Bors de Ganis

“ And there fell between them a fiery cloud, which burned up both their shields, and they two fell to the earth in a great swoon; but when they awakened out of it Bors saw that his brother had no harm. With that the voice spoke to him saying, “Bors, go hence and bear your brother fellowship no longer; but take your way to the sea, where Sir Percivale abides till you come.” Then Sir Bors prayed his brother to forgive him all he had unknowingly done, and rode straight to the sea. ”

“ The next to see the sacred vessel was the pious Sir Bors. And after that he had seen it, “he was led to bed into a faire large chamber, and many doores were shut about that chamber. And when Sir Bors espied all those doores, he made all the people to avoide, for he might have no body with him; but in no wise Sir Bors would unarme him, but so laid him upon the bed. And right so he saw come in a light that he might wel see a speare great and long which come straight upon him pointlong. And so Sir Bors seemed that the head of the speare brent like a taper ”

“ N.B.—This sir Bors must not be confounded with sir Borre, a natural son of king Arthur and Lyonors (daughter of the earl Sanam, pt. i. 15) , nor yet with king Bors of Gaul, i.e., France (pt. i. 8) .
Bortell, the bull, in the beast-epic called Reynard the Fox (1498) .
Bos'can- [Almoga'và] , a Spanish poet of Barcelona (1500-1543) . His poems are generally bound up with those of Garcilasso. They introduced the Italian style into Castilian poetry.
Sometimes he turned to gaze upon his book,
Boscan, or Garcilasso. ”

“ In order to reach the frontier it was necessary to pass through Hélitte, a station of douaniers, on the high road from Bayonne to S. Jean-Pied-de-Port. In order to effect this, Ganis took advantage of a funeral that was to take place at half-past ten in the morning. He left Méharin at 9 a.m. attending the two ladies, dressed as mourners. At a little distance from the place the Princess and her attendant had to alight and go direct to the church, where Ganis informed her they were to place themselves behind a tall woman in mourning, and to follow her when she left the church. ”

“ One morning, a few days after Paul and I had settled matters so very much to our own satisfaction, the boy who brought up the milkers fell sick, and Ben, who took his place, failed to find them. It was a thing of not infrequent occurrence, and I turned out as usual to help him. As usual, too, those wretched cows had turned up the creek and lost themselves in the gullies among the ranges to the south. As the grass grew dry-on the plains they would wander along the sheltered creek, where in patches it was still fresh and green. ”

“ They had to feel their way as they best could round the outlying reefs, all but grinding against them, till they finally ran the curragh ashore upon the single spit of firm sand just below the old church of Cill-Cananach. Dark or light, hot or cold, sunlight, starlight, moonlight, it was all one that evening to Grania. The world itself seemed to have changed; to stand still; to be a new world. Everything about and around her had changed—the sea, the sky, the boat, the rocks, the shore—above all, herself; herself and Murdough. ”

“ Gneiss is a rare rock in Scotland, and is principally to be found in the Long island, in Tirey, Coll, Rona, Iona, and Isla; as well as on the mainland, in Glen Elg, and Morven, I do not consider the rock which is of such frequent occurrence between Blair and Loch Spey, already described in this paper, as gneiss, since although the form is laminar the structure is not foliated: nor have I observed that the gneiss y of Scotland any where alternates with mica slate, although it does with clay slate, nor that it has any immediate connection with granite, much as it resembles it in composition. ”

“ Besides being a strategic point, it was one of those natural sites for a homestead that men pick out when there is a whole land to choose from. The bank rolled up gradually from the water's edge, and Gagnon's whole establishment was revealed from the river—dwelling, bunk-house, stable—all built of logs and crouching low on the ground as if for warmth.
The buildings had been there so long they had become a part of the landscape. The log walls were weathered to a silvery grey, and the vigorously sprouting [161] sod roofs repeated the note of the surrounding grass. ”

