BOOKS OF THE DAY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20086, 4 November 1939, Page 10

BOOKS OF THE DAY

Entertaining Anecdotes Of life In Arabia

MUCH has been written about the romance of the desert. Hollywood has done its best to cast a glamour over sheiks, veiled women, and haughty camels. Travellers (of whom more anon!) have paid hurried or extended visits to chosen portions of territory which might conceivably yield a profitable return in hot, cold, or indifferent print. But Major C. S. Jarvis, C.M.G., 0.8. E., after serving on the Egyptian and Palestine fronts in the Great War, joined the Frontier Administraion of the Egyptian Government, and or the next 18 years served that country as an Arab administrator, further, he held the post as Governor of Sinai for 13 years,' and long .’.as been regarded as an authority on .: .1 matters concerning the Bedouin Arab and his queer tribal customs. '!e has written serious works on : :e subject. He has also written, as n this occasion, in lighter vein. :lding substantially to the. gaiety of ations

With a shrewd pen, Major Jarvis itlines the Arab in his relations . ith his own kind and in his concts with the English* Oriental dup•ity and a complete lack of any oral sense seem to be his outs la ndg characteristics. The former attriite supplies the author with a num■r of highly entertaining anecdotes: e latter, illustrated by copious inci•nts, makes the reader realise that e Governor of a province such, as inai holds no sinecure! Laziness and uncleanliness arc aod seconds to these two outstanday features of the Arab make-up, mrl an account on the complete iniifferen.ee with which they contaminate their precious water supplies gives the book its opening chapter. Exit Romance! “In one of those all-too-common books on the East written as the result of a six weeks' conducted tour.’’ writes the major, “I read the following account of a well in the desert: ‘A pellucid stream of sparkling water flowing over bright gravel 'neatli a fringe of palms. Here the Arab fills his water-pots and waters his animals. for no race more thoroughly, appreciates good water and carefully conserves its supply than the nomad cf the East.' And I wondered why. with my 20 years’ experience of. the desert, it had never been my fortune to find a pellucid stream of clear water appreciated and conserved by the Bedouin. If rny candid opinion were asked I should say without the slightest hesitation that, although the Arab appreciates good water, he is very careful to give no indication of the fact, and, should he happen on a clean supply, he will almost invariably foul it so that it is very far from clean for the next arrival ” And there! goes one's long-chc-rished picture of the oasis in the desert, or the picturesque Eastern well! Lying as a fine Art It is an understood thing in the Arab world that if asked a direct question it is extremely unwise to

answer immediately with the truth until the results of such an unusual and uncalled-for departure from old-established custom have beer, fully investigated and considered from every side. The first thing to do when asked a question is to affect either deafness or lack of understanding and to say “Eh?” in an irritating manner several times. Then, when one has been pinned down to a reply, to tell the first lie that comes into one’s head, which will either satisfy the questioner, or not, as the case may be. In the first contingency nothing further need be done about it, and in the second one can go on telling further lies until one is found acceptable; or, as a last resort, one may have to admit the truth; This, apparently, is the system adopted in everything, but especially in all dealings with officials, for who knows when the Government is laying a trap for the unwary? Again and again official acumen is defeated by this basic principle—often, according to Major Jarvis, with amusing results.

Then there’s the little matter of the war.

On the whole, Egypt had a very good war. Her cities and much of the Nile Valley were filled with foreign soldiery, which might have been distasteful to the ardent Nationalists of the country, but they were British soldiers with a fair amount of cash in their pockets which they spent freely; and, if they *had not been there, tire country would have been overrun with Turks and Germans, who would have had far less money to spend, and who quite possibly would not have behaved so well. Arab camel contractors made fortunes overnight, and many of their despised brethren in the towns lied and cheated they way to comparative wealth. The “travel-mongers,” get a blistering chapter all to themselves. A travel-monger is a male or female, clad in short's, shirt, revolver, and topee, who travels not for pleasure, but for profit, and. the “female of the species is more deadly than the male,” because, besides being very much in the trade, she almost invariably suffers from what is known as the “first white woman” complex, and this is a most trying mental malady. What Major Jarvis has to say about this obnoxious spet-ics is said it no uncertain terms! But the book must be read, the illustrations studied at first hand. ,*n ■order to appreciate its flavour to the full. It should prove a God-send to those tvho will shortly he hunting the city for “a present for a man!” “The Back-Garden oi Allah," by Major C. S. Jarvis. C.M.G.. 0.8. E.

Bequests of a Fortune

“THE Man He Was,” by Susan * Gillespie, is a strong virile novel. It opens witli the death of a famous author and playwright who leaves his fortune to another woman and nothing to his wife and daughters. New legislation dealing with this issue will soon be law, but Susan Gillespie leaves this particular point alone, for the woman who gets the money refuses the bequest, and writes about “the man as he was” when the will was made. “Does she justify him or the woman?” is an inevitable question