除了沙虫和沙鲑,阿拉基斯最著名的动物就是更格卢鼠(kangaroo mouse)——又被弗雷曼人称为“穆阿迪布”(阿拉伯语“老师”的意思)。保罗就打着“穆阿迪布”的旗号统领弗雷曼人发动圣战,征服帝国。
在《沙丘》第一卷第9章还提到:
《阿拉基斯:皇帝的沙漠植物研究实验站》,那是一本发现香料之前的老电影书。书上各种各样的名词在保罗脑海里一一闪过,在那本书的记忆库里,每个词都配有一张图片:巨柱仙人掌、菊科灌木、椰枣树、沙地马鞭草、晚樱草花、桶状仙人掌、熏香灌木、烟树、石碳酸灌木……敏狐、沙鹰、更格卢鼠……
这些名字与照片都是过去地球人生活的写照,其中许多只存在于阿拉基斯,在宇宙任何别的地方都已不复存在。
“Arrakis: His Imperial Majesty’s Desert Botanical Testing Station.” It was an old filmbook from before discovery of the spice. Names flitted through Paul’s mind, each with its picture imprinted by the book’s mnemonic pulse: saguaro, burro bush, date palm, sand verbena, evening primrose, barrel cactus, incense bush, smoke tree, creosote bush … kit fox, desert hawk, kangaroo mouse….
Names and pictures, names and pictures from man’s terranic past—and many to be found now nowhere else in the universe except here on Arrakis.
上述译文来自科幻世界版《沙丘》,译者顾备。