Geographical readers for elementary schools, Book 5 |
Common terms and phrases
Africa amongst Arabia Arabs Arctic Asia Atlantic Australia barren basin beautiful belong Berber Brazil Britain British called camels Cape Cape Colony capital Central chain China Chinese climate coast cold colony continent cotton cultivated delta desert district drained east eastern Egypt equator Europe European famous feet fertile flow forests Ganges gold Gulf heat hills Himalaya Hindu Kush India Indus inhabitants islands Ismaïlia Kafirs Khedive lake land lies lower maize Mexico Mongolia moun mountain ranges Name narrow native negroes Nejd Nile northern Nova Scotia ocean Orange Orange river Pacific peninsula Persia plains plateau population port province rain region rice rich rise river Rocky round sheep shores Siberia slopes Soudan South America southern Statute Miles steppes Strait streams table-land TIAN-SHAN Tibet trade trees tributaries Tropic of Cancer tropical valleys vast villages western whole wide winds
Popular passages
Page 41 - As long as you are journeying in the interior of the Desert you have no particular point to make for as your resting-place. The endless sands yield nothing but small stunted...
Page 41 - The world about you is all your own, and there, where you will, you pitch your solitary tent ; there is no living thing to dispute your choice. When at last the spot had been fixed upon and we came to a halt, one of the Arabs would touch the chest of my camel, and utter at the same time a peculiar gurgling sound. The beast instantly understood and obeyed the sign, and slowly sunk under me, till she brought her body to a level with the ground : then gladly enough I alighted. The rest of the camels...
Page 41 - I mean, in the sense of sky. You look to the sun, for he is your taskmaster, and by him you know the measure of the work that you have done, and the measure of the work that remains for you to do. He comes when you strike your tent in the early morning, and then for the first hour of the day, as you move forward on your camel, he stands at your near side, and makes you know that the whole day's toil is before you ; then for a while, and...
Page 42 - I discovered, however (and my Arabs knew of that fact), that this man and his family lived habitually for nine months of the year without touching or seeing either bread or water. The stunted shrub growing at intervals through the sand in this part of the desert enables the camel mares to yield a little milk, and this furnishes the sole food and drink of their owner and his people.
Page 119 - The Manganja are an industrious race; and in addition to working in iron, cotton, and basket-making, they cultivate the soil extensively. All the people of a village turn out to labour in the fields. It is no uncommon thing to see men, women, and children hard at work, with the baby lying close by beneath a shady bush. When a new piece of woodland is to be cleared, they proceed exactly as farmers do in America. The trees are cut down with their little axes of soft native iron ; trunks and branches...
Page 272 - We were standing on the extreme edge of a precipice, overhanging a lake of molten fire, a hundred feet below us, and nearly a mile across. Dashing against the cliffs on the opposite side, with a noise like the roar of a stormy ocean, waves of blood-red, fiery, liquid lava hurled their billows upon an iron-bound headland, and then rushed up the face of the cliffs to toss their gory spray high in the air.
Page 35 - Holy" Damascus, this "earthly paradise" of the Prophet, so fair to the eyes, that he dared not trust himself to tarry in her blissful shades — she is a city of hidden palaces, of copses, and gardens, and fountains, and bubbling streams.
Page 42 - ... a poor, over-roasted snipe, a mere cinder of a man. I made him sit down by my side, and gave him a piece of bread and a cup of water from out of my goat-skins. This was not very tempting drink to look at, for it had become turbid, and was deeply reddened by some...
Page 36 - The lofty rooms are adorned with a rich inlaying of many colours, and illuminated writing on the walls. The floors are of marble. One side of any room intended for noonday retirement is generally laid open, to a quadrangle, and in the centre of this is the dancing jet of a fountain.
Page 36 - ... foam and roar on every side. The place is lit up in the simplest manner by numbers of small, pale lamps, strung upon loose cords, and so suspended, from branch to branch, that the light, though it looks so quiet amongst the darkening foliage, yet leaps, and brightly flashes, as it falls upon the troubled waters. All around and chiefly upon the very edge of the torrents, groups of people are tranquilly seated. They...