Quotes4study

On the right, close to the road, was an inn, with a four-wheeled cart at the door, a large bundle of hop-poles, a plough, a heap of dried brushwood near a flourishing hedge, lime smoking in a square hole, and a ladder suspended along an old penthouse with straw partitions. A young girl was weeding in a field, where a huge yellow poster, probably of some outside spectacle, such as a parish festival, was fluttering in the wind. At one corner of the inn, beside a pool in which a flotilla of ducks was navigating, a badly paved path plunged into the bushes. The wayfarer struck into this.

Victor Hugo     Les Miserables

Upon this, he told me another story. The people of his island of Rokovoko, it seems, at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl; and this punchbowl always forms the great central ornament on the braided mat where the feast is held. Now a certain grand merchant ship once touched at Rokovoko, and its commander--from all accounts, a very stately punctilious gentleman, at least for a sea captain--this commander was invited to the wedding feast of Queequeg's sister, a pretty young princess just turned of ten. Well; when all the wedding guests were assembled at the bride's bamboo cottage, this Captain marches in, and being assigned the post of honour, placed himself over against the punchbowl, and between the High Priest and his majesty the King, Queequeg's father. Grace being said,--for those people have their grace as well as we--though Queequeg told me that unlike us, who at such times look downwards to our platters, they, on the contrary, copying the ducks, glance upwards to the great Giver of all feasts--Grace, I say, being said, the High Priest opens the banquet by the immemorial ceremony of the island; that is, dipping his consecrated and consecrating fingers into the bowl before the blessed beverage circulates. Seeing himself placed next the Priest, and noting the ceremony, and thinking himself--being Captain of a ship--as having plain precedence over a mere island King, especially in the King's own house--the Captain coolly proceeds to wash his hands in the punchbowl;--taking it I suppose for a huge finger-glass. "Now," said Queequeg, "what you tink now?--Didn't our people laugh?"

Herman Melville     Moby Dick; or The Whale

"You may depend on it," replied the other, "for Mrs. Nicholls was in Meryton last night; I saw her passing by, and went out myself on purpose to know the truth of it; and she told me that it was certain true. He comes down on Thursday at the latest, very likely on Wednesday. She was going to the butcher's, she told me, on purpose to order in some meat on Wednesday, and she has got three couple of ducks just fit to be killed."

Jane Austen     Pride and Prejudice

"Ask her," said Morrel, translating Noirtier's thought this time by his look. The servant went out, but returned almost immediately. "Mademoiselle Valentine passed through the room to go to Madame de Villefort's," said he; "and in passing, as she was thirsty, she drank what remained in the glass; as for the decanter, Master Edward had emptied that to make a pond for his ducks." Noirtier raised his eyes to heaven, as a gambler does who stakes his all on one stroke. From that moment the old man's eyes were fixed on the door, and did not quit it.

Alexandre Dumas, Pere     The Count of Monte Cristo

Well, last I pulled out some of my hair, and blooded the axe good, and stuck it on the back side, and slung the axe in the corner. Then I took up the pig and held him to my breast with my jacket (so he couldn't drip) till I got a good piece below the house and then dumped him into the river. Now I thought of something else. So I went and got the bag of meal and my old saw out of the canoe, and fetched them to the house. I took the bag to where it used to stand, and ripped a hole in the bottom of it with the saw, for there warn't no knives and forks on the place—pap done everything with his clasp-knife about the cooking. Then I carried the sack about a hundred yards across the grass and through the willows east of the house, to a shallow lake that was five mile wide and full of rushes—and ducks too, you might say, in the season. There was a slough or a creek leading out of it on the other side that went miles away, I don't know where, but it didn't go to the river. The meal sifted out and made a little track all the way to the lake. I dropped pap's whetstone there too, so as to look like it had been done by accident. Then I tied up the rip in the meal sack with a string, so it wouldn't leak no more, and took it and my saw to the canoe again.

