A STAGGERER FOR GENERAL GORDON.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 462, 12 April 1890, Page 2

A STAGGERER FOR GENERAL GORDON.

Among some curious notions which General Gordon possessed, it appears he firmly believed he had discovered the site of the Garden of Eden. His idea, was that it was situated on one of the islands, of the Seychelles, and that the coco d& mer of that region was the true Forbidden Tree. He carried, we are told,, a box full of chips of the wood, amL offered them to persons who had won his particular regard, as the most precious gifts he could bestow. Histbeory, however, received a rude shaking from a practical person named Eitridge,. who was in Seychelles in the colonial service when Gordon «amo there foom> Mauritius. Gordon told him bethought Praslin must have been the Garden of Eden, Mr EBtridge suggested that supposing that to be true, the coco oe mer could not be the apple, because, seeing that the husk is some four inches thick before one arrives at the shell of the nut* Eve could not have bitten it. General Gordon was staggered at this objection.. “ I never thought of that ” he said. “ Even in the present day a woman could! scarcely perform such a feat. If there* is any truth in the physiological teaching: that an is developed by exercise,, the female ja,w can hardly have degenerated since the days of Mother Eve/’