Languor

“ Models of the Pĕnanggalan and Langsuir, the former being the head on the left. Note the length of the Langsuir’s nails.
Page 326.
In their wild state, a Malay once informed me, these woman-vampires are exceedingly fond of fish, and once and again may be seen “sitting in crowds on the fishing-stakes at the river mouth awaiting an opportunity to steal the fish.” However that may be, it seems curiously in keeping with the following charm for “laying” a Langsuir:—
“O ye mosquito-fry at the river’s mouth
When yet a great way off, ye are sharp of eye,
When near, ye are hard of heart. ”

“ Langmere should perhaps be more correctly Long Mere, as it is a long, narrow sheet of water, divided by a promontory, on which are some gaunt fir trees. Tradition says that these were not planted by the hand of man. At very long intervals this promontory becomes an island, and Langmere then is a sight to be remembered. Lying in the midst of a wild, scrubby heath, with never a sound but the wail of the Peewit or scream of a Gull, it is by far the most impressive of the meres. A dried-up, starved, stalky growth of thistles forms the sole vegetation in the immediate neighbourhood of the mere. ”

“ Now the girl was sitting on a log near the fire, on which her father, at Langdon's command, had heaped wet gulfweed to smudge the hayhennies away. The men, lulled by heat, by the gossip of the brook, by digestion and nicotine, lay in the warm sand, squinting out at the sailless and rolling immensities of a sea pure turquoise as a porcelain tub full of bluing-water on a Monday mom. They drowsed, and so did noontide.
“Quite like the Garden of Eden, eh?” remarked Langdon lazily. “Palms, beach and sea will feed us. Nothing to do but take the goods the gods provide us. ”

“ Langrove.
“My advice is that we leave her alone,” replied Sir Simon. “We’re none of us a match for womankind. She circumvented me about that bit of ground for the Methodist chapel. She’s too many guns for both of us together, Langrove; if you get into a quarrel with the old lady, she’ll raise the parish against you with port wine and flannel shirts, and you’ll go to the wall. After all, why need you worry about it! Let her have her say. They love to hear themselves talk, women do; you can’t change them, and you wouldn’t if you could. Come, now, Langrove, you know you wouldn’t. ”

“ He looked like a widow but felt more like a bachelor, for he was a gentleman raven and kept bachelor hall in a tall tree on the Flemish sand dunes.
The Pied Raven was no fisherman, even though he did love the sight, smell and particularly the taste of fish; and in the sea to the north were the best of fishing-grounds. He envied the River Hawk and Sea Eagle who knew so well the habits of all finny creatures and could select the best, fresh and squirming from the water. The Pied Raven’s tastes were every bit as refined as the River Hawk’s, Sea Eagle’s or anybody else’s for that matter ”

“ Unless he had some reason to believe that the book was originally written in a particular dialect, he ought to have given a preference to that among the oldest manuscripts which presents the purest language; but we cannot allow that manuscript to be chosen on a ground so capricious as "that the orthography and dialect in which it is written approach very near to that semi-Saxon jargon in the midst of which the editor was brought up, and which he continues to hear daily spoken on the confines of Lancashire, and the West Riding of the county of York." ”

“ He addressed me in a sweet, hearty voice, quite in discord with his gruff manner. No man could be a bear and roar so gently. I perceived the Lancashire accent. The dialect, if it had ever been there, was worn away. Tones are older in a man than words. He can learn a new tongue; his organ he hardly alters. If Nature has ordained a voice to howl, or snarl, or yelp, or bray, it will do so now and then, stuff our mouths with pebbles as we may. ”

“ Ah, Lingo, Lingo! 'tis a hard case, a sorrowful case, a heart-aching case. I declare, Lingo, I could sit down and blubber; I could, botheration, I could!" and here the sympathetic counsel, to Lingo's amazement, burst into a loud uproarious laugh, such as he had never been known to give vent to before.
"The devil's in the man, sure enough," said Lingo. "But I see, I see," he muttered, surveying Affidavy sagaciously, "he has been blowing it a little too hard, and now he's getting a touch of the Horrors. Well, well, brandy's the best cure for that; and he shall have a snap at his own medicine." ”

