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Mary Kingsley

Mary Kingsley Books

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“If you see a thing that looks like a cross between a flying lobster and the figure of Abraxas on a Gnostic gem, do not pay it the least attention, never mind where it is; just keep quiet and hope it will go away - for that's your best chance; you have none in a stand-up fight with a good thorough-going African insect.”

IfsMindLooksFightingChancePayAttentionFiguresQuietCrossesFlyingGoing AwayInsectsThoroughGemsLobster
Book:West African Studies
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“One immense old lady has a family of lively young crocodiles running over her, evidently playing like a lot of kittens. The heavy musky smell they give off is most repulsive, but we do not rise up and make a row about this, because we feel hopelessly in the wrong in intruding into these family scenes uninvited.”

GivingFeelsRunningYoungSceneHeavySmellImmenseLivelyKittenOld LadyCrocodilesUninvited
Book:Travels in West Africa, Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons
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“the African leopard is an audacious animal, although it is ungrateful of me to say a word against him, after the way he has let me off personally ... taken as a whole, he is the most lovely animal I have ever seen; only seeing him, in the one way you can gain a full idea of his beauty, namely in his native forest, is not an unmixed joy to a person, like myself, of a nervous disposition.”

WayPersonsIdeasWholeJoyAnimalTakenSeeingGainsLet MeLovelyForestsNervousOne WayNativeDispositionUngratefulLeopardsAudacious
Book:Travels in West Africa, Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons
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“There is one distinctive charm about fishing - its fascinations will stand any climate. You may sit crouching on ice over a hole inside the arctic circle, or on a Windsor chair by the side of the River Lea in the so-called temperate zone, or you may squat in a canoe on an equatorial river, with the surrounding atmosphere forty-five percent mosquito, and if you are fishing you will enjoy yourself.”

IfsMayEnjoySidesFivePercentRiversClimateCirclesHolesIceAtmosphereCharmChairsZoneFishingFortyFascinationDistinctiveArcticMosquitoesSquatEnjoy YourselfWindsor
Book:West African Studies
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