LIFE IN ETHIOPIA AND ARABIA

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 202, 23 May 1936, Page 23

LIFE IN ETHIOPIA AND ARABIA

Information and Amusement “Measuring Ethiopia and Flight Into Arabia,” by Carleton 8. Coon (London: Cape). Mr. Carleton S. Coon has written both an informative and an amusing book. His mission to Ethiopia and Arabia was in the cause of anthropology. Opportunities were afforded him to see the life of the peoples of those countries at first hand, and his comments on the results of his observations are more interesting than most novels, and convey more real information than is to be found in many heavy treatises. Both countries —Ethiopia and Arabia —loom large to-day in the scheme of things, and thus what Mr. Coon has to say i.s most timely. He brings to the handling of the problems of the two countries a refreshing urbanity. He gives, perhaps, the best account extant of life in Addis Ababa, “never very hot, ‘never very cold, one may wear woollens in summer and one never catches a glimpse of snow. The only real change In the seasons is whether or not it is raining, and rain on a tin roof is justly famous as a prime cause of depression. . . . Although the sun is not hot, the atmosphere, through which its rays pierce, is thin, and sunstroke is not uncommon. This thin air likewise causes in most people used to lowlands a quick fatigue in walking, especially in climbing hills. . . . Expeditions bent on the study of fatigue in lofty places should try Addis Ababa instead of the less accessible Himalayas or Andes. . . . We saw on the streets every day spectacles which do not imply that the capital of Ethiopia is a health resort. There are lepers and diseased persons with swollen legs, missing digits, and leonine faces, who line the streets begging.” According to Mr, Coon, Greeks and Armenians, being “not true Europeans,” are excluded from all significant social functions in Addis Ababa. Horse riding is the chief pastime of the well-to-do.

But it is when lie deals with the various races of Abyssinia that the author is most interesting. There is, in fact, a great deal of ignorance among Europeans concerning them, and thus Mr. Coon has done a real service in making known the results of his researches and wanderings about the various villages, towns and provinces.

Of Italy in Abyssinia, he says: “In Ethiopia there is a normal, permanent tension between the native inhabitants and all whites: but toward Italy this latent animosity was already in 1933 Haring into the dangerous hatred which it has since become. . . There was no lack of incidents of Ethiopian aggression. For example, one member of the Italian Government service had already been assassinated, presumably for being a spy.” The author’s work in Arabia among men of many superstitions was not without its adventures. Many times, as he was measuring the soldiers of that country, daggers were fingered in a way far from comforting to the operators of the instruments. He was often the victim of Arab deceit and his narrative of these incidents provides not the least interesting, or amusing, parts of his book.