Adventure! Quotes

“Tell the people of America and England that the elephants are eating up all our crops and our people are starving. The safaris come here and ask me to feed them. How can I feed them when the elephants eat everything? Come and kill the elephants, or we shall starve.”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“In Uganda, as in other parts of Africa, the natives pay taxes. But any man with five children, all by the same wife, is exempt until his oldest child is ten. After that he must pay unless the same wife has another baby. In”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“Don’t feel offended if, when you are introduced to a Masai gentleman, he spits on his palms before shaking hands with you. It is his way of showing how glad he is to meet you. If sanitation means anything to you, don’t invite a Masai to see your new baby. He’ll spit on it, too. Once”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“OF all the East African natives, the Masai are the most aristocratic and the most feared. They had their origin in the region of the Nile River and before the white man came, were the dominant tribe.”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“There are many wild stories about the length of snakes but it seems very doubtful whether any have been found much over 30 feet. Snakes, like fish, vary in size with each story. One”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“Snakes kill about 20,000 persons in India every year. These fatalities may be compared to the number of deaths sustained in traffic accidents in the United States.”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“In my opinion the most intelligent is the orangutan; the one that most resembles man is the chimpanzee; the largest is the gorilla and the most affectionate the gibbon. The gibbon is the only one of the four great apes that naturally and habitually walks erect. Of course I do not include the one in “Tarzan.” That’s a special breed which lives only in the imagination. Orangutans and gibbons live in Malaysia; gorillas and chimpanzees live in Africa. It”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“While African elephants are hunted for their ivory tusks, those in Ceylon have been the principal source of supply for circuses since the days of the Romans.”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“If you want to know the height of an elephant, it is not necessary to measure the animal. Take the circumference of his front footprint and multiply it by two. This will give you the height at the shoulder. Though”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“If he curls his trunk up into a ball, holds it in front of his head and charges silently, you are in Asia. If he screams and rushes at you with his trunk straight out—then you are in Africa. You can make absolutely certain by looking at his back. Asiatic elephants are hump-backed; African elephants are sway-backed—like the lions. In”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“To tell where an elephant comes from, look at his toe-nails first. If he has five nails in front and four behind, he comes from Asia. If he has four in front and three behind he comes from Africa. Or, if you don’t like counting toe-nails, look at his trunk. If he has one tip on the end of it, he comes from Asia. If he has two tips, he is from Africa. If, however, you cannot see the end of his trunk just look at the trunk itself. If it is just an ordinary smooth-looking trunk, he is an Asiatic, whereas, if his trunk appears to be made in several segments, he is African. Another way of identifying an elephant is by his ears. The ears of an Asiatic elephant are about two feet long and rather ragged. The African’s ears are about the size of a piano.”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“The rhinoceros incidentally has no horn. The protuberance on his upper lip may look like a horn and feel like one but in reality it is a waxed mustache. It is not attached to the skull. That”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“Although lions are poor runners they are good ventriloquists. They are the only creatures I know of that make any real use of that trick. If their prey is near by they can roar as if they were a mile away. In this way they deceive the animal they are stalking until they are within comfortable striking distance.”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“snake has only a small part of its brain in its head, the remainder is distributed throughout the length of the spine. That is why a boa constrictor will continue to crush after its head is cut off. Aside”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“The easiest way to make an animal wild is to shoot at it. If you kill a lion, he won’t hurt you. But if you hurt him he will do his best to kill you. While”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“You don’t get any fruit upon a papaya tree unless you have both male and female trees, and for some unaccountable reason you often have a lot of male trees and no females. But that need never worry you, because as soon as the trees find out that they have no sweethearts one of the males turns into a female and everything is all right! Yes, the papaya tree can change its sex at will. Soon”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“Here and there, carrying a long spear and a large leather shield, is a Fuzzy-Wuzzy from the Sudan, famous for giving England so much trouble in the days of Lord Kitchener, who finally subdued them. Their proper name is Hadendoa, and they come from the Red Sea province. They look like Gollywogs, and were given the nickname of Fuzzy-Wuzzy by Kipling, because their hair, about eight inches long, stands straight up on end not only from the top but all over. At”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“every Lapp can identify his reindeer by marks branded or cut into their ears and that the Swedish governmental authorities keep a record of all registered reindeer ears. “But”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“never to ask a Lapp how many reindeer he had. Such a question, he said, would be as tactless as to ask an American how large a bank balance he carries.”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“should you ever be caught in the toils of an octopus, the best thing to do is to turn the animal inside out. From”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“in the Middle Ages when the son of the Earl of Carnwath volunteered to rescue a fair maiden who was imprisoned in a castle surrounded by a deep moat. In order to rescue her, he had to take off his armor, swim naked to the castle, grab the girl and swim back again. This romantic feat explains the presence of the naked men on the coat of arms of the Earls of Carnwath. Close”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“in the Middle Ages when the son of the Earl of Carnwath volunteered to rescue a fair maiden who was imprisoned in a castle surrounded by a deep moat. In order to rescue her, he had to take off his armor, swim naked to the castle, grab the girl and swim back again. This romantic feat explains the presence of”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“I had spent fifteen years acquiring an engineering education. I had university degrees, diplomas, certificates, prizes and a real love for my profession. I had put in nine years in actual practice and had written a book on surveying and astronomy. Now, despite all of my education and experience, the best I could do was a laborer’s job in a shipyard. I decided to talk for a living. Within”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!

“It’s an extraordinary fact that the world is full of people who become quite annoyed when they hear something they have never heard before.”
― Carveth Wells, Adventure!