Richard Francis Burton
Books and Quotes Collection
The sage Bhavabhuti [...] after making his initiatory and propitiatory conge to Ganesha, Lord of Incepts, informs the reader that this book is a string of fine pearls to be hung round the neck of human intelligence; a fragrant flower to be borne on the turband of mental wisdom; a jewel of pure gold, which becomes the brow of all supreme minds; and a handful of powdered rubies, whose tonic effects will appear palpably upon the mental digestion of every patient.
They were diligently to learn grammar, the Scriptures, and all the religious sciences.
They were to become familiar with military tactics, international law, and music, the riding of horses and elephants—especially the latter—the driving of chariots, and the use of the broadsword, the bow, and the mogdars or Indian clubs.
They were ordered to be skilful in all kinds of games, in leaping and running, in besieging forts, in forming and breaking bodies of troops; they were to endeavour to excel in every princely quality, to be cunning in ascertaining the power of an enemy, how to make war, to perform journeys, to sit in the presence of the nobles, to separate the different sides of a question, to form alliances, to distinguish between the innocent and the guilty, to assign proper punishments to the wicked, to exercise authority with perfect justice, and to be liberal.
Whilst under pupilage, the eldest was allowed all the power necessary to obtain a knowledge of royal affairs, and he was not invested with the regal office till in these preparatory steps he had given full satisfaction to his subjects, who expressed high approval of his conduct.
When the news reached King Indra, Regent of the Lower Firmament and Protector of Earthly Monarchs, he sent Prithwi Pala, a fierce giant, to defend the city of Ujjayani till such time as its lawful master might reappear, and the guardian used to keep watch and ward night and day over his trust.
In less than a year the valorous Raja Vikram became thoroughly tired of wandering about the woods half dressed: now suffering from famine, then exposed to the attacks of wild beasts, and at all times very ill at ease.
The giant’s fists were large as watermelons, and his knotted arms whistled through the air like falling trees, threatening fatal blows.
But the anchorite, having heard the speeches of the king and his courtiers, thought to himself, ‘They have done this for the purpose of taking away the fruits of my penance.’
Presently, at the further extremity of the smashana, or burning ground, appeared a group.
The Land of Midian
1879Os Lusíadas
1880
Since sware the Parcæ unto me, their friend, / they shall adore my name, my favour prize; / and, as their feats of armèd prowess shend / all feats of rival Rome, I lief devise / some mode of aidance in what things I may, / far as our force o'er man extendeth sway.
See Borneo's sea-girt shore where ever flow / the perfumed liquor's thick and curded gouts, / the tears of forest-trees men "Camphor" clepe, / wherefore that Island crop of Fame shall reap.
And as their valour, so you trow, defied / on aspe'rous voyage cruel harm and sore, / so many changing skies their manhood tried, / such climes where storm-winds blow and billows roar; […]
Go see their fleet and arms, their manner view / of moulded metal, ready all to shend[.]
Deeds they shall do so digne memorious glory, / song shall not suit nor Hist'ory hold the story.
That morn to other hythe we made our way / finding the peoples that before we found, / by a broad River, and we gave it name / from the high hol'iday when to port we came.
But now the Moormen, stalking o'er the strand / to guard the wat'ery stores the strangers need; / this, targe on arm and assegai in hand, / that, with his bended bow, and venom'd reed[.]
His speech thus spake the Moor, and took his leave, /
he and his meiny where the bátels lay: /
formal farewells to chief and crews he gave, /
exchanging congees with due courtesy.
Nor far they steppèd when on culm'inant height / where stretcht a gem-enamel'd mead they stood; / Smaragd and Ruby-strewn, so rich the sight / presumed 'twas Paradisial floor they trod.
"And as their valour, so you trow, defied /
on aspe'rous voyage cruel harm and sore, /
so many changing skies their manhood tried, /
such climes where storm-winds blow and billows roar[.]"
"O my son, believe not in swevens which be mere imbroglios of sleep and lying phantasies;"
So she went out to fetch her needful from the Bazar and Alaeddin retired to his chamber and taking the Lamp rubbed it, when forthright appeared to him its Slave and said, "Ask, O my lord, whatso thou wantest."
"O mother mine, verily this Shaykh is soothfast and no liar: for the first time he but tried me and now he proposeth to perform his promise."
They slept well that night and betimes next morning the mother of Alaeddin arose and went with her bowl to the King's court which she found closed.
Follow me and fear naught, for I know forty modes of magic by the least of which I could make this city a dashing sea, swollen with clashing billows, and ensorcel each damsel therein to a fish, and all before dawn.
Then he turned to me and said, "O mortal, we have it in our law that, when the wife committeth advowtry it is lawful for us to slay her."
Of a surety none murdered the damsel but I; take her wreak on me this moment; for, an thou do not thus, I will require it of thee before Almighty Allah.
I drew near and perceived that the light came from a precious stone as big as an ostrich egg, set at the upper end of the alcove upon a little chryselephantine couch of ivory and gold; and this jewel, blazing like the sun, cast its rays wide and side.
Then Miriam wept passing sore wherethan naught could be more, making sure of separation, and cried to the druggist's wife, “O my mother, said I not to thee that my lord Nur al-Din had been tricked into selling me? […]
[…] and kissed King Hasan's hands and did homage to him, and swore lealty to him.
Then she stood up; and, pronouncing some word to me unintelligible, she said: — By virtue of my egromancy become thou half stone and half man; whereupon I became what thou seest, unable to rise or sit, and neither dead nor alive.
And they began disputing about futtering her.
[…] and awakening, saw a serpent like a dragon, a seldseen sight.
So she brought him the China bowl saying in herself, “I shall know what to do when I find out if the words of my child concerning these jewels be soothfast or not”; […]
Its anthropopathisms are merely exaggerations of what is found in the books of Moses when the Creator is subject to wrath, sorrow, repentance, jealousy, and other human passions of the baser kind.
Situated in the bleak and windswept, the stony and barren highlands of Upper Galilee, shaken by earthquakes, and exposed to terrible storms, Safed is one of the least amene sites in the whole of Syria.
Not less curious are the statistics showing the natural aptitude of the Jewish people, at once so national in their sentiments and so cosmopolitan in their tendencies, for universal acclimatization.
The costly carriage horses work till noon in carts and drays transporting the irritamenta malorum which support the equipage of the afternoon.
He said that he and his tribe acknowledged one supreme, everlasting, omnipotent Being, and believed in an existence after death, a state of reward and punishment connected with metempsychosis.
But the Greeks were a sensuous and a joyous race, walking under the free heavens in the glorious lights of poetry, of art, and of beauty, and could not fail to realize the truth that society based upon reciprocal benevolence means civilization and the highest stage of human society—communion with the world.
Books Collection
Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah
First Footsteps in East Africa
Vikram and the Vampire
Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo
The Land of Midian
Os Lusíadas
The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night
Pro
Letters from the Battle-Fields of Paraguay
Pro
The Jew, The Gypsy and El Islam