资源维持生计，尽可能多地休息，用着非常原始的车和农具。他们也许会相信他们的神，但真正的宗教信仰却是宿命论。一小批灌木丛中的居民让我意识到，现代文明对他们的影响微乎其微。那是一个离孟买不到20英里的小村落，附近有一片美丽的湖泊，如今已被改造成一个水库。在那里，弓箭是他们仅有的武器，老鼠是他们的主食。而从那里出来你只需要坐一个小时的车，就可以打电话给朋友或是去看一场电影！The Sahib老爷

I did not have to wait to reach India for that great and exciting moment when one is first called "Sahib." I was addressed as "Sahib," to my mingled pride and confusion, at Marseilles, by an attendant on the steamer which I joined there. Later I grew accustomed to it, although never, I hope, blase; but to the end my bearer fascinated me by alluding to me as Master—not directly, but—impersonally, as though it were some other person that I knew, who was always with me, an alter ego who could not answer for himself: "Would Master like this or that?" "At what time did Master wish to be called?"

还没到印度我就体会到了第一次被人称作“老爷”的兴奋与激动。在马赛我所乘的一艘汽轮上一位侍者称我为“老爷”，我当时既骄傲又疑惑。后来我慢慢适应了这种叫法，尽管我希望自己永远不会对此感到腻烦，但是航程最后我的脚夫却暗指我为主人，这让我兴奋——他没有直接说，而是间接暗示。客观说来，这称谓好像是我认识的某个人，他总在我身边，是一个无法自己回答问题的自我变体：“主人喜欢这个还是那个？”“什么时候叫主人？”

And then the beautiful "Salaam!"

接着是一个漂亮的“敬礼”！

I was sorry for the English doomed to become so used to Eastern deference that they cease to be thrilled.

对那些生来就习惯了东方人敬重而不再感到激动的英国人，我为他们感到很遗憾。The Passing Show流动的展览

It is difficult for a stranger to India, especially when paying only a brief visit, to lose the impression that he is at an exhibition—in a section of a World's Fair. How long it takes for this delusion to wear off I cannot say. All I can say is that seven weeks are not enough. And never does one feel it more than in the bazaar, where movement is incessant and humanity is so packed and costumes are so diverse, and where the suggestion of the exhibition is of course heightened by the merchants and the stalls. What one misses is any vantage point—1anything resembling a chair at the Cafe de la Paix in Paris, for instance—where one may sit at ease and watch the wonderful changing spectacle going past. There are in Indian cities no such places. To observe the life of the bazaar closely and be unobserved is almost impossible.

外地人初到印度，尤其只是短暂停留的人难免会觉得自己是在参观一个展览——世界博览会的一部分。我说不准具体要多久这种错觉才会渐渐消失，但我知道七周的时间是不够的。集市比其他地方更能使人产生这种错觉，因为在那里，人群川流不息，拥挤不堪，服装各异，当然，商人和货摊又进一步强化了展览的气氛。人们找不到好的视角——比如类似巴黎和平咖啡馆里的一把椅子——可以悠闲地坐着，欣赏这美妙、变幻的景致在面前经过。然而，在印度的城市，没有这样的地方，因此在不被注意的情况下近距离观察集市生活几乎是不可能的。

It would be extraordinarily interesting to sit there, beside some wellinformed Anglo-Indian or Indo-Anglian, and learn all the minutia of caste and be told who and what everybody was: what the different ochre marks signified on the Hindu foreheads; what this man did for a living, and that; and so forth. Even without such an informant I was never tired of drifting about the native quarters in whatever city I found myself and watching the curiously leisurely and detached commercial methods of the dealers—the money lenders reclining on their couches; the pearl merchants with their palms full of the little desirable jewels; the silversmiths hammering; the tailors cross-legged; the whole Arabian Nights pageant. All the shops seem to be overstaffed, unless an element of detached inquisitiveness is essential to business in the East. No transaction is complete without a few watchful spectators, usually youths, who apparently are employed by the establishment for the sole purpose of exhibiting curiosity.

