Isabella Bird
Isabella Bird
Isabella Lucy Bird, married name Bishop FRGS, was a nineteenth-century English explorer, writer, photographer and naturalist. With Fanny Jane Butler she founded the John Bishop Memorial hospital in Srinagar. She was the first woman to be elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionExplorer
Date of Birth15 October 1831
japan novelty planets
Japan offers as much novelty perhaps as an excursion to another planet.
travel despair world
[On Malaysia:] Mr. Darwin says so truly that a visit to the tropics (and such tropics) is like a visit to a new planet. This new wonder-world, so enchanting, tantalising, intoxicating, makes me despair, for I cannot make you see what I am seeing!
money dollars divinity
The 'almighty dollar' is the true divinity, and its worship is universal.
buddhist design expresses form itself japanese nearly sacred temples
Writing generally, it may be said that in design, roof, and general aspect, Japanese Buddhist temples are all alike. The sacred architectural idea expresses itself in nearly the same form always.
almost eight estimated except food grown leading nasty nine require rice staple wealth wherever work
There are eight or nine leading varieties of rice grown in Japan, all of which, except an upland species, require mud, water, and much puddling and nasty work. Rice is the staple food and the wealth of Japan. Its revenues were estimated in rice. Rice is grown almost wherever irrigation is possible.
along borne cannot carriage foot limited regard rugged steep tibet traveller walks
The traveller who aspires to reach the highlands of Tibet from Kashmir cannot be borne along in a carriage or hill-cart. For much of the way, he is limited to a foot pace, and if he has regard to his horse, he walks down all rugged and steep descents, which are many, and dismounts at most bridges.
bends best care congenial drops fruit grows loose lovingly manure matter near needs neither nor palm ripe salt sandy soil toward
The cocoa-nut palm grows best near salt water, no matter how loose and sandy the soil is, and in these congenial circumstances needs neither manure nor care of any kind. It bends lovingly toward the sea and drops its ripe fruit into it.
arabic derived entirely hardly indigenous sacred
The Malays can hardly be said to have an indigenous literature, for it is almost entirely derived from Persia, Siam, Arabia, and Java. Arabic is their sacred language.
among european lived mode regions saw
I lived among the Japanese, and saw their mode of living, in regions unaffected by European contact.
acquires bitterness japanese
If Japanese tea 'stands,' it acquires a coarse bitterness and an unwholesome astringency. Milk and sugar are not used.
domestic extremely home japanese life private
It is extremely interesting to live in a private house and to see the externalities, at least, of domestic life in a Japanese middle-class home.
brings man necessity turkey
Poverty brings one blessing in Turkey - the poor man is of necessity a monogamist.
aboriginal besides best books chiefly close customs ground historical publish strongly urged
At the close of my visit, my Hawaiian friends urged me strongly to publish my impressions and experiences, on the ground that the best books already existing, besides being old, treat chiefly of aboriginal customs and habits now extinct, and of the introduction of Christianity and subsequent historical events.
barbarous brutally divers flower flowers grace grotesque individuality lace piece rings series stiff
Can anything be more grotesque and barbarous than our 'florists' bouquets,' a series of concentric rings of flowers of divers colours, bordered by maidenhair and a piece of stiff lace paper, in which stems, leaves, and even petals are brutally crushed, and the grace and individuality of each flower systematically destroyed?