Here are the quotations for the coming week (February 25th to March 3rd):
1. …inch by inch, the untempered heat crept into the heart of the Jungle,
turning it yellow, brown, and at last black. The green growths in the sides
of the ravines burned up to broken wires and curled films of dead stuff; the
hidden pools sank down and caked over, keeping the last least footmark on
their edges as if it had been cast in iron; the juicy-stemmed creepers fell
away from the trees they clung to and died at their feet; the bamboos
withered, clanking when the hot winds blew, and the moss peeled off the
rocks…
2. …Then came the Rains with a roar, and the rukh was blotted out in fetch
after fetch of warm mist, and the broad leaves drummed the night through
under the big drops; and there was a noise of running water, and of juicy
green stuff crackling where the wind struck it, and the lightning wove
patterns behind the dense matting of the foliage, till the sun broke loose
again …Then the heat and the dry cold subdued everything to tiger-colour
again… ...
3. …(he) could see the tops of the trees lying all speckled and furry under
the moonlight for miles and miles, and the blue-white mist over the river in
the hollow…(he) leaned forward and looked, and he felt that the forest was
awake below him, awake and alive and crowded. A big brown fruit-eating bat
brushed past his ear; a porcupine's quills rattled in the thicket, and in
the darkness between the tree-stems he heard a hog-bear digging hard in the
moist warm earth, and snuffing as it digged. Then the branches closed over
his head again…
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The sources of last week's quotations (Feb 11th to 24th) were as follows:
1. Kim
2. 'The Return of Imray' in 'Life's Handicap'.
3. 'Brazilian Sketches'
Good wishes to all, John R
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