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Here are the quotations for this week (February 5th to 11th): 1. '..there were shields of lacquer, of tortoise-shell and rhinoceros hide, strapped and bossed with red gold and set with emeralds at the edge; there were sheaves of diamond-hilted swords, daggers and hunting knives; there were golden sacrificial bowls and ladles, and portable altars of a shape that never sees the light of day…there were belts, seven fingers broad, of square-cut diamonds and rubies…' 2. 'It blazed with the dull red of the ruby, the angry green of the emerald, the cold blue of the sapphire and the white, hot glory of the diamond. But dulling all these glories was the superb radiance of one gem that lay above the great carved emerald on the central clasp. It was the black diamond - black as the pitch of the infernal lake, and lighted from below with the fires of hell.' 3. 'First are two flawed sapphires - one of two ruttees and one of four, as I should judge. The four ruttee sapphire is chipped at the edge. There is one Turkestan turquoise, plain with black veins, and there are two inscribed - one with a Name of God in gilt… Four flawed emeralds there are, but one is drilled in two places, and one is a little carven…there is one ruby of Burma, of two ruttees, without a flaw, and there is a balas-ruby, flawed, of two ruttees…' The sources of last week's extracts (January 29th to February 4th) are as follows: 1. (...she threaded her way through the shipping to her berth at the quay as quietly as a veiled woman slips through a bazaar.) This is from the opening passage of "The Manner of Men" from Limits and Renewals. 2. (...Imagine a respectable charwoman in the tights of a ballet dancer rolling drunk along the streets...) This is from "The Devil and the Deep Sea" in The Day's Work. 3. (...she was elbowing, fidgeting, and coaxing her steadfast way through gray, gray-blue, or black hollows) This is from Captains Courageous. Good wishes to all, John R