"Besmear" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... in India will besmear themselves with mud as a protection against insects, and that they will break branches from the trees and use them to brush away the flies. If this is true, it shows, I think, something beyond instinct in ...
— Ways of Nature • John Burroughs
... to their rescue runs, They seized, and with entangling folds embraced, 210 His neck twice compassing, and twice his waist: Their pois'nous knots he strives to break and tear, While slime and blood his sacred wreaths besmear; Then loudly roars, as when th'enraged bull From th'altar flies, and from his wounded skull Shakes the huge axe; the conqu'ring serpents fly To cruel Pallas' altar, and there lie Under her feet, within her shield's extent. ...
— Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham • Edmund Waller; John Denham
... of the early settlers in Virginia, as it was of those in New England, that the Indians were born white, but that they got a brown or tawny color by the use of red ointments, made of earth and the juice of roots, with which they besmear themselves either according to the custom of the country or as a defense against the stinging of mosquitoes. The women are of the same hue as the men, says Strachey; "howbeit, it is supposed neither of them naturally borne so discolored; for Captain Smith (lyving sometymes amongst ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... guide the chosen seed) 1740 Having with glory clad and strength, The Virgin pictured at full length, Whilst at her feet, in small pourtray'd, As scarce worth notice, Christ was laid,— Came Superstition, fierce and fell, An imp detested, e'en in hell; Her eye inflamed, her face all o'er Foully besmear'd with human gore, O'er heaps of mangled saints she rode; Fast at her heels Death proudly strode, 1750 And grimly smiled, well pleased to see Such havoc of mortality; Close by her side, on mischief bent, And urging on each bad intent To its full bearing, savage, wild, The mother fit of such ...
— Poetical Works • Charles Churchill
... litera, a letter, and probably at one remove from lino, litum, to anoint or besmear, because in the earlier times a tablet was smeared with wax, and letters were traced upon it with a graver. Literature, in its first meaning, would, therefore, comprise all that can be conveyed by ...
— English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History - Designed as a Manual of Instruction • Henry Coppee
... conviction; to establish eternal truth upon its own imperishable altars, which from its essence must survive all the error of the earth. It is then that calumny, crushed like the devouring snail by the careful gardener, ceases to besmear the character of an honest man, while its venomous slime, glazed by the sun, enables the observant spectator to trace the filthy progress it ...
— The System of Nature, Vol. 2 • Baron D'Holbach
... his Sanctuary it self their Shrines, Abominations; and with cursed things His holy Rites, and solemn Feasts profan'd, 390 And with their darkness durst affront his light. First Moloch, horrid King besmear'd with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents tears, Though for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud Their childrens cries unheard, that past through fire To his grim Idol. Him the Ammonite Worshipt ...
— The Poetical Works of John Milton • John Milton
... brown and white cloth, black and white feathers, and pearl Oyster Shells. It cover'd the head, face, and body, as low as the Calf of the Legs or lower, and not only looked grand but awful likewise. The man thus equip'd, and attended by 2 or 3 more men and Women with their faces and bodys besmear'd with soot, and a Club in their hands, would about sunset take a Compass of near a mile running here and there, and wherever they came the People would fly from them as tho' they had been so many hobgoblins, ...
— Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World • James Cook
... universal knowledge we have, that French women are naturally either brown or yellow, with very few exceptions; and secondly, to the inartificial manner in which they paint; for they do not, as I am most satisfactorily informed, even attempt an imitation of nature, but besmear themselves hastily, and at a venture, anxious only to lay on enough. Where therefore there is no wanton intention, nor a wish to deceive, I can discover no immorality. But in England, I am afraid, our painted ladies are not clearly entitled to the same apology. They even imitate nature with such ...
— Cowper • Goldwin Smith
... face of his I do remember well; Yet, when I saw it last, it was besmear'd As black as Vulcan, ...
— The Water-Witch or, The Skimmer of the Seas • James Fenimore Cooper
... daily driven, So many kingdoms fitted up anew; Each day, too, slew its thousands six or seven, Till at the crowning carnage, Waterloo, They threw their pens down in divine disgust, The page was so besmear'd ...
— English Satires • Various
... Grant that, and then is death a benefit: So we are Caesar's friends, that have abridg'd 105 His time of fearing death. Stoop, Romans, stoop, And let us bathe our hands in Caesar's blood Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords: Then walk we forth, even to the market-place, And, waving our red weapons o'er our heads, 110 Let's all cry 'Peace, freedom, ...
