Mist, etc. … surround me, my sail, Mist, etc. … surround me, my steering oar, Mist, etc. … surround me, my rigging, Mist, etc. … surround me, my platform,”
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

Moreover, there are also at those stations other men equipt similarly with girdles hung with bells, who are employed for expresses when there is a call for great haste in sending despatches to any governor of a province, or to give news when any Baron has revolted, or in other such emergencies; and these men travel a good two hundred or two hundred and fifty miles in the day, and as much in the night.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

So that although this book is primarily addressed to working students, it is hoped that it may be of interest to that increasing number of people who, tired with the rush and struggle of modern existence, seek refreshment in artistic things.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed

“I've only been waiting behind the curtain for you to call me,” said a soft, one might even say sugary, feminine voice.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

‘Speak out, Miss Eliza!’ said I, not deigning to notice the other’s buffooneries: ‘you needn’t fear to say anything in my presence.’
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

‘Isn’t it a shame, Mrs. Huntingdon?’ cried his brother-in-law; ‘I struck Walter Hargrave when I was drunk, the second night after we came, and he’s turned a cold shoulder on me ever since; though I asked his pardon the very morning after it was done!’
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

This wonderful statue was 105 feet high, and was formed entirely of brass; it formed the entrance to the harbour at Rhodes, and the largest vessel could easily sail between the legs, which stood on moles, each side of the harbour.
— from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens

Expressed in the fewest words, the employment of the Panama route will be governed exclusively by self-interest, computed from the standpoint of material economy; sentimentality will bring not one ship to Uncle Sam as a patron—unless it be an American ship.
— from East of Suez Ceylon, India, China and Japan by Frederic Courtland Penfield

—Body and head considerably depressed; snout low, rounded and rather long; nostrils large, opening upward and outward nearer to end of snout than to orbit; head plates large, smooth, nearly flat, interparietal largest; frontal divided transversely; 4 or 5 enlarged supraoculars, separated from the frontals by 1 and from the frontoparietals by 2 series of granules; superciliaries long, narrow and projecting; central subocular very long, narrow and strongly keeled; rostral and supralabials long and low; 6 or 7 supralabials; symphyseal [22] moderately small, followed by 2 or 3 pairs of larger plates separated from the infralabials by 1 or 2 series of moderately enlarged sublabials; gular region covered with small, smooth, hexagonal or rounded scales which change gradually to granules on sides of neck and to larger imbricate scales on the strong gular fold, largest on denticulate edge of gular fold where somewhat larger than ventrals; several enlarged plates in front of ear-opening; ear denticulation short, of 3 scales, the largest not exceeding in length diameter of largest plate in front of ear; back covered with tubercular scales of nearly uniform size becoming granular toward neck and sides of body, scales of central rows very weakly keeled, not imbricate, not mucronate, often separated by minute granules; scales largest on tail, very weakly keeled, shortly mucronate above and on sides, not imbricate; posterior surfaces of thighs and arms covered with small granular scales similar to those on sides of body; other surfaces of limbs provided with imbricate scales, smooth on arm and nearly smooth on forearm and thigh, keeled on upper surface of leg; femoral pores 15 and 16; 26-30 largest dorsals equal shielded part of head; fifth finger not reaching end of second; fifth toe not reaching end of second; adpressed fore limb not reaching insertion of thigh.
— from Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Series 3, Volume 4 (Zoology) by Various

Having often received an Invitation from my Friend Sir Roger De Coverley to pass away a Month with him in the Country, I last Week accompanied him thither, and am settled with him for some time at his Country-house, where I intend to form several of my ensuing Speculations.
— from The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 With Translations and Index for the Series by Steele, Richard, Sir

Ptarmigans run in troops amongst the bushes; little Snipes are busy along the brooks and in the morasses; the social Crows seek the neighbourhood of new habitations; and when the sun shines in spring, one may even sometimes hear the cheerful note of the Finch, and in autumn that of the Thrush.'
— from The Ancient Life History of the Earth A Comprehensive Outline of the Principles and Leading Facts of Palæontological Science by Henry Alleyne Nicholson

The child should also know familiarly by means of toys, wood blocks and so on, many elementary solid forms.
— from Mankind in the Making by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

“If the Messieurs Simeuse are here,” said the abbe, “I would give ten pints of my blood and my right arm to save them; but if Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne is in the secret she has not—and this I swear on my eternal salvation—betrayed it in any way, neither has she done me the honor to consult me.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

This is a sort of machine eloquence; she deafens you with her tears, with her words which come jerked out in confusion; it is the clapper and torrent of a mill.
— from The Physiology of Marriage, Complete by Honoré de Balzac