Mazurka

“ Here, in the suburbs, are the summer gardens of the richer men. Far away are the mountains, blue in the distance. Mazar lies on a malarious, almost desert plain in Turkestan, nine miles east of the ancient city Balkh, and thirty miles south of the Pata Kesar ferry, on the Oxus river, so that we were near the Russian frontier.
The plain is desert, because of the absence of water. When the snow melts in the warmth of the spring, the plain becomes a blaze of red flowers, wild tulips—poppies, my Interpreter said: but these shrivel up and die in the summer. ”

“ It worried Carruthers so much that he sought out Zark and had him bring the other six members of his tribe together for a council of war.
"A complete defensive system, Zark," he told them. "We must make a fortress of the plateau and fill the caverns with food."
ark shook his head. "No. It is quite useless. Followers of Marbo have recently returned from over the beyond and report strange things. I have hesitated to speak of them for fear of alarming you. Our planet is breaking up. Violent eruptions have caused fires of stone and mud. ”

“ On a moonlight night a party of natives will go out in their canoes to fish for the makasi, a large fish which feeds round the mouth of rivers and lagoons. This is a somewhat dangerous sport, owing to the captive fish occasionally being attacked by a shark just as it is being landed, which sometimes results in the canoe being upset, and its occupants, the fish, and the shark all getting mixed up. Such an excitement and noise is caused by the yelling fishermen that the shark is often frightened, and clears off without even tasting either the fish or the fishers. ”

“ The water in the neighbourhood of Mazagan is very salubrious; this country is full of springs. The inhabitants have a good healthy colour, very different from the inhabitants of the plains of the province of Duquella, which being supplied by water from wells only, of from 100 to 200 feet deep, have a sallow and sickly appearance. It may, in Europe, appear extraordinary that the quality of water should produce such a manifest difference in the complexion of the inhabitants, but when we consider that these people drink no wine, spirits, or malt liquor, the paradox will immediately vanish. ”

“ Crowds of men and women from Zamopera came to visit us; wild-looking people they were—the men with long matted hair hanging like a fringe over their faces, and hung with beads and cowrie-shells, whilst the women here cut off all their hair except a circle in the middle, which is short and threaded with beads in seven rows, four of white outside and three of red in the centre, looking exactly like round bead mats on the top of their heads. ”

“ Like ravening wolves the sharks dashed upon their prey, and ere the people had time to give more than a despairing cry, those hideous jaws and gleaming cruel teeth had sealed their fate. Maddened with fear, the rest of the people threw everything out of the six other canoes to lighten them, and as the bundles of mats and baskets of food touched the water the sharks seized and bit, tore and swallowed. ”

“ I enter. She is standing in the center of the room, dressed in a gown of white satin which floods down her body like light. Over it she wears a scarlet kazabaika, richly edged with ermine. Upon her powdered, snowy hair is a little diadem of diamonds. She stands with her arms folded across her breast, and with her brows contracted.
"Wanda!" I run toward her, and am about to throw my arm about her to kiss her. She retreats a step, measuring me from top to bottom.
"Slave!"
"Mistress!" I kneel down, and kiss the hem of her garment.
"That is as it should be."
"Oh, how beautiful you are." ”

“ I've been through all this big Siberia, and a good bit of the Lake Baikal country, but I've never seen a country like ours anywhere. But I've learnt that since being here. Yes, here! Am I the only one? We've clever people at home—priests and gentlemen and peasants with heads on their shoulders—but none of them know what they have!"
"Each of these villages called Mocarze has its own name. They call the one that's the oldest, Korzeniste; the second, Suche; and the third, which is the newest, Mokry. I am from Mocarze-Suche.
"It's a big village. Pan Olszeski was our master, and we were his serfs. ”

“ I have never known a man taken at Port Moresby or in the Mekeo district by a shark, nor do the natives there—who are at the best a cowardly lot—show fear of them; but on the bars of the Opi, Musa, and Kumusi Rivers, I have known the brutes swim alongside a whaleboat and seize the blades of the oars in their teeth. On one occasion, at the Kumusi River, my men caught a shark, the belly of which contained several human bones, a human head, the complete plates forming the shell of a large turtle, and the freshly torn-off flipper and shoulder of a large dugong or sea cow. ”

