Gaspard Monge

“ Who didn’t know who Mongo was? Who in Oxford? Who in England? In all Asia and in all Africa? Who indeed? [37] And Gaveston of course knew that one ought to call on Mongo well within one’s first week. It was of prime importance for any Wallace fresher to be known from the first as a Mongoon—for such was the name given to the brilliant and elegant group of undergraduates who used Mongo as their confidant and his rooms as their idling-place. ”

“ After discussing with Monge and Berthollet various matters of physics, mathematics and military science, he went on to speak of certain superstitions from which perhaps his mind was not completely emancipated.
"You deny the miraculous," he said to Monge. "But we live and die in the midst of the miraculous. You told me the other day that you had scornfully put out of your mind the extraordinary happenings associated with Captain Aubelet's death. ”

“ Mongomery’s lance struck the King upon the chest with such violence, that it was shivered into splinters, and the King bloody and fainting, dropped from the saddle. A splinter of Mongomery’s lance had pierced his eye and entered his head. Of what happened after this, I was altogether unconscious: my senses swam, and when I returned to myself I was lying on a couch in my own apartment.
I have just received a suit of male attire from Mongomery, in order to facilitate our escape. The night is dark: when you receive this, your Clara will perhaps be already in your vicinity. ”

“ But nevertheless, with Mongo’s help, he had succeeded in getting himself elected to the Union Society without a single blackball; and after that the other clubs, smaller and less exclusive, had hastened to net in this remarkable freshman. Soon no host had felt his party, whether breakfast or cocoa, to be a real social éclat unless one at least of his guests could enliven the discussion, whether it turned upon the beauties of Beowulf or the existence of a Deity, by the apt quotation of Gaveston ffoulis’s opinion on the point at moot. ”

“ In the midst of the tournament the King challenged Mongomery, and on passing me, he whispered: “You are the reward, fair Clara!” Before my agitation permitted a reply, he was near Mongomery. The latter refused repeatedly to enter the list. The Queen sent the Duke of Savoy, supplicating the King to desist; but he remained obstinate, and Mongomery was compelled to comply. At the first shock, the King’s lance passed close to Mongomery’s helmet, at the second, a part of the crest was carried away. ”

“ In a forced passion, and in a shrill tone, I heard him exclaim—“My lady, this demands satisfaction!” At this moment the young Count Mongomery approached me, and begged me to leave this satisfaction to him. My heart was full, I was unable to utter a single syllable in reply, and the Count took my silence for consent. “Mount and break a lance with me, Chastelard!” cried he leaping into his saddle, and forcing the dastard to do the same. ”

“ With the serving of the first course of dinner—Gaspard’s wonderful Purée Mongol—an artist’s 265 dream of all the most delicate vegetables in the world mingled together as the clouds are mingled, the tensity in the air seemed to break and shatter about them in showers of brilliant, artificial mirth, which presently, because they were all young and fond of one another and their group had the habit of intimacy, became less and less strained and unreal. ”

“ The population in the Gobi Proper is far more scanty than in the steppe country which precedes it. Indeed, none but the Mongol and his constant companion the camel, could inhabit these regions, destitute alike of water and timber, scorched by an almost tropical heat in summer, and chilled in winter to an icy cold. ”

“ The Kitats are skilful to talk and to lie. It is impossible for a Mongol to gain a suit against a Kitat. Sirs Lamas, the kingdom of Gechekten is undone!” So saying, the poor Mongol rose, bowed, mounted his horse, and rapidly disappeared in the desert.
We travelled two more days through this kingdom, and everywhere witnessed the poverty and wretchedness of its scattered inhabitants. Yet the country is naturally endowed with astonishing wealth, especially in gold and silver mines, which of themselves have occasioned many of its worst calamities. ”

“ The story of Mongán belongs, of course, to the same group. It is, however, of importance that Mongán belongs to the Christian era, and so we must presuppose that some older tradition was applied to him. (We have many instances of the exchange of one person for another, so e.g. a story told in north Ireland (Donegal) about Cúchulainn is told in the south about Fionn mac Cumhail.) It is further to be noticed that Alexander the Great's birth story also has many motives similar to those of the Irish tale, so e.g. ”

