HUCKLEBERRY FINNは百年前の米国南部・西部の話なので「インディアンの・・・」と言う表現が時々出てきます。 その中で特に気になった表現を一つ紹介します。
So he set his ear to the crack and listened, and listened, and listened, and the steps a-scraping around out there all the time; and at last he nudged us, and we slid out, and stooped down, not breathing, and not making the least noise, and slipped stealthy towards the fence in Injun file, and got to it all right, and me and Jim over it; but Tom's britches catched fast on a splinter on the top rail, and then he hear the steps coming, so he had to pull loose, which snapped the splinter and made a noise; and as he dropped in our tracks and started somebody sings out:
"Who's that? Answer, or I'll shoot!"
"Injun" は "Indian" の事です。 では "Indian file" は何の事か辞書を見ます。
・OneLook Quick Definitions: a line of persons or things ranged one behind the other
・Dictionary.com: single file; A line of people, animals, or things standing or moving one behind the other.
・GNU Webster's 1913:
1.a line of people marching one behind another; a single row. Also used adverbially; as, to march Indian file.
2.single file; arrangement of persons in a row following one after another, the usual way among Indians of traversing woods, especially when on the war path.
別の表現だと "single file" になるようですが、 "Indian file" の方が情景が目に浮かびます。
So he set his ear to the crack and listened, and listened, and listened, and the steps a-scraping around out there all the time; and at last he nudged us, and we slid out, and stooped down, not breathing, and not making the least noise, and slipped stealthy towards the fence in Injun file, and got to it all right, and me and Jim over it; but Tom's britches catched fast on a splinter on the top rail, and then he hear the steps coming, so he had to pull loose, which snapped the splinter and made a noise; and as he dropped in our tracks and started somebody sings out:
"Who's that? Answer, or I'll shoot!"
"Injun" は "Indian" の事です。 では "Indian file" は何の事か辞書を見ます。
・OneLook Quick Definitions: a line of persons or things ranged one behind the other
・Dictionary.com: single file; A line of people, animals, or things standing or moving one behind the other.
・GNU Webster's 1913:
1.a line of people marching one behind another; a single row. Also used adverbially; as, to march Indian file.
2.single file; arrangement of persons in a row following one after another, the usual way among Indians of traversing woods, especially when on the war path.
別の表現だと "single file" になるようですが、 "Indian file" の方が情景が目に浮かびます。
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