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)     Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

_Fauna._--The number of wild animals in Germany is not very great. Foxes, martens, weasels, badgers and otters are to be found everywhere; bears are found in the Alps, wolves are rare, but they find their way sometimes from French territory to the western provinces, or from Poland to Prussia and Posen. Among the rodents the hamster and the field-mouse are a scourge to agriculture. Of game there are the roe, stag, boar and hare; the fallow deer and the wild rabbit are less common. The elk is to be found in the forests of East Prussia. The feathered tribes are everywhere abundant in the fields, woods and marshes. Wild geese and ducks, grouse, partridges, snipe, woodcock, quails, widgeons and teal are plentiful all over the country, and in recent years preserves have been largely stocked with pheasants. The length of time that birds of passage remain in Germany differs considerably with the different species. The stork is seen for about 170 days, the house-swallow 160, the snow-goose 260, the snipe 220. In northern Germany these birds arrive from twenty to thirty days later than in the south. Entry: A

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 7 "Geoponici" to "Germany"     1910-1911

_Trade._--Hector Boece, in his _History and Croniklis of Scotland_, thus quaintly writes of the manufactures of Dundee in the opening of the 16th century--"Dunde, the toun quhair we wer born; quhair mony virtewus and lauborius pepill ar in, making of claith." Jute is, _par excellence_, the industry of the city. Enormous quantities of the raw material--estimated at 300,000 tons a year--are imported directly from India in a fleet solely devoted to this trade, and many of the factories in Bengal are owned by Dundee merchants. Fabrics in jute range from the roughest sacking to carpets of almost Oriental beauty. Another staple industry is the linen manufacture, which is also one of the oldest, although it was not till the introduction of steam power that headway was made. Bell Mill, erected in 1806, was the first work of any importance, and the first power-loom factory dates from 1836. Now factories and mills are to be counted by the score, and the jute, hemp and flax manufactures alone employ about 50,000 hands, while the value of the combined annual output exceeds £6,000,000. Some of the works are planned on a colossal scale, and many of the buildings in respect of design and equipment are among the finest and most complete in the world. In the thriving quarter of Lochee are situated the Camperdown Linen Works, covering an immense area and employing more than 5000 hands. The chimney-stalk (282 ft. high), in the style of an Italian campanile, built of parti-coloured bricks with stone cornices, is a conspicuous feature. The chief textile products are drills, ducks, canvas (for which the British navy is the largest customer), ropes, sheetings, sackings and carpets. Dundee is also celebrated for its confectionery and preserves, especially marmalade. Among other prominent industries are bleaching and dyeing, engineering, shipbuilding, tanning, the making of boots and shoes and other goods in leather, foundries, breweries, corn and flour mills, and the construction of motor-cars. Entry: DUNDEE

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 8 "Dubner" to "Dyeing"     1910-1911

_Domestic Animals and Birds._--The farmer kept up a large stock of animals: in the houses there were pets and in the temples sacred creatures of many kinds. Goats browsed on the trees and herbage at the edge of the desert. Sheep of a peculiar breed with horizontal twisted horns and hairy coat are figured on the earliest monuments: a more valuable variety, woolly with curved horns, made its appearance in the Middle Kingdom and pushed out the older form: sheep were driven into the ploughed fields to break the clods and trample in the seed. The oxen were long-horned, short-horned and polled. They drew the plough, trampled the corn sheaves round the circular threshing floor, and were sometimes employed to drag heavy weights. The pig is rarely figured and was less and less tolerated as the Egyptians grew in ceremonial purity. A variety of wild animals caught in the chase were kept alive and fed for slaughter. Geese and ducks of different sorts were bred in countless numbers by the farmers, also pigeons and quails, and in the early ages cranes. The domestic fowl was unknown in Egypt before the Deltaic dynasties, but Diodorus in the first century B.C. describes how its eggs were hatched artificially, as they are at the present day. Bee-keeping, too, must have been a considerable industry, though dates furnished a supply of sweetening material. Entry: B

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 1 "Edwardes" to "Ehrenbreitstein"     1910-1911

Birds of the genera _Chenalopex_ (the Egyptian and Orinoco geese), _Plectropterus_, _Sarcidiornis_, _Chlamydochen_ and some others, are commonly called geese. It seems uncertain whether they should be grouped with the _Anserinae_. The males of all, like those of the above-mentioned genus _Chloëphaga_, appear to have that curious enlargement at the junction of the bronchial tubes and the trachea which is so characteristic of the ducks or _Anatinae_. (A. N.) Entry: GOOSE