“ I have not observed any passage in which the author copies the exact language of Langland. The dialect seems to be some form of Midland, and is somewhat archaic; many of the verbal forms are of some value to the philologist. Taken altogether, it is a piece of considerable interest and merit. Ten Brink alludes to it as 'that transparent, half-prophetic allegory of the Quarrel between the Griffin and the Pelican'; and adds—'The Griffin was the representative of the prelates and the monks, the Pelican that of real Christianity in Wyclif's sense. ”

“ This was William Langlande [35] (or Langley, as others call him) , reputed author of the poem I have named. It makes a little book—earliest, I think, of all books written in English—which you will be apt to find in a well-appointed private library of our day. I won’t say that it is bought to read, so much as to stand upon the shelves (so many books are) as a good and sufficient type of old respectabilities. Yet, for all this, it is reasonably readable; with crabbed alliterative rhythm;—some Latin intermixed, as if the writer had been a priest (as some [85] allege) ”

“ Langres is the seat of a bishop and a sub-prefect, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a higher ecclesiastical seminary and communal colleges for both sexes. It manufactures well-known cutlery and grind-stones. Trade is in grain and other farm-produce, live stock, wine, &c. ”

“ As the young nobleman issued forth from among the plantations, he saw a tall dark figure standing by the river, with the arms crossed upon the chest, and the eyes apparently bent upon the waters. The sound of the horses' feet caused the stranger to turn; and although the darkness of the night prevented Lord Harold from distinguishing his features, the whole form and air at once showed him that it was Langford. ”

“ Langford had ascended the steps from the lane, and thus had appeared suddenly before the Luxmores.
From the window no one that passed was visible unless he were seated on the top of a load of hay carted along the lane from the harvest-field.
Oliver Luxmore went to the window, and, like his daughter, asked, 'Will you step inside, sir?'
'No, thank you,' answered Langford, 'I can talk very comfortably standing where I am. I know you to be a sensible man, Luxmore, and to have your eyes about you, and your ears open. There is no man goes about the country so much as you. ”

“ Langgari, the spatha or case of the flowers of the Kawung palm, whilst yet close together and unexpanded.
Langgé, a large fishing net, like a bag, kept open by a circular hoop, and fastened to a long handle, with which to sweep in deep water for fish.
Langgir, a scorpion. Manuk langgir, the scorpion bird, a very pretty bird which burrows in soft banks, and is green and brown.
Lang'it, the sky, the heavens. (Jav. Mal. idem.)
Langka, C. 602 Lanka, the ancient name of Ceylon, much celebrated in Hindu history, as being the place where the famous Rawana had his capital. ”

“ Lang enters largely into the origin of this people. He conceives they must have been originally a martial people. One thing is remarkable, they have no idol worship.
The aborigines afford us some information upon the original condition of mankind—that they have descended from a higher state of existence, and not risen from a lower state of barbarism. Their language is one proof that it is far above, as some assert to be, the original language of man, that of the imitation merely of the brute creation. ”

“ The old man, whose name turned out to be Ghamba, proved himself a talker after Langley’s own heart. They discussed all sorts of things. Ghamba startled his hearer by his breadth of experience and his shrewdness. He said he was a “Hlubi” Kaffir from Qumbu, in the territory of Griqualand East, but that he had for some time past been living in Basutoland, which is situated just behind the frowning wall of the Drakensberg, to the southwest of where they were speaking, and not twenty miles distant.
They talked until it was time for Langley to return to camp. ”

“ He vaulted into Clide’s vacant seat with the agility of a younger man.
“Well, a pleasant ride to you both!” said Mr. Langrove, moving away. “You do your master credit, Franceline, whoever he is; and the exercise has given you a fine color too,” he added, nodding kindly to her.
“Oh! it’s enchanting!” cried the young Amazon passionately. “I feel as if I had wings; and Rosebud is so gentle!”
“Look here, Langrove,” called out Sir Simon, backing his powerful black horse, and stooping towards the vicar, “don’t you go worrying yourself about this business; it’s not worth it. ”

