THE BOOKMAN'S HARVEST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19215, 2 January 1926, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE BOOKMAN'S HARVEST.

gLe.anings in the field. Most agreeably in tnno with tho "festive season" is tho rollicking verso quoted recently by Mr. Humbert Wolfe in the Spectator. Let U3 hopo that no seaside picnicker on New Zealand beaches may have to record a similar tragic experience.

It's an old Bass bottle cornea floating from tho sea. It's an old Bass bottle comes floating unto mo. And inside is a message with these words written on: "Who ever finds this bottle find 3 the beor a.ll gone." Green grass, shady palms, and a sparkling spring—for how many is this vision -conjured up by tho magic word, "Oasis." Yet actual fact reveals the usual depressing difference hetween imagination and reality. In "Tho Lost Oases," au account of an adventurous desert, journey, by A. M. Hassan eiu Bey (Thornton Butter worth), the author, a high-born Egyptian Mussulman educated at Oxford, tells of his discovery (or re-discovery) of tho two oases, Arkenn and Oaenat, which had become merely part of a vague tradition.

Well, Ark en u certainly did possess a tree (not a palm), but it was not an idea) camping sito as "it was a bad spot for camel ticks lived in tho shade of the treo and camo running by the score, when oar camels approached." And alas for the sparkling spring! "The water, whilo its lasto is not particularly unpleasant, i.', bard on one's digestivo apparatus. We had three bad cases of dysentry among tho men, "

Hassancin Boy, -who has bceti awarded the Founder's Medal of tlio Royal Goographical Society for his brilliant achievement, had to contend with much suspicion tvnd oven veiled hostility from the Beaouins sinco they found it difficult to believe that tho expedition was organised in the c.iuso of puro science. AbdulLihi, the) author's Kgptian servant, was most useful "in tho manufacture of those little inaccuracies that smooth tho path of lifo and preserve Ibe scciai amenities." Once when they woio using tho theodolite a native asked what they wero doing. * * * * •

Abdullahi said they were tr.king a picturo of Jalo. "How can that be, at such a distanco?" demanded the Bedou.n Abdullahi had his explanation ready. "The machine attracts ths picture, so that it comes out and flies into it," he asserted glibly. "But how can a box attract a picture ?" demanded the incredulous Bedouin. Abdullahi struck an attitude. "Ask the xnagnot how it attracts ' the iron," he commanded rhetorically, and the debato was closed.

Those who havo chuckled over Barry ! Pain's "If Summer Don't," tho sort of parody which is such excellent critic- ' ism, will look forward to his latest effort i in this line, "This Charming Green HatFair," nor will they have much difficulty in identifying tho author pilloried. The first paragraph ri;rr-: This '.s a romance for a few people. Nevjr before V,-?. admission to the '.iincr cv clo bcan 'io inexpensive. "vho /)avs /.ever been in a minor; t"' befcAJ c,\ti aflord it now. Exclufo>- all is our motto. Straight into the heaib of the fashionable wicked world at, the cost of a fraction of a library subscription.

Great interest was recently aroused by 1 the announcement from Berlin that Dr. i Grimrno claims to have discovered, in an inscription from Sinai, a reference to Moses and tho Biblical story of his rescue from tho Nile by an Egyptian princess. Howevor, Sir Flinders Petrie is more than dubious about tho " discovery," and eon- , aiders that tho mark), so sensationally interpreted are due merely to the weathering and flaking of tho stone! Thus some find sermons on stones and news in everything.

The Romanes Lecturer at Oxford next year is to be Mr. G. M. Trevelvan, the grand-nephew of Macaulay. The Romanes , lcct ires were founded in 1890 by the bio- ' kigist, Dr. .T. G. Romanes, a friend of 1 Darwin. The lecturer can be of any nationality »nd devote his lecture to any tubjj'Ct under the sun except religion and politics. When Gladstone was asked to inaugurate the lectures in 1892 ho was in his 83rd year, «nd in the inidst of his fight for Home For these reasons he wished to decline the honour, but the was insistent and ho yielded, l&evoting the lecture to a eulogy of Oxford.