Vina

“ Vina had made her forget for a moment.
"But we said in our haste then, that all men were just natives——"
"Many wise women say so at their leisure——"
"But Mary McCullom——"
"Taboo——"
"Well, then, he made me see there were real men in the world," Vina declared with slow defiance.
"Oh."
"You're sure to misunderstand. Please listen carefully. He is as far to me—from being that kind of a real man—as a mere native. Do you understand?... ”

“ That the cultivators of the Cape have not succeeded, in any considerable degree, in producing wines to the taste of Indian consumers, is no reason why those of New South Wales should be unsuccessful, tot vina quot agri, says Pliny, who, among other illustrious men of ancient times, treated of this subject; and this is a truth, which the extension of the vine over Europe, has only more extensive proved: and it is not less true, that the differences of cultivation and management, produce as great diversities in the wine, as the differences of soil and situation. ”

“ I took her roun' to Vina's 'fore I went to de libbery-stable, an' jes' 'fore I come to de doah a t'ought come to me dat made me dat sick to de stomach I could hardly stan'. S'posin', after all, she wan't Vina's chile! But she was—leastways, Vina was sure ob it—an' ob all de goin's-on dat gal went into yer'd a t'ought 'twas sumfin' mighty consequentious, stead ob nuffin' but a little nigger young 'un. 'Yer jus' take back dat hoss, Fader Abram,' says she, 'an' den come back to yo' darter Vina ”

“ Methods for the Sitár have been written in Bengâli by the Rájah Sir S.M. Tagore, a well-known amateur, and in Mahrátti by a Brahmin musician of Poona, Anna Ghárpure, a fine performer now in the service of H.H. the Thâkore Sahib of Wadhwân. Besides the Rájah Rám Pál Singh, I had an opportunity of hearing a player from Jeypur, at an exhibition called "India in London," in 1886. The technique and charm of his performance are not easily forgotten. The resonance body of an ordinary Sitár is a gourd, but he had one with two gourds, known as the "Been," or Vína Sitár. ”

“ How they reach out like sentient hands! and when they have found, how strong and firm their clasp! Then, who does not know and love the curious aroma of her small green flowers, bringing back to memory the smell of a Southern vineyard? Very soon, now, autumn suns will swell the clustered fruit, and purple bloom will begin to show between the leaves. A Vine is one of the only plants whose every leaf, well nigh, may be painted with care in a picture, and yet not seem too much made out. Yet rarely indeed can human hand give the fine thinness and yielding texture of a Vine leaf! ”

“ Nor must we dismiss the Vine without a few words respecting its sacred associations, for it is very much owing to these associations that it has been so endeared to our forefathers and ourselves. Having its native home in the East, it enters largely into the history and imagery of the Bible. There is no plant so often mentioned in the Bible, and always with honour, till the honour culminates in the great similitude, in which our Lord chose the Vine as the one only plant to which He condescended to compare Himself—"I am the true Vine!" ”

“ VINE.—The Vine was held by the ancients sacred to Bacchus, and the old historians all connect the jovial god with the “life-giving tree”: he is crowned with Vine-leaves, and he holds in his hand a bunch of Grapes, whilst his merry followers are decked with garlands of the trailing Vine, and love to quaff with their master the divine juice of its luscious violet and golden fruit, styled by Anacreon “the liquor of Bacchus.” ”

“ Through the thicket, the meadow, the wood, dash the pack on the trail of Winona. Swift she speeds with her burden, but swift on her track fly the minions of famine; Now they yell on the view from the drift, in the reeds at the marge of the meadow; Red gleam their wild, ravenous eyes; for they see on the hill-side their supper; The dark forest echoes their cries; but her heart is the heart of a warrior. From its sheath snatched Winona her knife, and a leg from the red doe she severed; With the carcass she ran for her life, —to a low-branching oak ran the maiden ”

