SOME men are renowned in history on account of the extraordinary powers and capacities which they exhibited in the course of their career, or the intrinsic greatness of the deeds which they performed. Others, without having really achieved any thing in itself very great or wonderful, have become widely known to mankind by reason of the vast consequences which, in the subsequent course of events, resulted from their doings. Men of this latter class are conspicuous rather than great. From among thousands of other men equally exalted in character with themselves, they are brought out prominently to the notice of mankind only in consequence of the strong light reflected, by great events subsequently occurring, back upon the position where they happened to stand. The celebrity of Romulus seems to be of this latter kind. He founded a city. A thousand other men have founded cities; and in doing their work have evinced perhaps as much courage, sagacity, and mental power as Romulus displayed. The city of Romulus, however, became in the end the queen and mistress of the world. It rose to so exalted a position of influence and power, and retained its ascendency so long, that now for twenty centuries every civilized nation in the western world have felt a strong interest in every thing pertaining to its history, and have been accustomed to look back with special curiosity to the circumstances of its origin. In consequence of this it has happened that though Romulus, in his actual day, performed no very great exploits, and enjoyed no pre-eminence above the thousand other half-savage chieftains of his class, whose names have been long forgotten, and very probably while he lived never dreamed of any extended fame, yet so brilliant is the illumination which the subsequent events of history have shed upon his position and his doings, that his name and the incidents of his life have been brought out very conspicuously to view, and attract very strongly the attention of mankind...
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Far from the world of his white parents, the sixteen-year-old youth, Jan, was raised in a cage under the watchful eye of half-crazed Dr. Bracken. Guided by his foster mother, Chicma the Chimpanzee, Jan was destined to execute the doctor's fanatical plot for revenge against Jan's real mother. A monster with the mind of an ape and the body of a man, that was his part in Bracken's twisted scheme. But just on the eve of the intended onslaught, Jan and Chicma escaped to the jungle and emerged near the Lost Empire of Mu. There, Jan must do battle with the gigantic puma, the grotesque thunder bird, and the god-monster Sebek. With all his fighting skill, there remained only one challenge to Jan: trace his origins and locate his man-parents.
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A blistering, brutal novel of the South African frontier from a major new literary voice Winner of four major South African prizes At the end of the eighteenth century, a giant strides the Cape Colony frontier. Coenraad de Buys is a legend, a polygamist, a swindler and a big talker; a rebel who fights with Xhosa chieftains against the Boers and British; the fierce patriarch of a sprawling mixed-race family with a veritable tribe of followers; a savage enemy and a loyal ally. Like the wild dogs who are always at his heels, he roams the shifting landscape of southern Africa, hungry and spoiling for a fight. This is his story; the story of his country, and of our blood-soaked history. Red Dog is a brilliant, fiercely powerful novel-a wild, epic tale of Africa in a time before boundaries between cultures and peoples were fixed. Willem Anker was born in Citrusdal in the Western Cape in 1979 and lectures in creative writing at Stellenbosch University. His first novel, Siegfried, was published in 2007. Red Dog was published in Afrikaans in 2014 and won six major literary prizes in South Africa. It is his first novel to be translated into English.
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What are man's earliest ideas of a soul and a God, and of his own origin and destiny? Why do we find certain myths, such as of a creation, a flood, an after-world; certain symbols, as the bird, the serpent, the cross; certain numbers, as the three, the four, the seven-intimately associated with these ideas by every race? What are the laws of growth of natural religions? How do they acquire such an influence, and is this influence for good or evil? Such are some of the universally interesting questions which the author attempts to solve by an analysis of the simple faiths of a savage race. Contents: Chapter I. General Considerations On The Red Race. Chapter II. The Idea Of God. Chapter III. The Sacred Number, Its Origin And Applications. Chapter IV. The Symbols Of The Bird And The Serpent. Chapter V. The Myths Of Water, Fire, And The Thunder-Storm. Chapter VI. The Supreme Gods Of The Red Race. Chapter VII. The Myths Of The Creation, The Deluge, The Epochs Of Nature, And The Last Day. Chapter VIII. The Origin Of Man. Chapter IX. The Soul And Its Destiny. Chapter X. The Native Priesthood. Chapter XI. The Influence Of The Native Religions On The Moral And Social Life Of The Race.