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 2 "Gloss" to "Gordon, Charles George"     1910-1911

Although so-called singing birds exist in tolerable numbers, those worthy of the name of songster are few. Eminently first is a species of nightingale (_uguisu_), which, though smaller than its congener of the West, is gifted with exquisitely modulated flute-like notes of considerable range. The _uguisu_ is a dainty bird in the matter of temperature. After May it retires from the low-lying regions and gradually ascends to higher altitudes as midsummer approaches. A variety of the cuckoo called _holotogisu_ (_Cuculus poliocephalus_) in imitation of the sound of its voice, is heard as an accompaniment of the _uguisu_, and there are also three other species, the _kakkodori_ (_Cuculus canorus_), the _tsutsu-dori_ (_C. himalayanus_), and the _masuhakari_, or _juichi_ (_C. hyperythrus_). To these the lark, _hibari_ (_Alauda japonica_), joins its voice, and the cooing of the pigeon (_hato_) is supplemented by the twittering of the ubiquitous sparrow (_suzume_), while over all are heard the raucous caw of the raven (_karasu_) and the harsh scream of the kite (_tombi_), between which and the raven there is perpetual feud. The falcon (_taka_), always an honoured bird in Japan, where from time immemorial hawking has been an aristocratic pastime, is common enough, and so is the sparrow-hawk (_hai-taka_), but the eagle (_washi_) affects solitude. Two English ornithologists, Blakiston and Pryer, are the recognized authorities on the birds of Japan, and in a contribution to the _Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan_ (vol. x.) they have enumerated 359 species. Starlings (_muku-dori_) are numerous, and so are the wagtail (_sekirei_), the swallow (_tsubame_) the martin (_ten_), the woodchat (_mozu_) and the jay (_kakesu_ or _kashi-dori_), but the magpie (_togarasu_), though common in China, is rare in Japan. Blackbirds and thrushes are not found, nor any species of parrot, but on the other hand, we have the hoopoe (_yatsugashira_), the red-breast (_komadori_), the bluebird (_ruri_), the wren (_miso-sazai_), the golden-crested wren (_itadaki_), the golden-eagle (_inu-washi_), the finch (_hiwa_), the longtailed rose-finch (_benimashiko_), the ouzel--brown (_akahara_), dusky (_tsugumi_) and water (_kawa-garasu_)--the kingfisher (_kawasemi_), the crake (_kuina_) and the tomtit (_kara_). Among game-birds there are the quail (_uzura_), the heathcock (_ezo-racho_), the ptarmigan (_ezo-raicho_ or _ezo-yama-dori_), the woodcock (hodo-shigi), the snipe (_ta-shigi_)--with two special species, the solitary snipe (_yama-shigi_) and the painted snipe (_tama-shigi_)--and the pheasant (_kiji_). Of the last there are two species, the _kiji_ proper, a bird presenting no remarkable features, and the copper pheasant, a magnificent bird with plumage of dazzling beauty. Conspicuous above all others, not only for grace of form but also for the immemorial attention paid to them by Japanese artists, are the crane (_tsuru_) and the heron (_sagi_). Of the crane there are seven species, the stateliest and most beautiful being the _Grus japonensis_ (_tancho_ or _tancho-zuru_), which stands some 5 ft. high and has pure white plumage with a red crown, black tail-feathers and black upper neck. It is a sacred bird, and it shares with the tortoise the honour of being an emblem of longevity. The other species are the demoiselle crane (_anewa-zuru_), the black crane (_kuro-zuru_ or _nezumi-zuru_, i.e. _Grus cinerea_), the _Grus leucauchen_ (_mana-zuru_), the _Grus monachus_ (_nabe-zuru_), and the white crane (_shiro-zuru_). The Japanese include in this category the stork (_kozuru_), but it may be said to have disappeared from the island. The heron (_sagi_) constitutes a charming feature in a Japanese landscape, especially the silver heron (_shira-sagi_), which displays its brilliant white plumage in the rice-fields from spring to early autumn. The night-heron (_goi-sagi_) is very common. Besides these waders there are plover (_chidori_); golden (_muna-guro_ or _ai-guro_); gray (_daizen_); ringed (_shiro-chidori_); spur-winged (_keri_) and Harting's sand-plover (_ikaru-chidori_); sand-pipers--green (_ashiro-shigi_) and spoon-billed (_hera-shigi_)--and water-hens (_ban_). Among swimming birds the most numerous are the gull (_kamome_), of which many varieties are found; the cormorant (_u_)--which is trained by the Japanese for fishing purposes--and multitudinous flocks of wild-geese (_gan_) and wild-ducks (_kamo_), from the beautiful mandarin-duck (_oshi-dori_), emblem of conjugal fidelity, to teal (_kogamo_) and widgeon (_hidori-gamo_) of several species. Great preserves of wild-duck and teal used to be a frequent feature in the parks attached to the feudal castles of old Japan, when a peculiar method of netting the birds or striking them with falcons was a favourite aristocratic pastime. A few of such preserves still exist, and it is noticeable that in the Palace-moats of Tokyo all kinds of water-birds, attracted by the absolute immunity they enjoy there, assemble in countless numbers at the approach of winter and remain until the following spring, wholly indifferent to the close proximity of the city. Entry: F

