GIFT TO THE NATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18509, 21 March 1922, Page 6

GIFT TO THE NATION

. A ROMANTIC BING. A NOVELIST'S INSPIRATION. (From Ocr Own Correspondents.) LONDON, January 26. The British Museum has lately liecome possessed of a thick gold ring with ethnographic interest and a romantic history. It is of untold age. and it inspired Sir H, Rider Haggard when he wrote “Kiu~ Solomon’s Mines.’ “ When I was a boy of nine I was witn Mr Graham, a private tutor, near Oxford.’ eaid Sir Rider. “Mr Graham wore this ring, which was a remarkable one, and raised my curiosity. It was ten times larger than a wedding ring, and was covered with a curious decoration, which might be floral, or a design of suns and stars. Mr Graham told me that the ring was given him by an old college friend, and it greatly excited my curiosity. That was 55 years ago. The family can only remember that the name of this friend was Tom, who was a traveller in Central America. The ring was called the Inca a ring. MUMMIES. “ One day Tom came, either in Peru or Ecuador, to a mound-sepulchre. He opened the mound, and found a chamber. In the chamber was a large stone table, and at the head of which sat a mummified man, who was a chief or a king. Along the sidea of the table were 12 other mummies, men and women, who, it seems, had been sacrificed to die with, the King. The ring was on the chief’s finger. Tom removed the ring, and the mummies crumbled to dust. The ring became known as the Inca ring. This story remained fixed in my boyish imagination, and the scene in the chamber I used iu the great scene in my book 'King Solomon’s Mines.’ “A little while ago I wrote another story called ‘The Virgin of the Sun,' about to be published, and this ring figures largely 'n it. I had not seen it, however, for 65 years. When I had finished the story I met a relative of my tutor (who is now dead), and J. inquired after the ring. Eventually it was found, and given to me, and I found that after this long lapse of years I had described it accurately m my last story. I wore it tor a week or two, but I thought that ;n new of its own interest— it is a great ( curiosity m itself —the nation should have it.