“ The island of Borva lay warm and green and bright under a blue sky; there were no white curls of foam on Loch Roag, but only the long Atlantic swell coming in to fall on the white beach; away over there in the South the fine grays and purples of the giant Suainabhal shone in the sunlight amid the clear air; and the beautiful sea-pyots flew about the rocks, their screaming being the only sound audible in the stillness. The King of Borva was down by the shore, seated on a stool, and engaged in the idyllic operation of painting a boat which had been hauled up on the sand. ”

“ Olimpia, clinging to life, was driven upon the second course. It took two halberdiers to hold her up.
Borso had before him the deposition of the page-boy and the report of the watch. From the words of the first he suspected that both women were concerned—until he had heard the second. This was to the effect that the Captain's head had been cut off.
"No, no," said Borso to himself, "I am heartily sorry for my young friend the chimney-sweeping poet, but I can't think him a fool. He would never have married a woman who could cut off a man's head. Yet stay! ”

“ The god is still remembered in a chant sung round bonfires in Auvergne. A sheaf of corn is set on fire, and called "Granno mio," while the people sing, "Granno, my friend; Granno, my father; Granno, my mother."62 Another god of thermal springs was Borvo, Bormo, or Bormanus, whose name is derived from borvo, whence Welsh berw, "boiling," and is evidently connected with the bubbling of the springs.63 Votive tablets inscribed Grannos or Borvo show that the offerers desired healing for themselves or others. ”

“ The houses are shaped like beehives, are very low, and composed simply of a mud wall, and a roof made of bamboo thatched with grass. The doors are barely two feet high, but the supple-bodied Gani, who have never been encumbered with clothes, can walk through the aperture with perfect ease. The floor is made of clay beaten hard, and is swept with great care. Cow-skins are spread on the floor by way of beds, and upon these the Gani sleep without any covering. ”

“ The Indians went there and came where the Gans were living.
125A small mountain stood at the east and on it Black Gan stood every dawn and talked as a chief. When he had spoken as chief four mornings, they asked why Black Gan was talking that way. All the Gans came together and he talked to them. “May one of your children remain here?” he asked. All the Gans said, “No. Our children are all going with us.” Then Black Gan decided that one of his should stay. He left the youngest little girl, putting a turquoise water jar by her pillow. He covered this with earth. ”

“ The Gani have cattle, but are very poor herdsmen, and have suffered the herd to deteriorate in size and quality. They cannot even drive their cattle properly, each cow recognizing a special driver, who grasps the tail in one hand and a horn in the other, and thus drags and pushes the animal along. ”

“ The valley was wild and solitary to an extraordinary degree, the brook or torrent running in the middle of it covered with alder trees. After we had proceeded about a furlong we reached the house of the old fashion. It was a rude stone cottage standing a little above the road on a kind of platform on the right-hand side of the glen; there was a paling before it with a gate, at which a pig was screaming, as if anxious to get in. “It wants its dinner,” said John Jones, and opened the gate for me to pass, taking precautions that the screamer did not enter at the same time. ”

“ The gannet drops like the osprey into schools of herring, mackerel and pilchard. In their nests of grass and weeds, which are always made on the highest, steepest cliffs above the sea, one egg is laid a year, or a second, or even a third if the first is stolen. The eggs and young birds are eatable, unlike the eggs and flesh of the cormorant, which even the Greenlanders omit from their ménu.
As the launch rounds the lower end of the island, groups of gannets with ash-grey plumage are descried bathing at the water edge and strutting the beach promenade. ”

“ Outside the wind howled, sweeping with a vicious whirl over the long naked ledges, loosening here and there a thin flake of stone, which spun round and round for a moment like a forest leaf, then fell with a light pattering noise upon the ridge below. Inside the sods crackled dully, as the fire blown by Grania ran along their ragged brown sides, or shot into a flame whenever a stray fibre helped it on. ”

“ Although the soil of Bouré is very fertile, no cultivation whatever is carried on: the inhabitants buy every thing of their neighbours; rice, millet, pistachio-nuts, pimento, every thing is bought with gold: they have horned cattle, and they breed some poultry. Before the war, Kankan furnished them largely with provisions, but, the communication being interrupted, no more are brought.
Bouré has a considerable commerce with Bamaka, which is six or eight days’ journey distant, down the Dhioliba. The Moors carry to this country large quantities of salt and other merchandise which they exchange. ”

