Rag

“ If, instead of using a rag, I rub my warts with raw meat and then bury the meat, the wart will decay and disappear with the decay and dissolution of the meat. In like manner my shirt or stocking, or a rag to {215} represent it, placed upon a sacred bush, or thrust into a sacred well—my name written upon the walls of a temple—a stone or a pellet from my hand cast upon a sacred image or a sacred cairn—a remnant of my food cast into a sacred waterfall or bound upon a sacred tree, or a nail from my hand driven into the trunk of the tree—is thenceforth in continual contact with divinity ”

“ At another place, near many cross roads, there is a tree on which are hung innumerable pieces of rag; each person passing tears a little bit of cloth from his costume and sticks it there. They have forgotten the origin of this practice, but fear for their health if they neglect it. ”

“ Rag′gery, rags collectively; Rag′ging, the first rough separation of the ore from dross; Rag′-man, a man who collects or deals in rags; Rag′-mon′ey (slang) , paper money; Rag′-pick′er, one who collects rags, &c., from ash-heaps, dung-hills, &c.: a machine for tearing old rags, &c., to pieces; Rag′-shop, a shop where rag-pickers dispose of their finds; Rag′-sort′er, one who sorts out rags for paper-making; Rag′-stone, Ragg, an impure limestone, consisting chiefly of lime and silica; Rag′-tag, the rabble; Rag′weed, any plant of the composite genus Ambrosia ”

“ A Roll of Rag.--Cotton rag will easily take fire from the spark from a flint, in a very dry climate, if well struck. It must be rolled up moderately tight, so as to have the end of the roll fluffy; the rag having been torn, not cut. A rag rolled in this way is not bad tinder, if the sparks are strong, and one commences to blow it the instant one of the fibres is seen to be alight. If its fluffy end be rubbed into a little dry gunpowder, its property as tinder is greatly improved. ”

“ You may breathe on your slate, and rub it dry with your slate rag, though that is not a very nice way. The best plan of all is to have a damp sponge, as well as a slate rag, and a well-mannered child would have both. ”

“ After all, however, the ordinary practices have not, I believe, resulted in effacing the distinction altogether: the rag is not left in the well; nor is the bead, button, or pin suspended to a branch of the tree. So, on the whole, it seems to me easier to explain the facts, taken all together, on the supposition that originally the rag was regarded as the vehicle of the disease, and the bead, button, or coin as the offering. But on this point I wish to ask whether the disease is ever regarded as attaching to a bead, button, or coin, as it is to the rag on the tree? ”

“ He was no match for his foe, and it soon became a question of saving his own life.
Hurt as he was, he sprang away, with the stranger in full chase, and bound to kill him as well as to oust him from the Swamp where he was born. Rag's legs were good and so was his wind. The stranger was big and so heavy that he soon gave up the chase, and it was well for poor Rag that he did, for he was getting stiff from his wounds as well as tired. ”

“ A rag is a beggarly fellow, but that will make little better sense here. Associated as the phrase is, I think it must mean rages, and I find the word used for ragings in the compound bard-rags, border-ragings or incursions, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, ii. x. 63., and Colin Clout, v. 315."
Having on one occasion found that a petty larceny committed on the received text of the poet, by taking away a superfluous b, made all clear, perhaps I may be allowed to restore the abstracted letter, which had only been misplaced and read brags, with, I trust, the like success? ”

“ Rags, perhaps I had better say—but the rags have been clothes, woven and sewn by man's hands—so he must have lived among men—civilized men—and he has grown but little, as you may perceive, since those clothes were made—therefore, he cannot have been long on the island. ”

“ Goritz, that is a contribution to science. On our return I shall call the attention of Lloyd 71Morgan and other animal psychologists to this novel observation. Antoine, it has long been known that the rhythmical oscillation of a flexible substance, a rag, hat, towel, banner, exercises a peculiar influence on animals. It will allay the ferocity of a mad dog or alarm him. Color has something to do with it, as instance the red rag which irritates the bull. ”