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 15, Slice 2 "Jacobites" to "Japan" (part)     1910-1911

The process by which Arunta totems came thus to differ from those of all other savages is easily understood. Like the other tribes from the centre to the north (including the Urabunna nation, which reckons descent through women), the Arunta believe that the souls of the primal semi-bestial ancestors of the Alcheringa or "dream time" are perpetually reincarnated. This opinion does not affect by itself the usual exogamous character of totemism among the other tribes. The Arunta nation, however, cultivates an additional myth, namely that the primal ancestors, when they sank into the ground, left behind them certain oval stone slabs, with archaic markings, called _churinga nanja_, or "sacred things of the _nanja_." The _nanja_, again, is a tree or rock, fabled to have risen up to mark the spot where a group of primal ancestors, all of one and the same totem in each case (Cats here, Grubs there, Ducks elsewhere), "went into the ground." The souls of these ancestors haunt such spots, especially they haunt the nanja tree or rock, and the stone _churinga nanja_. Each district, therefore, has its own _oknanikilla_ (or local totem centre of the ghosts), Cat ghosts, Grub ghosts, Hakea flower ghosts and so on. These spirits enter into women and are reborn as children. When a child comes to birth, the mother names the oknanikilla in which she conceived it, and, whatever the ghost totem of that place may be, it is the child's totem. Its mother may be a Grub, its father may be a Crow, but if the child was conceived in a Duck, or Cat, or Opossum or Kangaroo locality, it is, by totem, a Cat, Opossum, Duck or Kangaroo. The _churinga nanja_ of its primal ancestor is sought for at the place of the child's conception, and is put into the sacred repository of such objects. Entry: 6

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 2 "Fairbanks, Erastus" to "Fens"     1910-1911

GOLDEN-EYE, a name indiscriminately given in many parts of Britain to two very distinct species of ducks, from the rich yellow colour of their irides. The commonest of them--the _Anas fuligula_ of Linnaeus and _Fuligula cristata_ of most modern ornithologists--is, however, usually called by English writers the tufted duck, while "golden-eye" is reserved in books for the _A. clangula_ and _A. glaucion_ of Linnaeus, who did not know that the birds he so named were but examples of the same species, differing only in age or sex; and to this day many fowlers perpetuate a like mistake, deeming the "Morillon," which is the female or young male, distinct from the "Golden-eye" or "Rattle-wings" (as from its noisy flight they oftener call it), which is the adult male. This species belongs to the group known as diving ducks, and is the type of the very well-marked genus _Clangula_ of later systematists, which, among other differences, has the posterior end of the sternum prolonged so as to extend considerably over, and, we may not unreasonably suppose, protect the belly--a character possessed in a still greater degree by the mergansers (_Merginae_), while the males also exhibit in the extraordinarily developed bony labyrinth of their trachea and its midway enlargement another resemblance to the members of the same subfamily. The golden-eye, _C. glaucion_ of modern writers, has its home in the northern parts of both hemispheres, whence in winter it migrates southward; but as it is one of the ducks that constantly resorts to hollow trees for the purpose of breeding it hardly transcends the limit of the Arctic forests on either continent. So well known is this habit to the people of the northern districts of Scandinavia, that they very commonly devise artificial nest-boxes for its accommodation and their own profit. Hollow logs of wood are prepared, the top and bottom closed, and a hole cut in the side. These are affixed to the trunks of living trees in suitable places, at a convenient distance from the ground, and, being readily occupied by the birds in the breeding season, are regularly robbed, first of the numerous eggs, and finally of the down they contain, by those who have set them up. Entry: GOLDEN

