“Moreover I fancy it safer not to have an overpowering percentage of Fans in the party, as I know we shall have considerable stretches of uninhabited forest to traverse; and the Ajuma say that the Fans will kill people, i.e. the black traders who venture into their country, and cut them up into neat pieces,Continue reading “RKS Literature: Smoked Meat Cannibal Style (Mary Kingsley)”
Category Archives: history
RKS Literature: West African Villagers See Their First White Person (Mary Kingsley)
“Every child in the place as soon as it saw my white face let a howl out of it as if it had seen his Satanic Majesty, horns, hoofs, tail and all, and fled into the nearest hut, headlong, and I fear, from the continuance of the screams, had fits. The town was exceedingly filthy-theContinue reading “RKS Literature: West African Villagers See Their First White Person (Mary Kingsley)”
RKS Literature: The Train Ride from London to Clapham Common: Through the Suburban Stench (Henry Mayhew)
“ Now we get a whiff of the gutta-percha works; then comes a faint gust from some floor-cloth shed; next we dash through an odoriferous belt of bone-boiling atmosphere; and after that through a film of fetor rank with the fumes from the glazing of potteries; whereupon this is followed by bands of nauseous vapoursContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Train Ride from London to Clapham Common: Through the Suburban Stench (Henry Mayhew)”
RKS Literature: A Disgusting and Immoral Performance at a London Penny Gaff (Henry Mayhew)
“There was one scene yet to come that was perfect in its wickedness. A ballet began with a man dressed up as a woman, and a country clown. The most disgusting attitudes were struck, the most immoral acts represented, without one dissenting voice. If there had been any feat of agility, any grimacing, or, inContinue reading “RKS Literature: A Disgusting and Immoral Performance at a London Penny Gaff (Henry Mayhew)”
RKS Literature: The Scramble for a Living in London’s Street Markets (Henry Mayhew)
“Each salesman tries his utmost to sell his wares, tempting the passers-by with his bargains. The boy with his stock of herbs offers ‘a double ‘andful of fine parsley for a penny;’ the man with a donkey cart filled with turnips has three lads to shout for him to their utmost with their ‘ Ho!Continue reading “RKS Literature: The Scramble for a Living in London’s Street Markets (Henry Mayhew)”
RKS Literature: London as Seen from a Balloon (Henry Mayhew)
“…..to grasp it in the eye-to take, as it were, an angel’s view of that huge town where, perhaps, there is more virtue and more inequity, more wealth and more want, brought together in one dense focus than in any other part of the earth-to hear the hubbub of the restless sea of life andContinue reading “RKS Literature: London as Seen from a Balloon (Henry Mayhew)”
RKS Literature: The Spice Cover Up in Street Pies! (Henry Mayhew)
“The pies in Tottenham-court-road are very highly seasoned. “I bought one there the other day, and it nearly took the skin off my mouth; it was full of pepper’ said a street pieman, with considerable bitterness, to me. The reason why so large a quantity of pepper is put in is, because persons can’t tellContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Spice Cover Up in Street Pies! (Henry Mayhew)”
RKS Literature: Meow Meow and Woof Woof in Street Pies! DENIED! (Henry Mayhew)
“The pie dealers usually make the pies themselves. The meat is bought in ‘pieces’ of the same part as sausage-makers purchase- the ‘sticklings’- at about 3d the pound. ‘People when I go into houses’ said one man ‘often begin by crying “Mee-yow” or “Bow-wow-wow! At me; but there’s nothing of that kind now. Meat youContinue reading “RKS Literature: Meow Meow and Woof Woof in Street Pies! DENIED! (Henry Mayhew)”
RKS Literature: Why One Must Defect from the USSR (Vladimir Rott)
“An ordinary person in the USSR has no prospects except for being trapped in misery and trudging directly toward the grave. All of the friends and even casual acquaintances we talked to were in a bleak mood: there was nothing ahead, just emptiness. No goals to set, nothing to look forward to. We knew theContinue reading “RKS Literature: Why One Must Defect from the USSR (Vladimir Rott)”
RKS Literature: Timid Warrior Whalemen at Breakfast (Herman Melville)
“These reflections just here are occasioned by the circumstances that after we were all seated at the table, and I was preparing to hear some good stories about whaling; to my no small surprise, nearly every man maintained a profound silence. And not only that, but they looked embarrassed. Yes, here were a set ofContinue reading “RKS Literature: Timid Warrior Whalemen at Breakfast (Herman Melville)”
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 