LAND OF THE INCAS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XIX, Issue 2053, 9 December 1924, Page 6

LAND OF THE INCAS.

ADVENTURES IN PERU. Mr O. H. Prodgers, explorer, goldminer, and horse trainer, who was such a notable and popular personality in South America, has unfortunately not lived to see the publication of his new book, “Adventures in Perja.” Tt is full of quaint incidents and curious characters woven in with tales of the vanished Incas and of Indian life and his racing experiences, all of which Mr Prodgers tells about with a sort of boyish relish, and in his own baking way. He “had a way with him that fascinated the native tribes,” Mr C. J. Maberley in a prefatory memoir; “they reverenced him as a king among men.” Juan ernandez, the little island ot “Robinson Crusoe,” 365 miles west of Valparaiso, he describes as “so replete in natural attractiveness as to be considered one of the most enchanting spots on God’s earth.” One of Mr Prodger’s old “specs” was bringing over cargoes of tree ferns from the island to the mainland. They grow 30 feet and oyer in height.

The paths leading up to the hills are bordered with flowers, including many wonuderful ground orchids. Of the strawberries, Mr Prodgers says: ‘1 have never seen any English berries to equal them in appearance and flavour. There are .two sorts, white and red. They grow quite wild.” People who say the sea serpent is “all bunkum” are, Mr Prodgers observes calmly, “welcome to their opinion. I got my first glimpse of tho Great Sea Serpent in 1901, when voyaging off the island of Fernando do Norolia. Four years later, at practically the same spat, it was my good fortune to be favoured with another sight of this wonderful creature. It appeared about fifty yards ahead of the steamer, on the port side. It had. a head as big as a cow’s head, and its body looked as 1 large round as a Hour barrel.”

In his fossicking in Inca ruins, a job in which he delighted, he says: “I lighted on many interesting things manufactured of silver and gold. 5 ’ These included a miniature lady’s slipper, artistically fashioned of silver filagree, and a “marvellously fine model of a soldier in solid gold. Among Lhe many interesting things 1 collected were several stone axes, and one made of tempered copper. 1 am one of the very few men who know the Inca secret method of tempering copper. The tools they and the Aztecs manufactured from this metal were as keen as any made of the very best steel.”

.“'The Indians'use a hair wash made of quassia bark and hard, brash wood growing on the lower slopes ol the Andes. Once, when journeying home to England, I called ait Elvaston Castle and found Lord Harrington’s nice retriever was suffering from scabby itch. I tried' the hair wash on the dog with such good results that it soon afterwards won first prize at a big show.” He describes tcoi varieties of a peculiar food of the Indians called “ciiuno,” which is made of potatoes frozen and treated in such a way that they will keep for “almost any length of time.” Only a rough rule or two are necessary, this authority states, to : enable one to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy eouriiiry almost at a glance: “Where coffee, sugar and tobacco grow is always salubrious. Fever lurks where the ground produces cocob. and rubber.” Regarding the ancient Aztecs and their apparent disappearance after tho Spanish conquest, he tells us: “I know men whol claim to have had dealings with that mysterious race qjuite recently. As a matter of fact, I was invited to go and classify tlieir cattle, and supply new blood for their stock. In face of that who will say the Children of the Sun are extinct?” Some day the riddle may be solved. Until then one is entitled to keep an open mind. For my part, I have hopes of finding the answer in Ecuador.”