“ I have not recorded whether the fire is made by any special relative of the deceased or other special person. At the funeral of a woman, the fire is started by means of a lighted rag which has been soaked in ghi. The rag is lighted by a man, who at present uses matches for the purpose. ”

“ A colored rag borne above troops and hoisted on forts and ships. It appears to serve the same purpose as certain signs that one sees and vacant lots in London -- "Rubbish may be shot here." ”

“ It is a habit with a few to chalk both their bridge-hand and the upper half of their cues in muggy weather, thereby befouling their own cloth and that of the table. A wet rag, followed by a dry one, will remove the stickiness. ”

“ Rage, shame of my folly, yet, above all, unsurpassable fear, drove me to beat with my fists upon the door, which gave me back the touch of solid steel; to cry out aloud as a man in the throes of painful death ”

“ In other cases the sufferers complained of burning rags being stuffed into their mouths, and although nothing was seen, burnt places and blisters appeared, and the odor and smoke of smouldering rags began to fill the room. When they reported that they were branded with hot irons, the marks showed themselves, suppuration took place, and scars were formed which never again disappeared during life—and all these phenomena were watched by the eager eyes of hundreds. ”

“ Clothes will also breed rags, [71] for without clothes to grow threadbare and frayed, it is clear that the raw material of rags and tatters would be lacking, and many a scene of beggary would be avoided. ”

“ Writing papers must be smooth and hard-sized to fulfil their purpose of bearing writing ink, and other qualities will depend upon the use for which they are destined. The fibres used include rag, chemical wood, esparto, and in the poorest qualities, which but few printers or stationers will stock, mechanical wood. Writing papers of the highest class are all-rag, tub-sized, air-dried, and plate-glazed. Every variety of writing paper may be wove or laid without alteration in quality ”

“ These are: 'Rags: shoddy,' defined as 'a fibrous material, obtained by 'deviling' or tearing into fibers refuse woolen goods, old stockings, rags, druggets, etc.'; 'mungo,' which properly signifies the disintegrated rags of woolen cloth, as distinguished from those of worsted, which form shoddy ”

“ But when the fire is lit and the murderous irons inserted in it; when the captive creatures are dragged forth lowing, murmuring, and bellowing; when the red-hot iron is pressed into their quivering, smoking sides until the air is laden with the odor of burning hair and roasting flesh, and the poor creature writhes and struggles [339] in its agony, the roundup is robbed of its romance, and the ladies are ready to start for home at once. ”

“ The blood-red Fourragère.
For each as he leaps to the top can see,
Like an etching of blood on his brain,
A wife or a mother lashed to a tree,
With two black holes where her breasts should be,
Left to rot in the rain.
So we fight like fiends, and of us they say
That we neither yield nor spare. ”

“ In the tattered rags which sometimes still exist, costly embroideries and fringed golden tissue have more than once been recognized, while some female skeletons still showed handsome heads of hair gathered into fine nets. ”

“ Bent over their rakes, their eyes on the ground, mere black specks against the raging glory of the fire, the line of men, with an incessant monotonous haste, drew away the dry leaves with their rakes, while others who followed them tore at the earth with picks and hoes. ”

“ There were eight of them, and there were apparently one or two women among them whom it was hard to distinguish under the rags and tatters in which the group was attired,—clothes which were no longer either man's or woman's. Rags have no sex. ”

“ The rags of a poor man who had died of the disease being strewn about the open street, two hogs came thither, and after, as is their wont, no little trifling with their snouts, took the rags between their teeth and tossed them to and fro about their chaps ”

“ When we consider that blood is red; that the smell of it is, or may be, or has been, associated with that vivid hue in the animal's mind; that blood, seen and smelt is, or has been, associated with the sight of wounds and with cries of pain and rage or terror from the wounded or captive animal, there appears at first sight to be some reason for connecting these two instinctive passions as having the same origin--namely, terror and rage caused by the sight of a member of the herd struck down and bleeding, or struggling for life in the grasp of an enemy. ”

