WHITE LADY AND CAVE MAN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3142, 6 November 1922, Page 7

WHITE LADY AND CAVE MAN.

Lady Dorothy .Mills, seeking material for a new novel, lias paid' a visit to Hie Troglodytes. Her impressions of the "cave meii"' have been contributed to I lie New York American." and discount the stories of hirsute creatures which are the creations of the ordinary novelist, tier ladyship says:— "These cave men are not the hirsute* creatures of the liction magazine —1 doubt i'.' any such still exist in the world! They are what is left of the Berbers, who, from the dim recesses of time long before the Arabs and tho negro races from the South swept over North Africa, have lived among the mountain l tops for protection in a constant warfare- against the predatory tribes across the Tripolitan frontier. Except for lack of light and ventilation tho cave houses were not too uncomfortable, generally consisting of one long narrow room hollowed out of the rock with a raised ledge or alcove covered with rugs of camels' hair where the family slept. Meals were gargantean affair's —five different dishes of muttom, some beans, goats' milk, and Ureyishiirown bread of which one had in common politeness to cat lill one felt still'. At night they used politely to bar me in. and, rolled cocoon wise ill the rugs, I slept on the stone ledge, which was more than a little cold ad hard, while the fleas ran races over me." Though treated with hospitality, she was the object of curiosity, especially by the wom'ein. "Jt took infinite firmness and tact to prevent the latter undressing me half a dozen limes a day, t-o anxious were they to know exactly what 1 wore, why my skin was white, and why my hair curled: and one of them ' counted my foes twice over to make sure that I had tin- usual number. They wanted to know every possible sort of intimate detail about my private life, and in particular how many wives my husband had at home-, and'whether f was the favorite wife." Lady Dorothy .Mills found that the cave maii makes love much as any other man does, but his courtship is formal and rather expensive, and is done through his parents, the presents varying according to the eligibility ol the lady. "I fear." she says, "that the people who mav succeed in realising their dream of a return to prinntivism will find many of the disadvantages ol civilisation without any of its comforts or conveniences. And modern woman in particular resents the very back role she would have to play in Hie scheme of life. There is no room for feminism in a cave."