“ The Bor-panee is about forty yards wide, and is spanned by an elegant iron suspension-bridge, that is clamped to the gneiss rock (strike north-east, dip north-west) on either bank; beneath is a series of cascades, none high, but all of great beauty from the broken masses of rocks and picturesque scenery on either side. We frequently botanised up and down the river with great success: many curious plants grow on its stony and rocky banks; and amongst them Rhododendron formosum at the low elevation of 2000 feet. ”

“ Garin went on to this grove and it sang for him again. When it ceased he did not go back to the boundary stone. This country pleased him and he thought, “I will go on and see how Our Lady in Egypt looks from this side.”
He followed the stream a mile and more. It was slipping now beneath mighty trees. Their arching boughs made a roof; it was like walking in cloisters. Between the pillars, inland, could be seen fields and vineyards and, at last, the convent’s self, with her olive trees behind her. Garin came now to thickly planted laurels, a grove within a grove. ”

“ Janice scattered corn and oats through the feed-window into the hen-house, and heard some of the hungry biddies scramble down from the roosts to get the grain.
She knew just what grain to give the horses, and she mixed the mash for each cow separately. Uncle Jason had put a pump into the barn the year before, and it was so protected that it could not freeze. She climbed into the mow and threw down fodder and hay for the night. All that the men would have to do would be to milk and water the stock. ”

“ Thus there is in the older formations a genealogy of rocks which, in the absence of fossils, may be used with some confidence, but which does not apply to the more modern deposits. Still, nothing in geology absolutely perishes or is altogether discontinued; and it is probable that, down to the present day, the causes which produced the old Laurentian gneiss may still operate in limited localities. Then, however, they were general, not exceptional. It is further to be observed that the term "gneiss" is sometimes of wide and even loose application. ”

“ The pointed gneiss rocks near Mont Blanc (Aiguilles) ,—the conical tops of the quartz mountains of Schihallion,—the Paps of Jura,—the Sugarloaf in Wicklow,—the wildly broken crags of mica schist in the Trosachs, are too familiar to need description; but, picturesque effects of this high order depend on a combination of circumstances; the position and hardness of the rocks—relative depth of valleys and other causes; and large tracts of gneiss in Ross and Sutherland, and of mica schist in Argyle, can by no fancy be transformed into the sublime or beautiful. ”

“ The shape of the village is determined by the narrow ridge of terra firma, the mere heaping of the tides, between the quaking marsh and the encroaching sea. The nidus of the present settlement is the tiny hamlet of Old Borth, perched on a spur of the promontory, and well out of reach of flood tides. We are not sure that the mother may not outlive her colony, unless substantial measures are taken to guard against another 30th of January. Near Old Borth, through a gap in the hills, comes the River Lery, a trout-stream known to our anglers, thanks again to Sir Pryse who owns it. ”

“ EARLY morning at Borva, fresh, luminous and rare; the mountains in the South grown pale and cloud-like under a sapphire sky; the sea ruffled into a darker blue by a light breeze from the west; and the sunlight lying hot on the red gravel and white shells around Mackenzie’s house. There is an odor of sweetbrier about, hovering in the warm, still air, except at such times as the breeze freshens a bit, and brings around the shoulder of the hill the cold, strange scent of the rocks and the sea beyond. ”

“ Overhead the heavy clouds were still hurried on by the wind; and in the South the Eastern slopes of the hills and the moors were getting to be of a soft purple; but all along the West, where her home was, lay a great flush of gold, and she knew that Loch Roag was shining there, and the gable of the house at Borvapost getting warm in the beautiful light.
“It is a good afternoon you will be getting to see Borva,” her father said to her; but all the answer she made was to ask her father not to stop at Garra-na-hina, but to drive straight on to Callernish. ”