“ As soon as the ice is sufficiently strong enough to bear a man's weight, many muskrats are taken by men and boys who get out on the ice armed with clubs and pursue the animals as they swim along under the ice; when a 'rat comes up to the ice to replenish its supply of oxygen, a sharp blow from a well-seasoned club brought down on the ice directly above the animal will stupefy it. ”

“ At Saa food, such as cocoa-nuts from certain trees, is reserved to feed such a ghost-shark, and there are certain men of whom it is known that after death they will be in sharks, and who therefore are allowed to eat such food in the sacred place. Other men will join themselves to their company; a man will speak as with the voice of a shark -lio'a in him, and say, 'give me to eat of that food.' Such a man, if it appears that he is really saka, possessed of supernatural power, will after his death be counted himself as a sharklio'a ”

“ The people of the district, when they have to cross the river, do so on musaks distended with air, which keep the body clear of the water, while allowing the use of the legs and arms as a means of propulsion; but even then the limbs get so numbed and paralyzed that only strong men can make use of the musak as a means of crossing the river, or floating down to another village some miles lower on the same side ”

“ Our men unfortunately have brought no casting net with them, so we are obliged to be content to hear from the Malays that the flavour of the fresh-water fish caught here is excellent. It is a curious fact, that far as we are above the influence of the flood tide, and with so many rapids below us, yet sharks are found here in the fresh water. ”

“ Several species of shark are seen off this coast, among them that extraordinary-looking fish, the hammer-headed shark (Zygæna malleus) , which I have never seen in Madagascar waters, but have noticed with great interest in South African harbours. “The saw-fish (Pristis sp.) , called by the natives Vavàno, [41] sometimes comes into the rivers in search of food. One was caught in the river Mànanjàra which measured fourteen feet from tip of saw to end of tail; the saw alone was three feet six inches in length, seven inches broad at base, and four inches at tip. ”

“ Captain Sparhawk’s pistol spoke as the 102 shark crossed the bow of the boat which had been instantly turned to follow the creature’s new tactics.
“Missed,” he groaned.
“No,” cried Jack, an instant later. “See, the water is red behind him! You hit him.”
“Yes, but I fear not mortally. These creatures have an amazing grip on life,” was the despondent reply.
And now a fresh element entered into the scene. Round the bow of the yacht, toward which the shark, with its human burden, was dashing, there suddenly appeared a long, slender canoe with two lithe young native figures propelling it. ”

“ It is really pleasant to eat fish, and up to this moment, I can't say which I like better, liver or fish. Out of politeness, I like both. If I were a man, I'd be either a fishman or the butcher-boy who brings us the liver. I'd feed all the cats from every corner of the earth, and I myself would always have my fill."
After eating, Moorka would grow interested in things going on around him, just by way of amusement. He would sit on the window where the starling's cage hung. It was pleasant to watch the foolish bird, hopping back and forth. ”

“ But the dark thunder-clouds had been again stealing up behind them, and now the lights on the shore and the foliage disappeared, the cedars looking especially sombre in the growing gloom.
“There’s a squall coming down the river,” said Hugh Macnab, who had been watching from the stern the pretty grouping of the small islands that here studded the channel.
“Yes, indeed,” said Kate. “They often come up here suddenly. Look how one point after another is sponged out by the gray mist. ”

“ And so thou goest, Mazooku. It is well. But at times thou wilt think of thy blind master Mazimba, and of Alston, the wise captain who sleeps, and of the Lion who threw the ox over his shoulder. Go, and be happy. Many be thy wives, many thy children, and countless thy cattle! The Lion shall take thee by the hand and lead thee to the sea, and shall give thee of my bounty wherewith to buy a little food when thou comest to thine own land, and a few oxen, and a piece of ground, or a waggon or two, so that thou shalt not be hungry, nor want for cattle to give for wives. Mazooku, fare thee well! ”

