[ This custom, in Syria and Mesopotamia, of setting men upon an ass, by way of disgrace, is still kept up at Damascus in Syria; where, in order to show their despite against the Christians, the Turks will not suffer them to hire horses, but asses only, when they go abroad to see the country, as Mr. Maundrell assures us, p. 128.]
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

A very common form of it is this: A warlock, giant, or other fairyland being is invulnerable and immortal because he keeps his soul hidden far away in some secret place; but a fair princess, whom he holds enthralled in his enchanted castle, wiles his secret from him and reveals it to the hero, who seeks out the warlock’s soul, heart, life, or death (as it is variously called), and by destroying it, simultaneously kills the warlock.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

To take one instance, he, for several days in succession, kept assuring every one in the village and in the town that "we call this the nine o'clock office"—the sole basis being the fact that once, on learning of his (Vasili Ivanitch's) habit of attending Matins, Bazarov had made use of the phrase in question.
— from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

The continual usefulness hereof hath made all in general so acquainted herewith that it is altogether needless to describe it, several kinds hereof plentifully growing, being yearly sown in this land.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

The trader in charge of them rode a horse and carried a whip with a short handle and a long heavy lash divided into several knotted tails at the end.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

How Sir Launcelot rode disguised in Sir Kay's harness, and how he smote down a knight.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

Zinotchka always hotly maintained the usefulness of natural science, but I doubt if she knew any chemistry beyond this Cave.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Padre Millon went deeply into science, knew the physics of Aristotle and Padre Amat, read carefully his “Ramos,” and sometimes glanced at “Ganot.”
— from The Reign of Greed by José Rizal

Then into hydraulics and ditching, and then by easy degrees into saloon keeping.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers by Bret Harte

The police were young men with deeply bronzed faces, dressed in smart khaki uniform with broad Stetson hats of the same color.
— from Prescott of Saskatchewan by Harold Bindloss

"I don't know what Mrs. Gale would do if she knew that!
— from The Sunbridge Girls at Six Star Ranch by Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter

He could 69 reveal in open day what had been done in secret, knew everyone's most private thoughts, and when he extended his empty hand in the air he drew it back full of coins bearing the inscription, "Say: God is One.
— from Mystics and Saints of Islam by Claud Field

Then desperately: “I scarcely know what to say, Miss Morley,” I faltered.
— from Kent Knowles: Quahaug by Joseph Crosby Lincoln

Then ensues a digression into some key upon what theorists call the dominant side, when one or two voices give out the subject and answer it again, always in the tonic and dominant of the new key.
— from A Popular History of the Art of Music From the Earliest Times Until the Present by W. S. B. (William Smythe Babcock) Mathews

" Twenty minutes later the airship and the tramp parted company, the "Quickstep" to flounder along at a sedate eight knots, while the "Meteor," with Durango in safe keeping, was speeding aloft at ninety miles an hour, homeward bound at last.
— from The Dreadnought of the Air by Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman

I hope now that some day I shall know her.
— from Tante by Anne Douglas Sedgwick

Except that I was determined to visit Friar's Park early on the following day, I scarcely knew in which direction next to prosecute my inquiries.
— from The Green Eyes of Bâst by Sax Rohmer