Introduction [to the book "Thuthula: Heart of the Labyrinth" by Chris Zithulele Mann]
- Authors: Wright, Laurence
- Date: 2005
- Language: English
- Type: Book chapter
- Identifier: vital:7057 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007419
- Description: There are certain stories, the world over, that stir our hearts and minds to imaginings richer and deeper than the bald facts of history can easily satisfy. Such is the legend of Thuthula, the young Xhosa girl whose beauty and grace won the heart of Ngqika, chief of the Rharhabe Xhosa; the woman who was later married to his uncle Ndlambe, and then taken by Ngqika to become his wife. The events took place in or around the years 1806 and 1807 in what is now the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Prior to the central episode treated in the play, legend has it that Thuthula was out collecting firewood one day with her friends when she knelt at a spring to drink. Startled by the sudden appearance of a hunting dog crossing the stream below the spring, she looked up and saw a handsome young hunter chasing behind the dog. She was struck by his charm and good looks. Teasingly, as any young girl might do, she called her friends round her and challenged the young man to choose his favourite from among them. Amid much flirting and laughter, the object of all this girlish attention was pushed into making a choice. Inevitably, given her beauty, his playful decision fell on Thuthula. This was the first meeting of Thuthula, daughter of Mthunzana, with Ngqika, son of Chief Mlawu.
- Full Text:
Recognition and development of the Irish Draught horse
- Authors: Lewis, Colin A
- Date: 2005
- Language: English
- Type: Book chapter
- Identifier: vital:6728 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007163
- Description: The number of horses in Ireland had shown remarkable consistency from 1861 until just before 1951. Between the end of the Second World War and 1951 there was a rapid decrease in the number of working horses, and the rate of the decrease accelerated during the decade of the 1950s and the early 1960s. Throughout the 1960s popular emphasis was placed on mechanisation, as if there were no role for the horse as a working animal. Even the production of pleasure horses seems to have been initially regarded as of little value. The 1970s were a sad period for both light and heavy draught horses in County Cork, as in the rest of Ireland. With increased mechanisation, the market for heavy draught animals which had previously dominated transport in the city of Cork, came to an end. There was a great danger that the Irish Draught would soon become extinct, so the formation of the Irish Draught Horse Society in 1976 was of great importance for the development of the Irish Draught as a breed. In 1982 this society published the "Breed Standard and Guideline", the first time that an official standard had been published for an Irish Draught. Despite various schemes during the 1980s and 1990s designed to increase the number and improve the quality of the Irish Draught horse population, it is, at the beginning of the 21st Century, one of the world's endangered breeds.
- Full Text: false
The glaciations of Wales and adjacent areas, Introduction and Chapter 8: The upper Wye and USK regions
- Authors: Lewis, Colin A , Thomas, G S P
- Date: 2005
- Language: English
- Type: Book chapter
- Identifier: vital:6727 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007160
- Description: [From the preface]: The landscapes of Wales and adjacent areas have been profoundly influenced by glaciation. Much attention has been paid to the origins of the Welsh landscape, and, especially, to its morphology. This book, like its predecessor, "The glaciations of Wales and adjoining regions", published in 1970, aims to encourage and guide further research into the glacial history of Wales and its borderlands. [From Chapter 8]: Mid-Wales was probably glaciated on at least two occasions during the Pleistocene. The glacial sediments and landforms discussed in this chapter appear to be of Late Devensian age. The scale of glaciation during the Late Devensian varied from ice-sheet to cirque glacier in size. During glaciation the mid-Wales ice-sheet shrank to become two major valley glaciers, those of the Wye and the Usk. The age of deglaciation, especially in the Wye drainage basin, is a matter for debate and much absolute dating is still needed.
- Full Text: