Here are the quotations for next week (Jan 7th to 13th):
1. ‘What is caste to a cut-throat .. we must make thee a yellow Saddhu all
over. Strip – strip swiftly, and shake thy hair over thy eyes while I
scatter the ash. Now, a caste-mark on thy forehead.’…With a yellow –ochre
paint cake he smeared the legs and the breast, great streaks against the
background of flour, ash, and turmeric. ‘The blood on them is enough to
hang thee, brother’…
2. …He was perpetually ‘going Fantee’ among natives, which, of course, no
man with any sense believes in. He was initiated into the Sat Bhai at
Allahabad once, when he was on leave; he knew the Lizzard-Song of the
Sansis, and the Hálli-Hukk dance, which is a religious can-can of a
startling kind. When a man knows who dance the Hálli-Huk, and how and when
and where, he knows something to be proud of…
3. ‘I will go even now !’ shouted the priest. ‘I will depart upon my
winged camels, and be at Peshawar in a day ! Ho ! Hazar Mir Khan,’ he
yelled to his servant, ‘drive out the camels, but let me first mount my
own. He leapt on the back of his beast as it knelt, and turning round to
me, cried: ‘Come thou also, Sahib, a little along the road, and I will
sell you a charm…
The sources of last week's extracts (Dec 31st to Jan 6th) are as follows:
1. ("...Don't speak English," said Lalun, bending over her sitar afresh.)
This is from "On the City Wall" in Soldiers Three.
2. ("...What d'you think of that?" said he in English. "Carnehan can't
talk their patter...") This is from "The Man who would be King" in Wee
Willie Winkie.
3. (...the history went forward naturally in the tongue best suited for
its telling. After all, it could never have been told in English. ) This
is from "The Finest Story in the World" in Many Inventions.
Happy New Year to all
|