— The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar • William Shakespeare
... earthly powers, But care for crowns of flowers; And love to have my beard With wine and oil besmear'd. This day I'll drown all sorrow: Who knows to ...
— The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2 • Robert Herrick
... a throne 30 Of blazing gems, with purple garments on: The Hours, in order ranged on either hand, And days, and months, and years, and ages, stand. Here Spring appears with flowery chaplets bound; Here Summer in her wheaten garland crowned; Here Autumn the rich trodden grapes besmear; And hoary Winter shivers in the rear. Phoebus beheld the youth from off his throne; That eye, which looks on all, was fixed on one. He saw the boy's confusion in his face, 40 Surprised at all the wonders of the place; And cries ...
— The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase • Joseph Addison, John Gay, William Sommerville
... wilt cut off the heads of thy two children with thy own hand, and besmear me with their blood, I shall ...
— Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm • Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
... some minute or two to make the arrangements for this, and Paul, smarting under the sting of what his opponent had said, burst forth, "Honour and fair play! Was it honour and fair play to besmear my mother's name, to throw reflections upon my birth? Was it honour and fair play to speak of me as an atheist? Was it honour and fair play to send out a circular, unsigned and untraceable, which threw out innuendoes about my ...
— The Day of Judgment • Joseph Hocking
... stripped me, dipped a clean linen cloth into pure virgin honey and rubbed it over my sores. He then pointed to the bed, which had been prepared for me in the same room. I gave him to understand, by signs, that I should besmear his clean sheets; but this was negatived by a shake of the head; so without further ceremony I turned in—it was the softest pillow I ever did, or expect to, lay my head on;—yet it was ...
— Narrative of the shipwreck of the brig Betsey, of Wiscasset, Maine, and murder of five of her crew, by pirates, • Daniel Collins
... so much saved for the nation." "He is hacked to pieces alive;" his head is cut off and borne upon a pike; his body is cut up, and sent piece by piece to each parish; several wash their hands in his blood, and besmear their faces with it. It seems as if tumult, clamor, incendiarism, robbery, and murder had aroused in them not only the cruel instincts of the savage, but the carnivorous appetites of the brute; some of them, seized by the gendarmerie at Chasselay, had roasted the dead man's arm and dined ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 2 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 1 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine
... war uprear'd, And honour call'd her Henry from her charms. He fought, but ah! torn, mangled, blood-besmear'd, Fell, nobly fell, amid his ...
— Poems (1828) • Thomas Gent
... rub ashes on their foreheads. These ashes are generally prepared by burning what in the Tamul language is called [Tamul:] chaarne. They also apply these ashes in streaks, generally three together, on their breasts, and on their arms. Some besmear ...
— Dr. Scudder's Tales for Little Readers, About the Heathen. • Dr. John Scudder
... blood he besmear'd himself, And besmear'd his steed all o'er; Then back he rides to King Diderik, ...
— Romantic Ballads - translated from the Danish; and Miscellaneous Pieces • George Borrow
... room was void, And Betty otherwise employ'd, Stole in, and took a strict survey Of all the litter as it lay: Whereof, to make the matter clear, An inventory follows here. And, first, a dirty smock appear'd, Beneath the arm-pits well besmear'd; Strephon, the rogue, display'd it wide, And turn'd it round on ev'ry side: On such a point, few words are best, And Strephon bids us guess the rest; But swears, how damnably the men lie In calling Celia sweet and cleanly. Now listen, ...
— The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume I (of 2) • Jonathan Swift
... thou see'st thy dying brother Stabb'd at his heart, and all besmear'd with blood, Storming at Heav'n and thee! Thy awful sire Sternly demands the cause, the accursed cause, That robs him of his son: poor Marcia trembles, Then tears her hair, and, frantic in her griefs, Calls out on Lucia. What could Lucia answer, ...
— Cato - A Tragedy, in Five Acts • Joseph Addison
... One struck, the other did both strike and wound, His arms were surer, and his strength was more; From Tisipheme the blood streamed down around; His shield was deft, his helm was rent and tore. The dame, that saw his blood besmear the ground, His armor broke, limbs weak, wounds deep and sore, And all her guard dead, fled, and overthrown, Thought, now her field lay waste, her ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso
... with our inferiors, nobleness. There is no arrogance so great as the proclaiming of other men's errors and faults, by those who understand nothing but the dregs of actions, and who make it their business to besmear deserving fames. Public reproof is like striking a deer in the herd: it not only wounds him, to the loss of blood, but betrays him to the ...
— Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry • Albert Pike |