“ When the soldier is hit by a cannon-ball, rags are as becoming as purple. ”

“ On reaching the streets of the city we encountered a crowd, in the midst of which two men, a large and a small one, were wrestling in an agony of rage. The big man suddenly wrested a knife from the hand of the little one, and flung it far from him, pointing at it in triumphant scorn. ”

“ When they fight with enemies they cast the ropes, at the end of which are nooses. Whatever the rope catches, whether it be a horse or a man, the horseman drags it to him, and being entangled in the noose it is slain. ”

“ Real rage, unfortunately, is frequent. The body is carried erect or thrown forward, the limbs become stiff, mouth and teeth closely press together, the voice becomes very loud or dies away or grows hoarse, the forehead is wrinkled and the pupil of the eye contracted;{96} in addition one should count the change of color, the flush or deep pallor. ”

“ Now gather'd in, beyond the rage of storms,
Sure to the swain; the circling fence shut up;
And instant Winter's utmost rage defy'd. ”

“ Ruminants.—Cattle and sheep are remarkable from displaying in so slight a degree their emotions or sensations, excepting that of extreme pain. A bull when enraged exhibits his rage only by the manner in which he holds his lowered head, with distended nostrils, and by bellowing. ”

“ Those practices, barbarous enough to be derived from the Goths, or even the Sythians, are encouraged, in some instances, even by Ladies, and the compliment passed by our huntsmen on those of quality who are present, is truly savage. The knife is put in to the lady's hand to cut the throat of an exhausted, helpless, trembling, weeping creature. ”

“ With Europeans the fists are generally clenched." "Under rage the action of the heart is much accelerated, or, it may be, much disturbed. The face reddens, or it becomes purple from the impeded return of the blood, or may turn deadly pale. The respiration is laboured, the chest heaves, and the dilated nostrils quiver. The whole body often trembles. ”

“ If any one who eats flesh could [Pg 6] be taken to the shambles, to watch the agonized struggles of the terrified victims as they are dragged to the spot where knife or mallet slays them; if he could be made to stand with the odours of the blood reeking in his nostrils ”

“ The inhabitants allow the fire to rage as long as it pleases, while they stand about, at [Pg 100] intervals, and watch these animals, which, slipping by the men, or else leaping over them, rush headlong into the flames. ”

“ Rags, which are the reproach of poverty, are the Beggar's robes, and graceful insignia of his profession, his tenure, his full dress, the suit in which he is expected to show himself in public. ”

“ “He pursued the female monster, whose tail undulated over the dead leaves like a silver brook, into the forest, and came to a plain where women with dragon-croups were round a great fire, standing erect on the points of their tails. ”

“ A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.
A dove-house fill'd with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell thro' all its regions.
A dog starv'd at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.
A horse misused upon the road
Calls to heaven for human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain does tear. ”

“ When the weapon is flung, the barb alone sinks into the creature’s flesh, the staff coming unloosed from the iron, and the line rapidly unwinding from the bobwood, as the stricken creature dives in its agony and fear. ”

“ So the little cart said, "Then I will run," and began to run wildly. Then said the ash-heap by which it ran, "Why art thou running so, little cart?" "Have I not reason to run?"
"The little louse has burnt herself,
The little flea is weeping,
The little door is creaking,
The little broom is sweeping."
The ash-heap said, "Then I will burn furiously," and began to burn in clear flames. A little tree stood near the ash-heap and said, "Ash-heap, why art thou burning?" "Have I not reason to burn?" ”

“ Thou art wounded—and with a poisoned weapon, I warrant me, for by force of stab so weak an animal as that could scarce hope to do more than raze the lion's hide.—Suck the poison from his wound one of you—the venom is harmless on the lips, though fatal when it mingles with the blood. ”

“ I don't carry rakes! But why do you want one?"
"To scratch my back," grunted the pig. "You know we porkers always like to have our backs scratched, and I thought, if you had a rake, you could do it for me. ”