description of Venice
It is not my intention, however, to do so hackneyed a thing as to give a
description of Venice. One thing, I must confess, seemed to me
extraordinary: how this city, deprived as it is of the commerce which
built it up from the shallows of the Adriatic, and upheld it so long and
so proudly, should […]

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and hollies and young oaks, as wild and merry as a mountain brook of our
own country
In descending to the valley, we came upon a little rivulet among hazels
and hollies and young oaks, as wild and merry as a mountain brook of our
own country. Cowslips and wild hyacinths were in flower upon its banks,
and blue violets […]

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meaning
I have used the word hammock, which here, in Florida, has a peculiar
meaning. A hammock is a spot covered with a growth of trees which require
a richer soil than the pine, such as the oak, the mulberry, the gum-tree,
the hickory, &c. The greater part of East Florida consists of pine
barrens–a sandy level, producing the long […]

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during the ceremonies of holy week they take off the _cascarilla_ from
their faces, and appear in their natural complexions
‘The reason,’ she said, ‘of the difference you perceived is this, that
during the ceremonies of holy week they take off the _cascarilla_ from
their faces, and appear in their natural complexions.’

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took the floor with a fiddle and began to play
‘Spiel, Tscho, spiel, spiel,’ was shouted on every side, and at last Tscho
took the floor with a fiddle and began to play. About a dozen of the young
men stood up on the floor, in couples, facing each other, and hammered out
the tune with their feet, giving […]

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great men are (in those countries) particularly subject
Mahomet, who was a great man, suffered from the same complaint to which
great men are (in those countries) particularly subject. Wherever he
went he was attacked with claimants of relationship. He was overwhelmed
with professions of friendship from people who claimed to be connections
of some of his family. In fact, […]

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pyramidical hills
We entered a dead level plain of orange-colored sand, surrounded by
pyramidical hills. The surface was strewn with objects resembling cannon
shot and grape of all sizes from a 32-pounder downward, and looked like
the old battle-field of some infernal region–rocks glowing with heat,
not a vestige of vegetation, barren, withering desolation. The slow
rocking step of the camels […]

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On the 14th of July I had concluded my arrangements for the start. There
had been some difficulty in procuring camels, but the all-powerful
firman was a never-failing talisman, and as the Arabs had declined to
let their animals for hire, the Governor despatched a number of soldiers
and seized the required number, including their owners. I engaged two
wild […]

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