Couthie and slee

. . . I put my knee against his, and smiled ‘couthie and slee’, to fetch him, for he always had a fancy to me, you know, and men are so vain and silly, even an old dame like me can gowk them . . .


Flashman and the Tiger, p.259, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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Best eastern colleges

...as he spoke in that lordly half-English accent that they learn in the best Eastern colleges.

Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.186, Harper Collins, 1995.


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A few words on exclamations

      The Brulé riders were thundering by before me, shrieking their “Kye-kye-kye-yik!” and “Hoo’hay!”, and if ever you hear that from a Sioux, get the hell out of his way, because he isn’t asking you the time. The only worse noise he makes is “Hoon!” which is the equivalent of the Zulu “s’jee!” and signifies that he’s sticking steel into someone.

Flashman and the Redskins, pp.313-14, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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My strongest suit

Still, it’s odd that I never got my tongue around it, for apart from fleeing and fornication, slinging the bat* is my strongest suit; well, I speak nine languages better than natives, and can rub along in another dozen or so.


*Speaking the local language (Brit. Army slang)

Flashman and the Redskins, p.17, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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A running tongue

I never did learn to speak Apache properly. Mind you, it ain’t easy, mainly because the red brutes seldom stand still long enough – and if you’ve any sense, you don’t either…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.17, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Academic admiration

Like most poltroons, I have a sneaking inward regard for truly fearless, strong men, fools though they may be, and I can have an academic admiration for real skill, so long as I don’t suffer by it.

Royal Flash, p.41, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.

Ride

I am one of those who rode as soon as he walked - indeed, horsemanship and my trick of picking up foreign tongues have been the only things in which you could say I was born gifted, and very useful they have been.



Flashman, p. 16, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

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Flashman.