坐在那里，听旁边某个见闻广博的盎格鲁血统的印度人或印度血统的盎格鲁人详细讲述印度的社会阶层和每个人的来历、身份，是一件非常有意思的事：印度人额头上不同的赭色印记代表什么，这个人靠什么谋生，以及这样或那样的问题。每到一个城市，即使没人给我讲这些，我也会乐此不疲地到当地各处随意走走，去观察商人们新奇、闲适、超然的经营方式——放债人躺在躺椅里；珍珠商手心里放满吸引人的小珠宝；银器匠敲着小锤；裁缝师翘着二郎腿；完全是《天方夜谭》中的盛大场面；如果不是因为不经意的好奇是东方买卖的一个基本要素，那么所有的商店都会显得人浮于事。每笔交易总要有几个人在一旁仔细观看，否则就不算完整。观看者通常是些年轻人，显然是被商家雇来只为显示好奇心的。

I picked up a few odds and ends of information, by degrees, but only the more obvious: such as that the slight shaving of the Mohammedan's upper lip is to remove any impediment to the 2utterance of the name of Allah; that the red-dyed beards are a record that their wearers have made the pilgrimage to Mecca; that the respirator often worn by the Jains is to prevent the death of even a fly in inhalation. I was shown a Jain woman carefully emptying a piece of wood with holes in it into the road, each hole containing a louse which 3had crawled there during the night but must not be killed. The Jains adore every living creature; the Hindus chief ly the cow. As for this divinity, she drifts about the cities as though they were built for her, and one sees the passers-by touching her, hoping for sanctity or a blessing. A certain sex inequality is, however, only too noticeable, and particularly in and about Bombay, where the bullock cart is so common—the bullock receiving little but blows and execration from his drivers.

我逐渐了解了一些零星的信息，但都是些显而易见的：比如伊斯兰教徒稍加修剪的上唇胡子，是为了更好地叫出真主阿拉的名字；染红的胡须是对麦加朝圣之旅的记录；耆那教徒经常戴着口罩以免呼吸时犯下杀生之罪（哪怕只是吸入一只苍蝇）。我见过一个耆那女教徒在路上仔细清理一截有很多小洞的木头，每个洞里都有一只虱子，这些虱子是在晚上爬进去的，但又不能杀掉。耆那教徒崇拜一切生物，印度教徒主要崇拜母牛。母牛在城市里四处游荡，仿佛这些城市是为她而建的，你能看见有路人轻触她，以求圣洁或保佑。然而，对牛的性别歧视非常明显，尤其是在孟买和其附近的地方，公牛拉车很常见——它们所得甚少，却还要遭受驱车人的鞭打和咒骂。

The sacred pigeon is also happy in Bombay, being fed copiously all day long; and I visited there a Hindu sanctuary, called the Pingheripole, for every kind of animal—a Home of Rest or Asylum—where even pariah dogs are fed and protected.

圣鸽也很高兴住在孟买，整天不愁吃。我游览了那里的一个印度禁猎区——平赫里保勒，为各种动物提供休憩的家园或庇护所——即使流浪狗在那里也能得到喂养和保护。

I was told early of certain things one must not do: such as saluting with the left hand, which is the dishonourable one of the pair, and refraining carefully, when in a temple or mosque, from touching anything at all, because for an unbeliever to touch is to desecrate. I was told also that a Mohammedan grave always gives one the points of the compass, because the body is buried north and south with the head at the north, turned towards Mecca. The Hindus have no graves.

早先，就有人告诫我有些事是不能做的：比如用左手敬礼，因为左手是双手中相对不净的一只。进入寺庙或清真寺，要小心避免触碰任何东西，因为对于非信徒来说，触碰就是亵渎。我还听说伊斯兰教徒的陵墓能指明方位，因为遗体是南北向埋葬的，头朝北，面向麦加的方向。而印度教徒是没有坟墓的。

In India the Occidental, especially if coming from France as I did, is struck by the absence of any out-of-door communion between men and women. In the street men are with men, women with women. Most women lower their eyes as a man approaches, although when the woman is a Mohammedan and young one is often conscious of a bright black glance through the veil. There is no public fondling, nothing like the familiar demonstrations of affection that we are accustomed to in Paris and London (more so during the War and since) and in New York. Nothing so offends and surprises the Indian as this want of restraint and shame on our part, and in Japan I learned that the Japanese share the Indian view.

在印度的西方人，尤其是像我一样从法国来的，很难理解在户外男女没有交流的情形。街上，男人跟男人在一起，女人跟女人在一起。遇到男人时大多数妇女会垂下眼睛，但通常能感觉到信奉伊斯兰教的年轻女子明亮的黑色眼眸透过面纱投来的轻轻一瞥。没有人会在公共场合下调情，也看不到巴黎、伦敦（一战爆发以来更是如此）和纽约街头常见的示爱方式。没有什么比我们这种缺乏自制和羞耻心的行为更让印度人愤怒和惊讶了。我在日本时发现，日本人在这个问题上也是一样。

It seemed to me that the chewing of the betel-nut is more prevalent in Bombay than elsewhere. One sees it all over India; everywhere are moving jaws with red juice trickling; but in Bombay there are more vendors of the rolled-up leaves and more crimson splashes on pavement and wall. It is an unpleasant habit, but there is no doubt that teeth are ultimately the whiter for it. Even though I was instructed in the art of betel-nut chewing by an Indian gentleman of world-wide fame in the cricket field, from whom I would willingly learn anything, I could not endure the experience.