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 2 "Gloss" to "Gordon, Charles George"     1910-1911

_Glaciers_.--An area of 5170 sq. m. is covered with snowfields and glaciers. This extraordinary development of ice and snow is due to the raw, moist climate, the large rainfall and the low summer temperature. The snow-line varies greatly in different parts of the island, its range being from 1300 to 4250 ft. It is highest on the tableland, on the north side of Vatnajökull, and lowest on the north-west peninsula, to the south of North Cape. Without exception the great _névés_ of Iceland belong to the interior tableland. They consist of slightly rounded domes or billowy snowfields of vast thickness. In external appearance they bear a closer resemblance to the glaciers of the Polar regions than to those of the Alps. The largest snowfields are Vatnajökull (3280 sq. m.), Hofsjökull (520) Langjökull (500) and Mýrdalsjökull (390). The glaciers which stream off from these snowfields are often of vast extent, e.g. the largest glacier of Vatnajökull has an area of 150 to 200 sq. m., but the greater number are small. Altogether, more than 120 glaciers are known in Iceland. It is on the south side of Vatnajökull that they descend lowest; the lower end of Breidamerkurjökull was in the year 1894 only 30 ft. above sea-level. The glaciers of the north-west peninsula also descend nearly to sea-level. The great number of streams of large volume is due to the moist climate and the abundance of glaciers, and the milky white or yellowish-brown colour of their waters (whence the common name Hvítá, white) is due to the glacial clays. The majority of them change their courses very often, and vary greatly in volume; frequently they are impetuous torrents, forming numerous waterfalls. Iceland also possesses a great number of lakes, the largest being Thingvallavatn[3] and Thorisvatn, each about 27 sq. m. in area. Mývatn, in the north, is well known from the natural beauty of its surroundings. Above its surface tower a great number of volcanoes and several craters, and its waters are alive with water-fowl, a multitude of ducks of various species breeding on its islands. The lakes of Iceland owe their origin to different causes, some being due to glacial erosion, others to volcanic subsidence. Mývatn fills a depression between lava streams, and has a depth of not more than 8¾ ft. The group of lakes called Fiskivötn (or Veidivötn), which lie in a desolate region to the west of Vatnajökull, consist for the most part of crater lakes. The groups of lakes which lie north-west from Langjökull occupy basins formed between ridges of glacial gravel; and in the valleys numerous lakes are found at the backs of the old moraines. Entry: ICELAND

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 2 "Hydromechanics" to "Ichnography"     1910-1911

The birds of Australia in their number and variety of species may be deemed some compensation for its poverty of mammals; yet it will not stand comparison in this respect with regions of Africa and South America in the same latitudes. The black swan was thought remarkable when discovered, as belying an old Latin proverb. There is also a white eagle. The vulture is wanting. Sixty species of parrots, some of them very handsome, are found in Australia. The emu corresponds with the African and Arabian ostrich, the rhea of South America, and the cassowary of the Moluccas and New Guinea. In New Zealand this group is represented by the apteryx, as it formerly was by the gigantic moa, the remains of which have been found likewise in Queensland. The graceful _Menura superba_, or lyre-bird, with its tail feathers spread in the shape of a lyre, is a very characteristic form. The mound-raising megapodes, the bower-building satin-birds, and several others, display peculiar habits. The honey-eaters present a great diversity of plumage. There are also many kinds of game birds, pigeons, ducks, geese, plovers and quails. The ornithology of New South Wales and Queensland is more varied and interesting than that of the other provinces. Entry: 60

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 8 "Atherstone" to "Austria"     1910-1911