BOOKS OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1728, 19 April 1913, Page 9

BOOKS OF THE DAY.

; THE STORY OF A PUNITIVE . ; EXPEDITION^ '"';,£*• Powell Millington, the author of . f _On the. Track of : tho. Abor" (London, George Bell and Sons; per. Wliitcombe and lombs, 3s. 6d.),--raay be ,remembered by some of my readers as'the author bf that capital,book, .'■.Tpv'lhassa'iat Last." It is of a,-far, less important expedition that . he no iv.wntosy, for., there wore 'great Im-perial,.questions'.-.indirectly .'at stake in , the ,Lhassa . expedition, .'bill!' Mr! Millin". ton's modest in its proportions,, bbntainsya lively,; and most interesting, .narrative';, ■It,.<h>als'with- the experiences': v ot';i'anH expedition which' set out in, 1911' frohti:Dibrug'arh, in Assam, ■ on India, with the object of bringing to a more reasonable stilte of mind.the Abor tribesmen, who had fondly imagined they could harry with impunity certain other, tribesmen who are in allegiance to tho British raj.,- Below Dibrugarb lies :tho Assam tea-growing country, a country where' clubs,\and polo' grounds, motor-cars, ovon railway trains, are not unknown-/ Beyond, to the far north-east, lie th« jungle, the Upptr Brahmaputra, and the iess-khqwn of, the Brahmaputra's tributaries, and in the jungle and on .tlio banks- of these rivers, flourish the Miris, the Mishmis. the Abors, and, as the author-pftts.it,."other wild men." : The Men of the Expedition. '■Wherever there is hard fighting to bo done in the "rough places" of the Indian frontier, either'North-West or North-East, you may be pretty certain the smart little i Gurkhas will be- there, and the Abor expedition was mainly of these" hardy little soldiers, together with a com-' pany-of Indian Sappers and Miners, a company or two of Sikhs, and a machinegun detachment furnished by the Assam Valley ;Light Horse—tho only European unit—a Volunteer force. The indispensable' carriers were, furnished by various Naga tribes, each, gang working' . - under- the headman, called a Gambora, whose chief insignia of office" appears to have -been , a_ red blanket., The Naga idea of; personal decoration is chiefly con-fined-to ear-rings, and as the expedition proceeded on its way, various unconsidered : trifles were put to* ornamental service. Small metal cylinders which had cnce : held shaving soap, and rolls of cardboard /adapted' from cigarette packages, we're much 4n favour, but the dernier cri in ear ornaments was a key which had once opened.a tin of 'bully beef.'" Be-, sides This dao, or long Knife, each Naga carried a spear, iron-spiked at both ends. "On his back,' says Mr. Millington, "he carried his personal property in a commodious conical basket. On the top of that camo the sixty-povnd lead'which he - was carrying for the Maharan'i. (With the Naga,';as well as. the, Abor, Queen Victoria.still,sways the imagination.' 'Intervening Kings have not yet been realised, and tho impersonal /Sirka' of the Indian is of no account;)" . About the Abors. '~-.■-, , lir. Millington'gives'; an interesting ac-' pount of tho way tho Abors fight. When tllci (jitrkhas, or Sikhs, could get-at them it was; aiucasy.vjpl>. 'to '.drive'them: away, • bit the'Abor in'his nqtive junglo is no jneau foe.. . Not a few. »f jjifcto Nafta, car- ■ Tiers; who 'lagged behincFwere? picked off by tho enemy's poisoned; arrows. . ifost • of them :i'«covei'eil;;-bnfo'if,wo .poor•tele- i gr'aplfTe6olies;,wero~ .mortally':'wounded. '. The poison, in the'Abor's arrows-was gen- i erully croton, and the effects of it, says ' . the author, aro most painful, evert'whe|i i nbt l'ital. \ Some doubt, exists whether I aconite ■■ (got frOm ■ the plant of that name i which grows in abundance in the higher i altitudes hear Tibet) was used against' ' the expedition. . In most well-tested cases- ' the was croton, ;but in, others tho ; arrow was found-to have, been poisoned ■ by the simple method, of rubbing iits ■ point- with a piece of putrid flesh. The Abor.live .by punting and using bows and ' arrows, arid aro adepts; in snares o,f all kinds. .You may see, says.Mr. Milling- : fern, "in tho junglo a long shed three i feet high, heavily roofed with stones. A bait will be placed within it, and some : beast, either by touching the bait, or ■ merely by entering the shed, let go tho roof's support, and brings a ton of stones on his head." A bird-catching trap much in favour is a contrivance by which ,- the birds, with ever,so slight a M-ush with its feathers, ;,will released stout bamboosp'ring, and as quick as lightning draw alight noose round its own neck. It is, says-, the a'uthorj quite a lesson in engineering .to'-'follow the'various but almost instantaneous'processes'that end in the bfj-dV death, and the wholo, machine,, with its-curves and angles and straight-drawn-strings, looks like a very conipli- . catcd proposition in Euclid. .'!. of Uncertain Origin." . The.expedition had to. contend with dysentery. and- fever, which, worked far more harm than the Abors' arrows. Says I ■ Mr.•Millington: In one particular camp they encountered a particular germ which .(gave many of them a' fever never • ■ known'before to medical science. It " claimed no kinship to the germs either of malaria, typhoid, or para-typhoid. ; Tho only fact ascertained definitely '. Sibout it was that it was more viru- < '.lent.'.than the'cqiially-elusivo germs.of : ' 'the."fen'-dny.V fever" and "three-days'. . ..lever," so common in India. The vie- ~ . • .tiihs ba'd, therefore, all to bo-return-'-.e'd'officially as suffering from "pyrexia of uncertain origin." This name'was repeated in'the reports made -to the War Office at Home for •the benefit of some of tho patients' . relations. Tho parent of ono patient .was, I am told, very angry at tho insinuation which he considered tho diagnosis to convey. "It sounds," ho is reported to have told tho War Office, "as if .my boy had been up to mischief somewhere. But it is Eevev that he.has bsen having, ' and not pyrexia or anything else. And if you want to know the origin, I can tell you,' for ho has been with tho Abor expedition tho whole time. The expedition attained its object, and un record of jungle, or, I should say, of jungle, river, and mountain warfare, Mr.- Millington's book ■ contains much to interest the military reader: To tho general reader it will mainly appeal by its. breezily-written, sketches of the manners, and customs of tho tribesmen, and the speculation in which the author in'dulgos upon variou's.jeograplncnl problems; especially as to'the.possibility of a connection of the Tibetan river, the Tsangpo, with the Dihong of Abor Land, the Dihong, which, in its hurry becomes ■ the great Brnhmnpatra. /Two Books of Verse. - "Mr. Dugald Ferguson, author of "Castle Gay and Other Booms" (Dunedin, Stone Brid Co.), possesses an undoubted faculty for verse-making, and not a few of his poems, especially some of tho shorter, less ambitious pieces, breathoa homely.and wholesome philosophy which does tho author 'credit.' In his prefaco the poet avows that his "taste |ios been formed on tho .styles- of Goldsmith, Campuel , Scott, and'.Burns." The influence of the lastnamed is clearly traceable in several of Mr. Ferguson's poems, notably, in • _ A Song of Home;" Scotsmen will enjoy Mr. Ferguson's praise of "The Plaiche, somo verses written in "braid Scots, as may lip seen by its concluding verse: It's n'heai'tsome companion in Simmer and Winter % When we gang to the kirk, or awa, in the snnw; . And it's wcol worth a sang to bo sent "■' ' to the printer. -Wi it.i'laug-hiuging lushes, bailh / . -u-efu' and' biaw. "Mr. ).-'ci'gi.i.:t'ji lias evoked the Miuc on