在我看来，孟买似乎是最盛行嚼槟榔的城市。尽管全印度的人都在嚼槟榔，到处可见人们动着下巴，嘴边淌着红色的汁液，但是孟买的槟榔小贩最多，路上墙上的深红色污迹也最多。这是个令人厌恶的习惯，但是毫无疑问，牙齿也正因此而更加洁白。尽管也曾有一位在板球界举世闻名的印度绅士教过我嚼槟榔的技巧，我愿意跟他学习任何东西，但忍受不了嚼槟榔。

Most nations, I suppose, look upon the dances of other nations with a certain perplexity. Such glimpses, for example, as I had in 4America of the movement known as the Shimmie Shake filled me with alarm, while Orientals have been known to display boredom at the Russian Ballet. Personally I adore the Russian Ballet, but I found the Nautch very fatiguing. It is at once too long and too monotonous, but I dare say that if one could follow the words of the accompanying songs, or cantillations, the result might be more entertaining. That would not, however, improve the actual dancing, in which I was disappointed. In Japan, on the other hand, I succumbed completely to the odd, hypnotic mechanism of the Geisha, the accompaniments to which are more varied, or more acceptable to my ear, than the Indian music. But I shall always remember the sounds of the distant, approaching or receding, snakecharmers' piping, heard through the heat, as it so often is on Sundays in Calcutta. To my inward ear that is India's typical melody; 5and it has relationship to the Punch and Judy allurement of our childhood.

我想，大多数国家都对其他国家的舞蹈感到有些困惑。比如，我在美国见过的希米舞就让我满怀惊愕。而人们都知道，东方人觉得俄罗斯芭蕾舞很无趣。我个人喜欢俄罗斯芭蕾舞，但觉得印度舞女的舞蹈很乏味，它太长、太单调了。不过我敢说，如果你跟得上伴舞歌曲或吟唱的歌词，就能体会到更多的乐趣。当然这于舞蹈本身并无改进，我对舞蹈感到失望。然而，在日本，我完全沉醉于艺伎奇特而催人入眠的舞曲中。对我来说这种伴奏比印度舞曲更多样化、更悦耳。但是我永远记得在加尔各答的星期天时常听见的远处耍蛇艺人的笛声，忽远忽近，在热浪中传送。就我的内心感觉而言，那才是典型的印度音乐，其魅力宛如我们童年所喜欢的木偶戏《庞奇和朱迪》。

It was in Bombay that I saw my first fakir, and in Harrison Road, Calcutta, my last. There had been so long a series in between that I was able to confirm my first impression. I can now, therefore, generalize safely when saying that all these strange creatures resemble a blend of Tolstoi and Mr. Bernard Shaw. Imagine such a hybrid, naked save for a loin cloth, and smeared all over with dust, and you have a holy man in the East. The Harrison Road fakir, who passed on his way along the crowded pavement unconcerned and practically unobserved, was white with ashes and was beating a piece of iron as a wayward child might be doing. He was followed by a boy, but no effort was made to collect alms. It is true philosophy to be prepared to live in such a state of simplicity. Most of the problems of life would dissolve and vanish if one could reduce one's needs to the frugality of a fakir. I have thought often of him since I returned, in London, to all the arrears of work and duty and the liabilities that accumulate during a long holiday; but never more so than when confronted by a Peace-time tailor's bill.

我第一次见到托钵僧是在孟买的哈里森路，最后一次是在加尔各答。其间还见过很多，不断加深着我对他们的最初印象，因此，现在我才能有把握地对这些奇怪的人作个总结——即托尔斯泰和萧伯纳的结合。想象这两个人的组合体，半裸着身子，裹着一块腰布，满身尘土，这就是一位东方贤哲的形象了。哈里森路上的那位托钵僧走在拥挤的人行道上，没有人关心他，也没有人看他一眼，这位如死灰般苍白的僧人，像个任性的孩子一样敲打着手中的铁片。他身后跟着一个男孩，但是两人并无劝募之意。人生的真谛即是准备好生活在这种简单的状态中。如果人的所求和托钵僧一样简单，那么人生的大多数问题也就迎刃而解，化为乌有。回到伦敦，面对长假中积累起来的所有未做之事、需承担的所有义务和责任之时，我常常想起这位僧人。收到和平年代裁缝的账单时，尤其如此。India's Birds印度的鸟