“ The skin-clad wanderer travels far through awful ravines, and after manifold dangers from which the moon-god protects him, at length he reaches Mount Mashu. The entrance to the mountain is guarded by scorpion men of giant stature, whose wild appearance inspires him with such fear and horror that he loses consciousness. ”

“ First shark that makes a slip is to call the skipper and be sent adrift with one oar and nothing else. And all, my friend, after you had pledged your honor to your mother, your God, yourself, and your friends, to be a true and honorable shark. It isn't the hot sun broiling you and covering you with bursting blisters, and changing the marrow of your bones to melted iron and your blood to hissing lava—it isn't the sun that hurts ”

“ Beyond this point a boat of any size cannot proceed; it is the foot of the series of cataracts, six miles153 long, known as the rapids of Atures. We sent a man overland to Zamuro for a falca, which is a canoe with the sides heightened with boards; and while our luggage was being rowed up the swift stream, we walked near the bank.
The aneroid, read at water-level, gave an elevation of three hundred and fifty feet; perhaps this is somewhat too high. Between Vagre and Zamuro a row of rounded, black rocks rise to a height of two hundred and fifty feet above the river, on the eastern side. ”

“ The pilot we had taken with us from Djidda was thoroughly familiar with the waters through which he was conducting us, and spoke English very well. We lay at anchor at night, as the reefs rendered navigation impossible in the dark. At Sherm Rabigh I had to change zambuks, as the one I had procured at Djidda proved to be too weak. Our new zambuk had first of all to be ballasted with sand, as, without either cargo or ballast, the ship could not carry sail. ”

“ In this vicinity the muskrat does not build himself a house for the winter, as our fields and dykes are too often visited. But in other parts of the country, where extensive marshes exist, and muskrats are abundant, they build very snug and substantial houses, quite as serviceable and ingenious as those of the beaver. ”

“ The line of land became jagged. What had seemed to be the main now showed as islands, a long, low island, dark with mangrove, and to the south of it a sloping peak, wooded to the top, a cone of green, with rocks about it over which the breakers toppled. Margaret could see the line of the breakers advancing towards them, blue and glassy. In the stillness, he could see the curl on the wave, the slow running curl along the line, then the intense brightness of the burst, a momentary marvel of white. He looked at Cammock, who was looking at the wooded hill, full of memories. ”

“ Looking over the side, Jack could see the coral bottom as clearly as if an inch instead of many feet of water separated it from the frail canoe. It was almost as if they were floating in the air. Fish of brilliant colors darted about and once a dark, sinister shade appeared beneath the canoe. The Kanaka boys shouted and beat the water with their paddles. The dark shadow melted away.
“Him very bad shark,” said Anai. “White men call him tiger shark. Worst kind of all shark.” ”

“ They are like the good seed, wafted in the air, and dropping but rarely onto fruitful soil.
Daylight had broken. The sea far away shone with rosy gold.
"I am sleepy," said Shakro.
We halted. He lay down in a trench, which the fierce gusts of wind had dug out in the dry sand, near the shore. He wrapped himself, head and all, in the overcoat, and was soon sound asleep. I sat beside him, gazing dreamily over the sea.
It was living its vast life, full of mighty movement.
The flocks of waves broke noisily on the shore and rippled over the sand, that faintly hissed as it soaked up the water. ”

“ The country, from Tcherkin to Ras el Feel, or Hor-Cacamoot, is all a black earth, called Mazaga, which some authors have taken for the name of the province. However, the word Mazaga, in the language of the country, signifies fat, loose, black earth, or mold, such as all that stripe of land from 13° to 16° of latitude is composed of, at least till you reach to the deserts of Atbara, where the rains end. Ras el Feel is, I suppose, one of the hottest countries in the known world. ”

“ So far as I can discover, the Maziris are an Arab tribe who have given up their old nomad life. Somewhere in the Maziri country is a group of caves which no European has ever entered. They are known as the 'Caves of Zoroaster', for it is here that the sage is supposed to have been buried. The bones of Zoroaster, as well as the jewels, are said to lie in a vault cut in the living rock; and the Sunstone is the key which opens the entrance to that vault. ”