Yet as with the American South, there is a distinctly caricaturable quality to rural Afrikanerdom, and the sophisticated Afrikaners of Johannesburg and Cape Town enjoy making fun of them.

A snaky neck coiled, and it was coming down at us, and it was all teeth. “Tyrannosaurus Regina,” Aaron whispered. “Cretaceous period. Meat-eater.”

In the Lower Yangtze plain section of Chekiang, rice is associated with winter wheat and with silk and cotton. Cotton is also cultivated-on the south shore of Hangchow Bay, chiefly around Yüyao, from where it is shipped to Shanghai and Ningpo.

[…] he was broodingly unable to see even the most ivied tower as anything but a pile of stones till, inexplicably, the miracle of recovered hope and courage transformed him.