PALESTINE TRAVEL

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 196, 16 May 1936, Page 25

PALESTINE TRAVEL

A Record of Exploration Reprinted “The Wilderness of Zin,” by C. Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence. (London: Cape). In this well bound volume is reprinted an account of a journey made by the authors early in 1914. It first appeared as the annual of the Palestine Exploration Fund for 1914-1915, but in view of the subsequent careers of the authors, and the literary merit of the work, it is now made available to a wider public. The authors spent six weeks traversing and studying that country south of Beersheba and the Dead Sea, which was the wilderness in which the Israelites wandered. It is little-known country and the findings of Sir Leonard Woolley and Lawrence are of interest equally to students of Biblical history and to archaealogists. Many ruins and stone monuments were examined, and their chronology in the opinion of the authors is given. Care has been taken not to repeat what other authorities have written, except where the authors differ from earlier writers in their findings. They give convincing evidence in support of their own theories. Maps and plans of ruins are carefully presented, but the outstanding feature of the volume is its section of photographic plates of the country and its evidences of past ■ civilisations. This book is a significant contribution to the history and archaelogy of the region, and no student can afford to ignore it. A chapter on Greek inscriptions is contributed by M. N. Todd, and Sir Frederic Kenyon, has written the preface. STORY OF ESKIMO LIFE “Ivalu,” by Peter Frenchen (London: ' Lovat Dickson). The story of Ivalu,, the Eskimo wife, translated from the Danish by Janos Jusztis and Edward Price Ehricb, is the work of the author of the powerful book, Eskimo, which also had a notable success when filmed. Peter Frenchen lived for more than ten years among the Eskimos of Northern Greenland, married an Eskimo wife, and became one of her people as to manner of living. His story is thus lifted out of the “quaint customs of a quaint people” class, and becomes something written from the inside. His own wife was the model for Ivalu, the attractive Eskimo girl, who remembering childhood experiences on Peary’s ship, had set her heart on a white husband. She finally attained her ambition, but not until after she had caused considerable trouble among the young men of her own people and become the widow of an Eskimo. In reading Ivalu one becomes absorbed into the atmosphere of the Eskimo community. The limitations imposed by circumstance and climate come to be accepted and one moves naturally within them. The food which plays so big a part in Eskimo life, would, no doubt, also be accepted in time, but few inexperienced white men will escape nausea the first time some of the dainties are offered to them in print. The intense cold and the need for different fare probably help when it comes to the reality. The story follows the daily life of an Eskimo community, tells of the hunting trips of the men and the daily domestic life of the women, records love and hate, hardship and festival, tragedy, death and the superstition which invests the whole of Nature. A certain heavy intensity seems io brood over the life of these people permeating their ceremonial speeches, their equivocation-and understatement when giving or receiving gifts and the formal manners required on occasion. “Ivaln” makes fascinating reading and conveys an exceptionally vivid picture of an imperfectly understood people. ENGLISH RADICALISM “English Radicalism, 1832-1852,” by S. Maccoby, Ph.D. (Loudon: Allen and Unwin). Radicalism is not a word which arouses much emotion these days. To describe a man as a Radical is to paint him very pale compared with other tilings that might be said of him. The skirmish now is over Socialism (or, using the classical word. Communism), and that word lives in the emotionladen atmosphere which once surrounded Radicalism. And yet. those who can spare the time to look Beyond the dust of the present conflict back to this Radicalism will be well rewarded. To the Socialist, of course, it represents just an inevitable phase in the death throes of Capitalism. It is. not unlikely, however, that when the hue and cry of the present has died much more will be seen in it than that. In this book Dr. Maccoby presents a scholarly study of English Radicalism of the period. It covers just 20 years, and yet what an eventful twenty years in the nation’s political history! The book arises from the superficial treatment which the period lias . hitherto received at the hand of the historian: itself it is the very opposite of superficial. The author has certainly, as he claims, gone deeper into the question than the public opiinon of convention and of “The Times” and the “respectable Press.” All the topics from the Reform Bill, corn law, poor Jaw and Chartism, to suffrage, education and religion are surveyed. The wider questions of the Radical attitude to the Empire and Radical foreign affairs are discussed in part 2. This book will be of particular value to the student of politics. BOOKS IN DEMAND The Chief Librarian of I lie Wellington Public Libraries has furnished the following list of books in demand: GENERAL. “Struggle, 1914-1920,” by Sir J. E. Wrench. “Real Life Stories,” by “Cheiro.” “G Vagabond Journey Around the World,” by H. A. Franck. FICTION. “Vein of Iron,” by E. Glasgow. “Regency,” by D. L. Murray. "The Owl of Athene,” by E. Plnllpotte.