"The lion, on the other hand, shows himself boldly sitting on his
breech with a very sour look in the road, about twenty or thirty paces
before travellers. I this case, instead of walking on and keeping
their eyes off him, they must stand still and stare him full in the
face, hollowing at him and abusing him all they can; and for fear he
may not understand English, in the language-if they can-of the
country."

The Adventures Of Thomas Pellow, Of Penryn, Mariner; Three And Twenty
Years In Captivity Among The Moors (1740) ed Robert Brown (1890)

--
Bob
The people your parents warned you about

Opinicus:

> "The lion, on the other hand, shows himself
> boldly sitting on his breech with a very sour
> look in the road, about twenty or thirty paces
> before travellers. I this case, instead of
> walking on and keeping their eyes off him, they
> must stand still and stare him full in the
> face, hollowing at him and abusing him all they
> can; and for fear he may not understand En-
> glish, in the language--if they can--of the
> country."
>
> The Adventures Of Thomas Pellow, Of Penryn,
> Mariner; Three And Twenty Years In Captivity
> Among The Moors (1740) ed Robert Brown (1890)

You have withheld the reason for posting this quo-
tation, and I fail to find one. The subject seems
to hint your special interest in the phrase

For fear he may not understand English

but I see nothing special in it. The pattern "for
fear/joy/love" is both grammatical it frequent.
Did you find amusing the author's provision for
the lion's lack of English? I for one do not
think it purely humorous, for animals are well-
known to recognise, however roughly, certain words
of human speech, and so the lion may not be indif-
ferent to the accents in which it is addressed.

--
() ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail
/\ http://preview.tinyurl.com/qcy6mjc [archived]

On Monday, June 20, 2022 at 5:00:58 AM UTC-7, Opinicus wrote:
> "The lion, on the other hand, shows himself boldly sitting on his
> breech with a very sour look in the road, about twenty or thirty paces
> before travellers. I this case, instead of walking on and keeping
> their eyes off him, they must stand still and stare him full in the
> face, hollowing at him and abusing him all they can; and for fear he
> may not understand English, in the language-if they can-of the
> country."
>
> The Adventures Of Thomas Pellow, Of Penryn, Mariner; Three And Twenty
> Years In Captivity Among The Moors (1740) ed Robert Brown (1890)
>
> --
> Bob
> The people your parents warned you about

Thomas Pellow, an 11-year old English boy captured by Barbary pirates in 1715 and sold as a slave to Moulay Ismael, explains in his memoir, The Adventures of Thomas Pellow Mariner, what to do if one happens to cross a lion on the road:

The lion, on the other hand, shows himself boldly sitting on his breech with a very sour look in the road, about twenty or thirty paces before travellers. In this case, instead of walking on and keeping their eyes off him, they must stand still and stare him full in the face, hollowing at him and abusing him all they can ; and for fear he may not understand English, in the language — if they can — of the country. Upon this hollowing and staring at him, he gets him on his legs, and, severely lashing his loins with his tail, walks from them, roaring after a terrible manner, and sits himself down again in the road, about the distance of a mile or two, when both traveller and lion behave again in the same manner ; and after proving them thus a third time, the lion generally leaves them without interruption.

There is no danger of that today. Traditionally, it is said that the last wild Barbary lion was killed in 1920. Some put the date in the nineteen forties. Sadly, today the Barbary lions are gone except for a few in zoos and manageries such as kept by the kings.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hollow#Etymology_3

the verb to [hollow] ----------- is this used today ?

On Tue, 21 Jun 2022 18:46:56 +0300, Anton Shepelev
<anton.txt@g{oogle}mail.com> wrote:

> Did you find amusing the author's provision for
> the lion's lack of English?

Exactly so.

--
Bob
The people your parents warned you about

On Tue, 21 Jun 2022 08:50:05 -0700 (PDT), "henh...@gmail.com"
<henhanna@gmail.com> wrote:

On Monday, June 20, 2022 at 5:00:58 AM UTC-7, Opinicus wrote:
> "The lion, on the other hand, shows himself boldly sitting on his
> breech with a very sour look in the road, about twenty or thirty paces
> before travellers. I this case, instead of walking on and keeping
> their eyes off him, they must stand still and stare him full in the
> face, hollowing at him and abusing him all they can; and for fear he
> may not understand English, in the language-if they can-of the
> country."
>
> The Adventures Of Thomas Pellow, Of Penryn, Mariner; Three And Twenty
> Years In Captivity Among The Moors (1740) ed Robert Brown (1890)
>
> --
> Bob
> The people your parents warned you about

Thomas Pellow, an 11-year old English boy captured by Barbary pirates
in 1715 and sold as a slave to Moulay Ismael, explains in his memoir,
The Adventures of Thomas Pellow Mariner, what to do if one happens to
cross a lion on the road:

The lion, on the other hand, shows
himself boldly sitting on his breech with a very sour look in the
road, about twenty or thirty paces before travellers. In this case,
instead of walking on and keeping their eyes off him, they must stand
still and stare him full in the face, hollowing at him and abusing him
all they can ; and for fear he may not understand English, in the
language — if they can — of the country. Upon this hollowing and
staring at him, he gets him on his legs, and, severely lashing his
loins with his tail, walks from them, roaring after a terrible manner,
and sits himself down again in the road, about the distance of a mile
or two, when both traveller and lion behave again in the same manner ;
and after proving them thus a third time, the lion generally leaves
them without interruption.

There is no danger of that today. Traditionally, it is said that the
last wild Barbary lion was killed in 1920. Some put the date in the
nineteen forties. Sadly, today the Barbary lions are gone except for a
few in zoos and manageries such as kept by the kings.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hollow#Etymology_3

the verb to [hollow] ----------- is this used
today ?

(reformatted for legibility)

--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk