Monday, April 11, 2011

Hisses as Magic Words

“As they landed, Rolf waited a clear view, then gave a short sharp ‘Hist!’ It was like a word of magic, for it turned the three moving deer to three stony-still statues.” —Ernest Thompson Seton, Rolf In The Woods (1911)

“The ‘hissings and murmurings’ . . . of magicians.” —Edward Peters, The Magician, the Witch and the Law (1978)"

"Jack Starhouse could make [cats] dance wild dances, leaping about upon their hind legs and casting themselves from side to side. This he did by strange sighs and whistlings and hissings.” —Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (2004)

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