“ The migratory Mongul, rare in India, unknown in Asia Minor, has invaded all the land of Burma. Few indeed are the villages to which at least one wearer of the pig-tail has not found his way and made 396himself a force in the community. His household commonly consists of a Burmese wife and a troop of half-breed children; and it is whispered that the native women are by no means loath to mate with these aliens, who often prove more tolerant and provident husbands than the Burmen. ”

“ These cities, lying at the very southwestern extremity of the Great Wall of China, look out over the vast steppes of Mongolia, where there are nothing but Mongols belonging to many hordes, who live in the saddle and drive their flocks of sheep and their herds of ponies in front of them, forever moving. It is nearly two thousand miles in all; no European armies could ever follow, not in five years. They would slowly melt away on that long, interminable road. With such a line of retreat open the Court is absolutely safe, and knows it. It can act as it pleases. ”

“ In case of general war, each tribe of the Monguls furnished, of course, a certain quota of armed men, in proportion to its numbers and strength. These men always went to war, as has already been said, on horseback, and the spectacle which these troops presented in galloping in squadrons over the plains was sometimes very imposing. The shock of the onset when they charged in this way upon the enemy was tremendous. They were armed with [Pg 34] bows and arrows, and also with sabres. ”

“ Indeed, the Chinese name for the raven is the "Mongol's coffin."
The first day we camped in Urga, my wife and Mrs. MacCallie were walking beside the river. Only a short distance from our tent they discovered a dead Mongol who had just been dragged out of the city. A pack of - 76 - dogs were in the midst of their feast and the sight was most unpleasant.
The dogs of Mongolia are savage almost beyond belief. They are huge black fellows like the Tibetan mastiff, and their diet of dead human flesh seems to have given them a contempt for living men. ”

“ My friend, I am loved by the sweetest girl in all the world,—beautiful enough to shine beside the greatest beauties in Paris, with a heart and mind worthy of Clarissa. She has seen me; I have pleased her, and she thinks me the great Canalis. But that is not all. Modeste Mignon is of high birth, and Mongenod has just told me that her father, the Comte de La Bastie, has something like six millions. The father is here now, and I have asked him through Mongenod for an interview at two o'clock. Mongenod is to give him a hint, just a word, that it concerns the happiness of his daughter. ”

“ In our sense he owns no land, but if he digs a well, which, I believe, he rarely does, he has certain rights over it, and his claims to the water and grass near his yurt should be respected. His friends have to admit that the Mongol is lazy. His chief duty is to keep an eye on his herds, but mostly they take care of themselves. Each drove of horses is in the charge of a stallion which looks sharply after the mares, fighting savagely with any other stallion which attempts to join the herd. ”

“ Other novelists have respectively described this invaluable character as crouching like an opossum, a satyr, a panther, or perched like a canary, a vulture, an angel. A few, less successful, have denied or pretended to ignore his existence. Mr. Budd has found a singularly happy mean. (Lit. Exec.)
“Dear Mongo!” called Gaveston, picking his way over the outstretched legs of four fifth-year Mongoons on the shabby sofa. ”

“ He says he was angry because the traders sold him a bad musket. It exploded when he tried to fire it and blew off his little finger. So he joined the Mohawk wolf who boasted that he would drive the white men away. Monga thought Ohrante was a great chief and a powerful medicine man, but when he proposed to go to Minong, Monga was afraid. Then Ohrante told him that Minong was a wonderful place where they would grow rich and mighty and have everything they wished. He said he was such a great medicine man that the spirits of the island would do his bidding. ”

“ The animals which the Monguls most prized were camels, oxen and cows, sheep, goats, and horses. They were very proud of their horses, and they rode them with great courage and [Pg 25] spirit. They always went mounted in going to war. Their arms were bows and arrows, pikes or spears, and a sort of sword or sabre, which was manufactured in some of the towns toward the west, and supplied to them in the course of trade by great traveling caravans. ”