a great variety of • subjects— there aro even somo verses., "Addressed to My Brother on, Exchanging Boots," and a poem "On tho Eventful Life of Captain Jackson Barry." "For the most part, the verses celebrate the virtues of the Scot, great events-in Scots history, or describe scenes of homely, life in Otago. Some seem specially suited for recitation purpuses. "■*.'•■■ From Messrs. George Robertson and Co., Melbourne, I have received a copy, of a school edition of an excellent anthology of Australian verse, : "An Austral Garden," edited by. M.,P. Hansen and D. M'Lauchlan. As. in most anthologies, there are omissions which many may regret, but in tliis.'case, the choice of tho editors hasJbeen dominated by the main purposes of tho work, the presentation of selections suitable for use in schools. The ■ book has been adopted as a text book by the Victorian Education Deprtment. The editors have, I notice, included the work of certain New Zealand poets, W. P. Reeves being represented by that noble; poem "The Passing of the Forest." Other. New;Zealanders, speciments of whose -verse appear here,: are Arthur. Adams. B. E. Baughaiv Hubert Church, ittary Colborue Veel, Will Lawson (six of i whoso stirring ballai'is are reprinted). Scaforth Mackenzie, Frank Morton. D. M. Eoss, Jessie Mackay, Arnold Wall, and Mrs. J. G. Wilson. When the purpose of the collection is remembered, th<s editors must be credited with haying exhibited'excellent taste and no small ■discernment'of tho specially suitable in their seleotion. Some useful notes are given in an appendix, and a happy thought is carried out in the short bio--gi'aphies of authors. The bibliographi- - cal information should be very useful to i many book-buyers.