Cosmorama: The Manners, Customs, and Costumes of All Nations of the World Described |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
ABABDE Africa amusements ancient appear Arabs arms arts beards beautiful Bedouins Birmans body called Captain Cook character chief chiefly Christianity Circassians cloth coarse coast colour common complexion consists constitute Copts Cossacks costume cotton countenances covered dancing descendants despotic dexterity dialect dress dwell English established religion European extremely fastened favourite feet females Fezzan fish fond frequently girdle gold Greenlanders habits hair head Hottentots houses huts Icelanders indolent inhabitants islands kind kingdom labour language Lapps live lower orders maize Malays manners mats medism middle stature nations natives Negroes neighbours occupy ornaments Pagans peasants Persian persons population Portuguese possess race rank reindeer resemblance robust Roman Roman Catholic round Russian empire Russians scarcely Scottish Highlanders sexes shirt silk skin skyr slaves Spaniards strangers subsistence Sweden tall Tatars tents tribes trowsers Turks villages waist wear women wood woollen worn
Popular passages
Page 160 - ... rather than cut off; it was cruelly prolonged, I will not say wilfully. Twelve more were dragged forward, but we forced our way through the crowd, and retired to our quarters. Other sacrifices, principally female, were made in the bush where the body was buried. It is usual to " wet the grave " with the blood of a freeman of respectability.
Page 91 - The Scythians of every age have been celebrated as bold and skilful riders, and constant practice had seated them so firmly on horseback that they were supposed by strangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil life, to eat, to drink, and even to sleep, without dismounting from their steeds.
Page 123 - Deformity is very rare among them. The forehead is high, the eyebrows well marked and distant from the eyes, which are somewhat Chinese, or rather Tartar, in the formation of the inner angle. The colour of the eye is dark ; the nose small and somewhat flat, but less so than that of the islanders in general. The mouth is well formed, but the lips are large...
Page 18 - When- the body is carried to the grave, Which is done with many gesticulations of sorrow, the priest produces a ticket, signed by the bishop and another clergyman, as the deceased's passport to heaven. This...
Page 184 - ... clotted milk and blood ; but, immediately the weather became favourable, they hastened with their cattle into the valleys which afforded them pasturage, often a subject of contention among them. " The Bischaries, who rarely descend from their mountains," says Burkhardt, " are a very savage people. Their only cattle are camels and sheep, and they live entirely upon flesh and milk, eating much of the former raw. According to the relation of several Nubians, they are very fond of the hot blood of...
Page 22 - Greek bishop. The hair of married women is tucked under this cap, which is covered with pearls and gold, or adorned with flowers. The dress of a Cossack girl is elegant ; a silk tunic, with trowsers fastened by a girdle of solid silver, yellow boots, and an Indian handkerchief round the head. A proof of their riches was afforded in the instance of the mistress of the house •where we lodged. This woman walked about the apartments without shoes or stockings; and being asked for some...
Page 63 - The common people of Venice display some qualities very rarely to be found in that sphere of life, being remarkably sober, obliging to strangers, and gentle in their intercourse with each other. The Venetians in general are tall and well made, Though equally robust, they are not so corpulent as the Germans.
Page 164 - ... their liberty, have entailed upon their miserable offspring a state of existence to which that of slavery might bear the comparison of happiness. It is a condition, however, not likely to continue to a very remote posterity. The name of Hottentot will be forgotten, or remembered only as that of a deceased person of little note.
Page 91 - The palaces of the rich consist of wooden huts, of such a size that they may be conveniently fixed on large waggons, and drawn by a team perhaps of twenty or thirty oxen.
Page 148 - They subsist entirely by hunting, and have no knowledge whatever of the art of fishing. Even the rude bark canoe, which their neighbours possess, is quite unknown to them ; and whenever they want to pass any sheet of water, they are compelled to construct a wretched raft for the occasion, VOL.