Here are the quotations for the coming week (April 8th to 14th):
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…
The sources of last week's extracts (April 1st to 7th) are as
follows:
1. (...A yellow and brown streak glided from the purple rustling
stems to the bank...) This is from Kim.
2. (...I hate and fear snakes, because if you look into the eyes of
any snake you will see that it knows all and more of the mystery of man's
fall...) This is from "The Return of Imray" in Life's
Handicap.
3. (...The body dropped raspingly on the dry grass at the edge of the
moat, and recovered itself like coiled lightning...) This is from
Brazilian Sketches.
Good wishes to all, John R