“ But Gaveston only smiled enigmatically, and Mongo, with quick perceptiveness, hinted successfully to his other visitors that there was another common-room for junior members of the college somewhere about.
“Not overworking, Gav?”
“Well, I don’t know, Mongo. You see——” He stopped as if to collect his thoughts, and at once Mongo saw that something was seriously wrong.
[227]
“I—I think I see, Gav.” The old man laid a hand on his shoulder as he spoke. “You’ve rushed things a little, haven’t you? Oxford doesn’t stand that, you know.”
“Youth can stand a lot, Mongo.” ”

“ Notwithstanding this rough and unprepossessing exterior, the disposition of the Mongol is full of gentleness and good nature; he passes suddenly from the most rollicking and extravagant gaiety to a state of melancholy, which is by no means disagreeable. Timid to excess in his ordinary habits; when fanaticism or the desire of vengeance arouses him, he displays in his courage an impetuosity which nothing can stay; he is candid and credulous as an infant, and he passionately loves to hear marvellous anecdotes and narratives. ”

“ There seems every reason to believe that if the Sungs had acted with only ordinary promptitude they might have destroyed this Mongol army long before any aid could have reached it from the north. Once Mangu had formed his resolution the rapidity of his movements left the Sungs little or no chance of attacking Uriangkadai. This campaign began in the winter of 1257, when the troops were able to cross the frozen waters of the Hoangho, and the immense Mongol army was divided into three bodies, while Uriangkadai was ordered to march north and effect a junction with his old chief Kublai in Szchuen. ”

“ Already the crack of the rifles and little puffs of white smoke showed them where the Mongars, advancing cautiously, were commencing their attack. The Professor looked on anxiously.
“I am not at all sure,” he said in an undertone to Quest, “about our position with the Mongars. Craig has a peculiar hold upon them, but as a rule they hate white men, and their blood will be up.... See! the fight is all over. Those fellows were no match for the Mongars. Most of them have fled and left the caravan.” ”

“ MONGENOD (Louis) , younger brother of the preceding, with whom he had business association on rue de la Victoire, where he was receiving the prudent advice of his mother, Madame Charlotte Mongenod, when Godefroid visited him in 1836. ”

“ The women are far less numerous than the men, a fact which is accounted for by the celibacy of the lamas. The Mongol is an excellent father, and passionately fond of his children. Whenever we gave them anything they always divided it equally among all the members of their family, were it a lump of sugar, and the portion of each individual only a crumb. The elders are always held in great respect, especially old men, whose opinions and commands are implicitly followed. ”

“ Mongondro was of an inquiring bent of mind, and pleased John Starhurst greatly by asking him to account for the existence and beginning of things. When the missionary had finished his summary of the Creation according to Genesis, he saw that Mongondro was deeply affected. The little old chief smoked silently for some time. Then he took the pipe from his mouth and shook his head sadly.
"It cannot be," he said. "I, Mongondro, in my youth, was a good workman with the adze. Yet three months did it take me to make a canoe—a small canoe, a very small canoe. ”

“ Only for a moment the terrible news and the name “Mongols” had shocked them after which they became themselves again; each one now held his weapons in his hands and stood assembled with his fellows prepared for the struggle.
“It is most important for us, comrades, to keep within the yard close to the shadow of these walls. Until the enemy succeeds in driving us away from this house and surrounding us out in the open, we have nothing to fear. This house will serve as our fortress.” ”

“ Letters are conveyed across the Gobi by horse post, which goes three times a month both ways, on a system not unlike the old pony express in America, the distance of one thousand miles, from Kiakhta to Kalgan, being covered in the short time of nine days by five consecutive riders and nine relays of horses. Only Mongols are employed on this arduous task, and night and day, in all weathers and seasons, these [306] hardy sons of the desert do their monotonous and lonely journey, keeping their time with almost the regularity of clockwork, so well is the system organized. ”