“ The Linggi above Permatang Pasir, with its sharp turns and muddy hurry, is, I should say, from thirty to sixty feet wide, a mere pathway through the jungle. Do not think of a jungle, as I used to think of it, as an entanglement or thicket of profuse and matted scrub, for it is in these regions at least a noble forest of majestic trees, many of them supported at their roots by three buttresses, behind which thirty men could find shelter. ”

“ Their olive brown colour, darker than that of the Tobas, their prominent cheek-bones, small eyes, broad flat faces, slightly depressed noses, wide mouths, and large lips, give to the countenance of these savages a peculiar look which is not a little enhanced by a pair of ears that come down to the base of the neck, and with some individuals as far as the collar bone. The Lenguas, like all Indians, become hideous as they grow old. ”

“ Benjamin Langlois, Esq., M.P., was a son of Pierre Langlois of Montpelier. There were several branches of the Langlois stock in France; his branch has been designated Langlois of Languedoc, and its armorial bearings have been certified thus:—
Langlois en Languedoc
porte pour armes d’azur un chevron d’or accompagné de trois croissants d’argent deux en chef un en point. Au chef cousu de gueules chargé de trois molettes d’argent. ”

“ Hairi flapped his ears and wriggled like a school-girl filled with a secret too big to hold. “There is a mountain near here,” he began in a voice burdened with mystery. “High upon the mountain is a cave; in the cave, is——”
“Treasure,” replied Pic, suddenly stirred by the news. “Where is this cave?”
“Up the river,” answered the Mammoth. “The mountain is too high for either Wulli or me to climb. We need you to help us.” ”

“ These supposed heretics had been swept away from the soil of France. The rest of the Languedocian people had been overwhelmed with calamity, slaughter, and devastation. The estimates transmitted to us of the numbers of the invaders and of the slain are such as almost surpass belief. We can neither verify nor correct them; but we certainly know that, during a long succession of years, Languedoc had been invaded by armies more numerous than had ever before been brought together in European warfare since the fall of the Roman empire. ”

“ Langrove.
“He is, he is,” assented the baronet warmly; “he is the very ideal and epitome of honor and high principle. Not to save his life would he swerve one inch from the straight road; but to save Franceline I fancied he might have been less rigid.” He heaved a sigh, and they said no more until the brougham let Sir Simon down at his own door, and then drove on to take Mr. Langrove to the vicarage.
A well-known place never appears so attractive as when we look at it for the last time. An indifferent acquaintance becomes pathetic when seen through the softening medium of a last look. ”

“ Langley swore.
Ghamba drew near until his teeth were within a few inches of Langley’s cheek, and said in a whisper:
“I know where Umhlonhlo is.”
Langley started, and said in an awed voice:
“Where is he?”
“Wait a bit,” said Ghamba; “perhaps I will tell you, and perhaps I won’t. I like you; you have given me tobacco, and you are not too proud to come and talk to a poor old man. Now, you say you would like to make five hundred pounds and buy a farm?” ”

“ Langaha, lan-gä′hä, n. a Madagascar wood-snake, with a flexible scaly extension on the snout.
Langet, lang′get, n. a strong lace used in women's dress in Holland.
Langshan, lang′shan, n. a small black Chinese hen.
Langspiel, lang′spēl, n. a Shetland form of harp.
Language, lang′gwāj, n. that which is spoken by the tongue: human speech: speech peculiar to a nation: style or expression peculiar to an individual: diction: any manner of expressing thought.—v.t. to express in language.—adjs. Lang′uaged, skilled in language ”

“ His claim upon our gratitude is twofold: [86] first, for discovering the music that is in our English speech; and second, for his influence in fixing the Midland dialect as the literary language of England.
CHAUCER'S CONTEMPORARIES
WILLIAM LANGLAND (1332? ....?)
Life. Very little is known of Langland. He was born probably near Malvern, in Worcestershire, the son of a poor freeman, and in his early life lived in the fields as a shepherd. Later he went to London with his wife and children, getting a hungry living as clerk in the church. ”