“ The old heathen writers all paid honour to the Vine, and attributed to the earliest deified sovereigns of each country the gift of this ambrosial tree. Thus Saturn is said to have bestowed it upon Crete; Janus bore it with him to Latium; Osiris similarly benefitted Egypt; and Spain obtained it through Geryon, her most ancient monarch. Old traditions all point to Greece as the native place of the Vine, and there it is still to be found growing wild.——There are many allusions to the Vine in the Scriptures. Noah, we find, planted a Vineyard (Gen. ix., 20) ”

“ But never again shall you bring the voice that she loves to Winona.
THE CANOE RACE.
Now a light rustling wind from the South shakes his wings o'er the wide, wimpling waters:
Up the dark-winding river DuLuth follows fast in the wake of Tamdóka.
On the slopes of the emerald shores leafy woodlands and prairies alternate;
On the vine-tangled islands the flowers peep timidly out at the white men;
In the dark-winding eddy the loon sits warily watching and voiceless,
And the wild-goose, in reedy lagoon, stills the prattle and play of her children. ”

“ The fruitful Vine gives delight to the eye in far larger measure than Virginia Creeper, or any other of our green hangings upon the walls of a house. The Vine is more obedient and yet more free, and its intelligence is greater. ”

“ The vine had lived fifty years in the street, and knew the stories and sorrows of all the human bees in the hive.
"He is called René Claude," said the vine. "He is a man of genius. He is very poor."
"You use synonyms," murmured the old balsam who heard.
"He is an artist," the vine continued. "He is young. He comes from the south. His people are guides in the Pyrenees. He is a dreamer of dreams. He has taught himself many things. He has eloquence too. There is a little club at the back of the house which I climb over. I throw a tendril or two in at the crevices and listen. ”

“ This is the place where the Vines may be so well planted. If the main stem only is trained or guided it is well to leave the long branches to shift for themselves, for they will ramble and dispose themselves in so pictorial a way that the whole garden is bettered by their rioting grandeur of leaf mass.
Aristolochia Sipho, with its twining stems and handsome leaves, will, like the Vine and the Virginian Creeper, answer to all these uses of jungle-like growth among trees and shrubs and free climbing in hedge, over pergola or rough building. ”

“ A week of dreamy autumn weather came on, during which Beverley managed to be with Alice a great deal, mostly sitting on the Roussillon gallery, where the fading vine leaves made fairy whispering, and where the tempered breeze blew deliciously cool from over the distant multi-colored woods. The men of Vincennes were gathering their Indian corn early to dry it on the cob for grating into winter meal. Many women made wine from the native grapes and from the sweeter and richer fruit of imported vines. ”

“ The angels assented; but when the woman, who was as virtuous as she was beautiful, reached heaven, she would not descend again to earth, and there she remains, changed into the most brilliant star in the skies.——With the Mandans, a tribe of American Indians, the Vine is connected with the tradition concerning their origin. They believe that the whole nation resided in one large village, underground, near a subterraneous lake. A Grape Vine extended its roots down to their habitation, and gave them a view of the light. ”

“ The colour of the leaves is a fresh, lively green, and in autumn they are prettily marbled with yellow. Where a very large-leaved Vine is wanted nothing is handsomer than the North American Vitis Labrusca or the Asiatic Vitis Coignettii, whose autumn leaves are gorgeously coloured. For a place that demands more delicate foliage there is the Parsley-Vine, that has a delightful look of refinement, and another that should not be forgotten is the Claret-Vine, with autumnal colouring of almost scarlet and purple, and abundance of tightly clustered black fruit, nearly blue with a heavy bloom. ”

“ Vinegar, who was a sharp, bustling, tidy woman, swept, brushed, and dusted, brushed and dusted and swept to keep the house clean as a new pin. Now one day she lost her temper with a cobweb and swept so hard after it that bang! bang! the broom-handle went right through the glass, and crash! crash! clitter! clatter! there was the pickle-jar house about her ears all in splinters and bits.
She picked her way over these as best she might, and rushed into the garden.
"Oh, Vinegar, Vinegar!" she cried. "We are clean ruined and done for! Quit these vegetables! they won't be wanted! ”

