In a forest of his country lived two giants, who caused great mischief with their robbing, murdering, ravaging, and burning, and no one could approach them without putting himself in danger of death.
— from Grimms' Fairy Tales by Wilhelm Grimm

Nevertheless, men are wont, in order to try the skill of the mathematicians, to bring before them the constellations of dumb animals, the constellations of whose birth they diligently observe at home with a view to this discovery; and they prefer those mathematicians to all others, who say from the inspection of the constellations that they indicate the birth of a beast and not of a man.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

“In the summer of 1852 I started on horseback from Albany, King George’s Sound, to visit at Cape Riche, accompanied by a native on foot.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

Speak of the obligation he will confer, mention the necessity which compels you to trouble him, and follow his answer by a note of thanks.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley

Our ears were assailed by a number of voices.
— from American Historical and Literary Curiosities: Second Series, Complete by J. Jay (John Jay) Smith

In order to assist him in exploring this river, the cazique Tochel not only lent him several large canoes, but himself, accompanied by a number of his officers, had accompanied him to the river Guacasualco.
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

The special case 999 × 1 we can write at once 998,001, according to the law shown above, by adding nines on one half and noughts on the other, and its complementary will be 1 preceded by five noughts, or 000001.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

The fact that a Goethe or a Shakespeare would not for an instant have known how to take breath in this atmosphere of passion and of the heights; the [Pg 107] fact that by the side of Zarathustra, Dante is no more than a believer, and not one who first creates the truth—that is to say, not a world-ruling spirit, a Fate ; the fact that the poets of the Veda were priests and not even fit to unfasten Zarathustra's sandal—all this is the least of things, and gives no idea of the distance, of the azure solitude, in which this work dwells.
— from Ecce Homo Complete Works, Volume Seventeen by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

After the ceremony endeth the father or Tirsan retireth; and after some time cometh forth again to dinner, where he sitteth alone under the state, as before; and none of his descendants sit with him, of what degree or dignity soever, except he hap to be of Salomon's House.
— from New Atlantis by Francis Bacon

Then she took the cup and took water in the hollow of her hand and cast it into Birdalone’s face, and muttered words withal; and presently she saw herself indeed, that she was become a milk-white hind; and she heard and saw again, but not as she, the maiden, was wont to hear and see; for both her hearing and seeing and her thought was of a beast and not of a maiden.
— from The Water of the Wondrous Isles by William Morris

The last Sabbath of September, 1846, in the midst of tears and desolation which no words can depict, I gave my farewell address to the so dear and intelligent people of Kamouraska, to go to Longueuil and become a novice of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
— from Fifty Years in the Church of Rome by Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy

[104] have been with the Indians above and bought a number of horses from them.
— from The Washington Historical Quarterly, Volume V, 1914 by Various

A small sliding framework of light wood or matting projects from one end of the house to the stern end of the boat, and bears a number of removable curtain-like frames around the sides, so that the steersman is well protected from wind and rain.
— from The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe Being Sketches of the Domestic and Religious Rites and Ceremonies of the Siamese by Ernest Young

But one of the most powerful kings of Ts'in (249-244) was called Tsz-ts'u, or "Don Brushwood," so his successor the First August Emperor (who was really a bastard, and not of genuine Ts'in blood at all) tabu'd the word Ts'u, and ordered historians to use the old name King instead.
— from Ancient China Simplified by Edward Harper Parker

‘Seems to me it would have been economy to sell it and buy a new one.’
— from A Summer in a Canyon: A California Story by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

If the rioting was caused by the calling out of the troops, and their subsequent actions, then the claim that that was an insurrection falls to the ground, and if there was an insurrection, then the troops cannot have been the cause of the rioting, as the two positions are inconsistent, although held and advocated by a number of prominent men.
— from Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877 Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878 by 1877 Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July

The author's good descriptive powers are assisted by a number of drawings, many of which are finely done and well discriminate the local character of the different places, latitudes and circumstances of life.
— from Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 22, September, 1878 by Various

The lady, accordingly, bought a number of very beautiful costumes for her lover, and in the course of a few days she told her husband that a charming young Polish lady, whose acquaintance she had made in the summer at Carlsbad, was going to spend the winter in Vienna, and would very frequently come and see her.
— from The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume 4 by Guy de Maupassant