IN ABYSSINIA

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1935, Page 24

IN ABYSSINIA

QUEEN OF SHEBA'S MINES

Abyssinia has been much in the news lately, and is likely to be so more in the future, hence any books dealing with this little-known African country are likely to attract attention. When a hunt for treasure is added to the travel aspect of the theme, interest becomes doubled. The subject of "In Quest of Sheba's Mines," by Frank E. Hayter, is an attempt to locate in Abyssinia the mines from which the Queen of Sheba drew her treasure. The author did find treasure,' and we leave him seeking a mining concession from the Abyssinian Government. It being no part of his purpose to act as guide to competitors in the treasure business, he has, he tells us, "drawn a red herring across the trail and changed the sequence of events." On the other hand, he has "incorporated a vast amount of knowledge derived from other expeditions," with regard to which there has been no tampering with facts. So we get from him two things—a presumably fictitious parallel to "King Solomon's Mines" and a record of experiences in one of the leastknown areas of the world. Of the first all we will say is that the dramatic situations are not only effective but indigenous, and that the treasure is furnished with a natural guardian as formidable ,as Gagool herself. The second embodies the impressions of a professional big-game hunter with an eye for scenery and the qualities that go with the capacity to maintain good relations with natives.

Mr. Hay ter differs from several writers on Abyssinia in commenting favourably on the people and their feudal chiefs. But he allows himself a villain in a chief who was—perhaps excusably—unscrupulous in discouraging white men from searching in his territory for gold and precious stones. From his methods we learn how the Abyssinians avail themselves of local peculiarities to baffle intruders. The most drastic is to lure the enemy up wind into high dry grass and then fire it. We have our explorers noting that two Shankallas have 'arrived at the chief's village with gold from an unknown source. They trail them back sleuthfully for five days through jungle and across rivers, flattering themselves that they are unsuspected. At a narrow passage covered with broken branches of thorn their watchful guide called a halt and pointed out that several of the thorns were tipped with a dark red substance —a deadly poison. Later from a height they saw the ingenuous quarry crossing a huge swamp in broad , daylight. They followed, after an appropriate interval, to find a causeway, and made good speed along it until it in its turn became a maze of countless tracks with no clue to the only one which led to solid ground. " s