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This book is annotated with a rare extensive biographical sketch of the author, Andrew Lang, written by Sir Edmund Gosse, CB, a contemporary poet and writer. It is not without hesitation that this book is offered to the reader. Very many people, for very various reasons, would taboo the subjects here discoursed of altogether. These subjects are a certain set of ancient beliefs, for example the belief in clairvoyance, in 'hauntings,' in events transcending ordinary natural laws. The peculiarity of these beliefs is, that they have survived the wreck of faith in such elements of witchcraft as metamorphosis, and power to cause tempest or drought. To study such themes is 'impious,' or 'superstitious,' or 'useless'. Yet to a pathologist, or anthropologist, the survivals of beliefs must always be curious and attractive illustrations of human nature. Contents: Preface. Introduction. Savage Spiritualism. Ancient Spiritualism. Comparative Psychical Research Haunted Houses Cock Lane And Common-Sense Apparitions, Ghosts, And Hallucinations. Scrying Or Crystal-Gazing The Second Sight Ghosts Before The Law A Modern Trial For Witchcraft Presbyterian Ghost Hunters. The Logic Of Table-Turning The Ghost Theory Of The Origin Of Religion
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A genealogical dictionary of our early colonists. Every volume shows three generations of those who came before 1692. Although more than a century has elapsed since the publication of this monumental work, it remains the standard to our day. We do not mean that new information has not been unearthed or that the work is free from errors, but Savage had just the peculiar qualifications necessary. He was so persistent in gathering data and so conservative in his use of them, that a statement made on his authority bears great weight. This work has the whole of New England for its field. This is volume 1, covering the surnames S - Z.
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Andrew Jackson Potter was an Indian fighter, race rider, common soldier in the U. S. army, chaplain in C. S. army, and circuit rider on the Texan frontier at a time when it required courage and judgment. The book tells tales out of six years of Indian warfare in New Mexico and Arizona and reflects many wonderful events in his ministerial life on the frontier border of western Texas, during a long term of evangelical toils and personal combats with savage indians and during desperadoes, including many hair-breadth escapes.
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This book is annotated with a rare extensive biographical sketch of the author, Andrew Lang, written by Sir Edmund Gosse, CB, a contemporary poet and writer. A review of Mr. Lang's work would come late, were it not that the book has been the subject of discussion for many years.The author considers the modern science of the History of Religion to teach, that Man derived the conception of Spirit from reflection on phenomena of sleep, dreams, death, shadow, and experiences of trance and hallucination. Ghosts, thus obtained, became the first objects of belief and worship, and were gradually magnified into gods, of which, in the end, one became supreme; on the other hand, from belief in the survival of the soul grew the notion of immortality. This system he proposes to study from fresh points of view. In the first place, he treats what he calls the X phenomena among savages, clairvoyance, crystalomancy, second-sight, demoniacal possession, and so on, giving examples to show the prevalence of similar experiences; he considers that their apparently supernatural character may have much to do with the theory of a separable soul, and apparently inclines toward a belief in the verity at least of the occurrences. The statements concerning the savage phenomena are not especially full, the account not undertaking to exhibit a complete view of the department. The second part of the treatise undertakes to supply a substitute for the nihilistic doctrine; this is, that the idea of God as, to use the writer's words, " a primal eternal being, author of all things, the father and friendof man, the invisible, omniscient guardian of morality, belongs to the lowest savages, who reverence this supreme deity without idol-worship or sacrifice, as immutable, impeccable, all-seeing, benevolent, and lovable.
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