“ I mean Vinzi. For whom should I do all of it if not for him, and what kind of a boy is he? He has no eyes in his head and shows not the slightest pleasure or interest in taking to pasture the most beautiful cows that can be found far and wide in the whole neighborhood. If I say to him, ‘Just look what wonderful fodder is in this meadow!’ he says ‘yes’ and stares into the distance so one can see that he has neither listened nor really looked at the meadow he is standing in. ”

“ Till away in the bend of the stream, where it turned and was lost in the lindens,
She saw the last dip and the gleam of the oars ere they vanished forever.
Still afar on the waters the song, like bridal bells distantly chiming,
The stout, jolly boatmen prolong, beating time with the stroke of their paddles;
And Winona's ear, turned to the breeze, lists the air falling fainter and fainter,
Till it dies like the murmur of bees when the sun is aslant on the meadows. ”

“ The Vines in the Botanic Garden, are flourishing most luxuriantly; and the rapid progress the Vine has made in the Colony wherever properly attended to, has established beyond a doubt, that both the soil, and climate are admirably adapted for its cultivation. We have not the slightest doubt, that a peculiarly rich flavour, would be imparted to the grape, the growth of this country; if we may judge from the exquisite perfection of other fruits. ”

“ Lord Bacon reckons "Vine flowers" among the "things of beauty in season" in May and June, and reckons among the most sweet-scented flowers, next to Musk Roses and Strawberry leaves dying, "the flower of the Vines; it is a little dust, like the dust of a bent, which [307] grows among the duster in the first coming forth." And Chaucer says: "Scorners faren like the foul toode, that may noughte endure the soote smel of the Vine roote when it flourisheth."—The Persones Tale. ”

“ Winona! Winona! O list to my plea!
O why wilt thou leave me, O canst thou not see
How barren this world if deprived of thy love,
’Twas given to me by the Great Spirit above.
Winona! Winona! Return unto me—
From bonds of the white man O cut thyself free.
Thy heart is still mine, but the glitter of gold
Enticed thee away from thy lover of old.
The white man will weary of thee in a day,
Forsaken thou’lt be, dishonored for aye.
Thy beauty will fade, alas! for thee then!
Reviled, and dishonored, forsaken of men. ”

“ Here Vine paused again and again to watch the lantern in the lugger, and listen for the rattle of oars in the rowlocks, the oars of the boat conveying his son to the men who would at once hoist the sails and bear him away to a place of safety. But the dim light of the horn lantern rose and fell, there was no rattle of oars, not even the murmur of a voice: nothing but the sucking, gasping noises at their feet, as the tide swirled by like the race of waters from some huge mill. ”

“ For although divers both nobles and gentlemen have in these later times endeavoured to plant and make Vineyards, and to that purpose have caused Frenchmen, being skilfull in keeping and dressing Vines, to be brought over to perform it, yet either their skill faileth them or their Vines were not good, or (the most likely) the soil was not fitting, for they could never make any wine that was worth the drinking, being so small and heartlesse, that they soon gave over their practise."
[306] There is no need to say anything of the modern culture of the Vine, or its many excellent varieties. ”

“ Everybody sat down, and Vinzi was asked to tell about his relatives. He grew constantly more lively and could not say enough of their kindness to him. When the father wished to know how the pasture up there had pleased him, Vinzi in blissful remembrance described the mountain-pasture to them. The violets up there filled the air with fragrance and the high larches spread their wide branches over the moss-covered stones. The cows grazed quietly between the trees so that their bells resounded far and wide like a song of peace. ”

“ The open door framed an oblong of glaring white road, and tendrils of vine with the sun shining through their leaves, and the light struck up on the boarded ceiling, and dealt mercifully with the details of a long table with black bottles on it that was disposed beyond the region of the straw.
‘It is here that the vintagers eat and sleep,’ said the vigneron, taking a loving sip from the tumbler for fear it should overflow. ”

“ Men, women, and children, therefore forthwith proceeded to ascend by means of the Vine, but when about half the nation had reached the surface of the earth, a very stout woman, who was laboriously clambering up the Vine, broke it with her weight, and debarred herself and the rest of the nation from seeing the light of the sun. ”