GIFT TO THE NATION.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17401, 11 March 1922, Page 7

GIFT TO THE NATION.

A KOMAITTIO EINO.; (yaow ova . owK coaaxsroNi;*isT.) LONDON, Januilry 26. The British Museum has lately become posted of a thick gold ring with ethnographic interest and a romantic history. It is of un'kiid age, and it inspired Sir H. Bider !Haggar(l when he • wrote "King (Solomon's Mines." jj. "When I was a boy of nine I was with MjvOraham, a private tutor, near Oxford,''said Sir Rider. "Mr Graham wore this . ring. which- was a ;,'omarkable one, and j raised my curiosity. It was ten timet} larger than a weeding ring, and was covered with a curious decoration, whjfch might* bo floral,, br a design of, suns Hand stars; Mr Graham told ; me thati the ring was given to him by an old college friend, and it greatly excited my curosity. That vfas fifty-live years agi). The tamily can .only ber that! the name of this i'nend was Tom, who was a, traveller in America] The ring, was called the Inca's ring. / . "One day Tom came, either in Peru or Ecuador, to a mound-sepulchre. He opened .the mound, and found a chamber. Ik tho chamber was; a large stone table, at the head of which sat a mumi mified man, who wsis a chief or a king. Along the sides of the table were twelve other mummies, men and women, who, it seeris, had been sacrificed to the with the King. The ring was on the chief'sm finger. Tom removed the ring, and the mummies crumbled to dust. Jho ring became known as the Inca ring This story remai'ied fixed in my boyish imagination, and the scene in the chamber I used in jthe great seen© in my; book, .'King Solomon's Mines. "A 'little while ago 1! wrote another story - called 'The Virgin of the Sun, about | to bo published.; and this ring figures largely in it. I had not seen it, however, for 55 years; When I had finished the story I met a relative of niy tutor (who is now.dead), and I enquired after the ring! Eventually it was found and given j to me, and I found that after this; long lapse of years I had described |it accurately m my last storv. I wore it for a week or two, Ibut I thought thiit in view of its own interest—it is a great curiosity in itselff—the nation should hafye it.