One of the first peculiarities of Bombay that I noticed and never lost sight of was the kites. The city by day is never without these spies, these sentries. From dawn to dusk the great unresting birds are sailing over it, silent and vigilant. Whenever you look up, there they are, crisscrossing in the sky, swooping and swerving and watching. After a while one begins to be nervous: it is disquieting to be so continually under inspection. Now and then they quarrel and even fight: now and then one will descend with a rush and rise carrying a rat or other delicacy in its claws; but these interruptions of the pattern are only momentary. For the rest of the time they swirl and circle and never cease to watch. Bombay also has its predatory crows, who are so bold that it is unsafe to leave any bright article on the veranda table. Spectacles, for example, set up a longing in their hearts which they make no effort to control. But these birds are everywhere. At a wayside station just outside Calcutta, in the early morning, the passengers all had tea, and when it was finished and the trays were laid on the platform, I watched the crows, who were perfectly aware of this custom and had been approaching nearer and nearer as we drank, dart swiftly to the sugar basins and carry off the lumps that remained. The crow, however, is, comparatively speaking, a human being; the kite is something alien and a cause of fear, and the traveller in India never loses him. His eye is as coldly attentive to Calcutta as to Bombay.

老鹰是我首先注意到的孟买的一个特色，这些老鹰也从未离开过我的视线。白天，在这座城市总能看到这些侦探和哨兵。从黎明到黄昏，这些不知疲倦的大鸟在天空中飞翔，沉默而机警。一抬头，就能看到它们在空中交错飞翔，或俯冲下来、或瞬即转向、或留神监视。观察些时候，你就会紧张起来，时刻受到监视总让人感到不安；它们时不时地争吵甚至打斗一阵，时不时会有一只老鹰俯冲下来抓起一只老鼠或其他美味返回天空。这些中断只是暂时的，其他时候它们在天空中盘旋，一刻也不停地进行监视。孟买也有食肉鸦，它们非常大胆，因此把任何闪闪发亮的东西放在阳台的桌上都是不安全的。比如，眼镜就能激起它们心中的渴望，而它们绝对不会压制这种渴望。这种鸟到处都是。一天清晨，在加尔各答城外的一个路边车站，乘客们都在喝早茶，喝完后，茶盘都放在站台上，我看到几只食肉鸦——它们早已熟悉了这种习惯——趁我们喝茶的时候缓缓接近，此刻便迅速冲向糖缸，拾起剩下的糖块。不过，相对而言，乌鸦是人的同类，而老鹰更像异类，让人产生恐惧，印度的旅人怎么都逃脱不了老鹰。它像注视孟买那样冷冷地注视着加尔各答。

It is, of course, the indigenous birds of a country that emphasise its foreignness far more than its people. People can travel. Turbaned heads are, for example, not unknown in England; but to have green parrots with long tails flitting among the trees, as they used to fl it in my host's garden in Bombay, is to be in India beyond question. At Raisina we had mynahs and the babblers, or "Seven Sisters," in great profusion, and also the King Crow with his imposing tail; while the little striped squirrels were everywhere. These merry restless little rodents do more than run and scamper and leap: they seem to be positively lifted into space by their tails. Their stripes (as every one knows) came directly from the hand of God, recording for ever how, on the day of creation, He stroked them by way of approval.

当然，当地的鸟类比当地的人民更能突出这个国家的异域特色。人们可以四处旅行，例如，在英国也能看到裹着头巾的人。但是在树丛间掠过的长尾绿鹦鹉无疑是印度独有的，就像我曾在孟买房东的花园见过的那样。在莱辛纳有很多八哥和鹛鸟，或者叫“七姐妹”。还有王鸦拖着神气的尾巴，随处可见身上带条纹的松鼠。这些快乐而不知疲倦的小啮齿动物们不止是奔跑、蹦跳：它们似乎都被尾巴举到了空中。它们身上人们熟知的条纹直接来自上帝之手，记录了它们被创造出来的那一天，上帝对它们的爱抚。

No Indian bird gave me so much pleasure to watch as the 6speckled kingfishers, which I saw at their best on the Jumna at 7Okhla. They poise in the air above the water with their long bills pointed downwards at a right-angle to their fluttering bodies, searching the depths for their prey; and then they drop with the quickness of thought into the stream. The other kingfisher—coloured like ours but bigger—who waits on an overhanging branch, I saw too, but the evolutions of the hovering variety were more absorbing.

