"Cornwell, Bernard - Sharpe 00 - Sharpe's Fortress" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cornwell Bernard)

millet. And so it does. Ezekiel, the fourth chapter and the ninth
verse."

The Sergeant held the book close to his eyes, squinting at the text. He
had a round face, afflicted with wens, like a suet pudding studded with
currants. '"Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley," he read
laboriously, '"and beans, and lentils, and millet, and fitches, and put
them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof" Colquhoun carefully
closed his Bible, wrapped it in a scrap of tarred canvas and stowed it
in his pouch.

"It pleases me, sir," he explained, 'if I can find everyday things in
the scriptures. I like to see things, sir, and imagine my Lord and
Saviour seeing the selfsame things."

"But why millet?" Sharpe asked.

"These crops, sir," Colquhoun said, pointing to the tall stems that
surrounded them, 'are millet. The natives call itjowari, but our name
is millet." He cuffed the sweat from his face with his sleeve. The
red dye of his coat had faded to a dull purple.

"This, of course," he went on, 'is pearl millet, but I doubt the
scriptures mention pearl millet. Not specifically."

"Millet, eh?" Sharpe said. So the tall plants were not bulrushes,
after all. They looked like bulrushes, except they were taller. Nine
or ten feet high.

"Must be a bastard to harvest," he said, but got no response.

Sergeant Colquhoun always tried to ignore swear words.

"What are fitches?" McCallum asked.

"A crop grown in the Holy Land," Colquhoun answered. He plainly did
not know.

"Sounds like a disease, Sergeant," McCallum said.

"A bad dose of the fitches. Leads to a course of mercury." One or two
men sniggered at the reference to syphilis, but Colquhoun ignored the
levity.

"Do you grow millet in Scotland?" Sharpe asked the Sergeant.

"Not that I am aware of, sir," Colquhoun said ponderously, after
reflecting on the question for a few seconds, 'though I daresay it
might be found in the Lowlands. They grow strange things there.
English things."