印度的鸟中，斑点翠鸟带给我最大的观赏乐趣，我发现奥克拉的朱木拿河是观赏翠鸟的最佳位置。它们以一种优美而平稳的姿态立在水上，扑腾着翅膀，长长的鸟喙向下伸着，与身体成直角，在深水中寻觅猎物，一旦有所发现便立即钻入水中。我还见过另一种翠鸟，羽毛颜色跟我们的翠鸟相似，但比我们的鸟大，它们栖息在高高的枝头。但是盘旋水上的翠鸟更具观赏性。

When one is travelling by road, the birds that most attract the notice are the peacocks and the giant cranes; while wherever there are cattle in any numbers there are the white paddy birds, feeding on their backs—the birds from which the osprey plumes are obtained. One sees, too, many kinds of eagle and hawk. In fact, the ornithologist can never be dull in this country.

如果你在陆路旅行，最引人注目的就是孔雀和巨鹤。只要有牛群的地方，就能看见白色的稻田鸟，站在牛背上吃食。女帽上的装饰羽毛就是取自这种鸟。你也能看到各种各样的鹰。事实上，鸟类学者在这个国家绝不会感到无聊。

Wild animals I had few opportunities to observe, although a mongoose at Raisina gave me a very amusing ten minutes. At Raisina, also, the jackals came close to the house at night; and on an early morning ride in a motorcar to Agra we passed a wolf, and a little later were most impudently raced and outdistanced by a blackbuck, who, instead of bolting into security at the sight or sound of man, ran, or rather, advanced—for his progress is mysterious and magical—beside us for some forty yards and then, —with a laugh, put on extra speed (we were doing perhaps thirty miles an hour) and disappeared ahead. All about Muttra we dispersed monkeys up the trees and into the bushes as we approached. Next to the parrots it is the monkeys that most convince the traveler that he is in a strange tropical land. And the flying foxes. Nothing is more strange than a tree full of these creatures sleeping pendant by day, or their silent swift black movements by night.

我少有机会见到野生动物，不过在莱辛纳遇到一只猫鼬，我愉悦地观赏了十分钟。在莱辛纳，夜幕降临后，豺狼也会逼近房舍。一天清晨，我们坐着汽车前往阿格拉，路上，一只狼从我们车旁经过。没过多久，又遇见一只印度黑羚，它竟狂妄地同我们赛跑起来，还超过了我们。它看到我们，听到我们的声音，非但没有闪躲之意，反而奔跑起来，确切的说是在向前冲（这让人觉得诡异和神奇）。同我们并行奔跑了约40码之后，它长嗥一声，加快了速度（我们的时速约为每小时30英里），消失在前方。走近马图拉，我们每到一处，都能看见猴子四散爬上树枝或躲进灌木丛。除去鹦鹉，就属猴子最能让旅人感受到自己身处一片陌生的热带土地。还有狐蝠，没有什么比满树狐蝠更为奇异的景致了，白天它们悬吊在枝头睡觉，夜间它们的黑影悄声掠过。

I saw no snakes wild, but in the Bacteriological Laboratory at Parel in Bombay, which Lt.-Col. Glen Liston controls with so much zeal and resourcefulness, I was shown the process by which the antidotes to snake poisoning are prepared, for dispersion through the country. A cobra or black snake is released from his cage and fixed by the attendant with a stick pressed on his neck a little below the head. The snake is then firmly and safely held just above this point between the f nger and thumb, and a tumbler, with a piece of flannel round its edge, is proffered to it to bite. As the snake bites, a clear yellow fluid, like strained honey in colour and thickness, flows into the glass from the poison fangs. This poison is later injected in small doses into the veins of horses kept carefully for the purpose, and then, in due course, the blood of the horses is tapped in order to make the anti-toxin. Wonderful are the ways of science! The Laboratory is also the headquarters of the Government's constant campaign against malaria and guinea worm, typhoid and cholera, and, in a smaller degree, hydrophobia. But nothing, I should guess, would ever get sanitary sense into India, except in almost negligible patches.

我没见过野生蛇，但是在孟买帕雷尔，由格伦·利斯顿中校以高昂的热情与智慧指挥的一个细菌实验室里，我看到了蛇毒解药调制的过程，这种药将分发至全国各地。从笼里放出一条眼镜蛇或黑蛇，助理将一根木棍置于蛇头下部一点，将其颈部固定住，这样用大拇指和其他任意一根手指就能牢固、安全地握住固定点往上的部位。另外还准备了一只平底玻璃杯让它咬，杯子边缘缠了一层绒布。当蛇咬住杯子时，一种清亮的黄色液体自毒牙流至杯中，颜色和浓度像滤过的蜂

试读结束[说明：试读内容隐藏了图片]

下载完整电子书