Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-28


OF all the exploration done in recent
years none has been more interesting and
romantic than the work done under the
auspices Of Austrian scientists in Arabia,
although hardly anything has been heard
about it.
The Academy of Sciences in Vienna now
possesses a great amount of material
which is being studied and classified When
the results are published. the world will
learn of Arab desert kings whose very
names are unknown now, yet who are so
powerful that they have made the great
interior of Arabia a sealed thing.
These mysterious rulers do more than
defy Turkey. which Claims sovereignty over
Arabia They despise her.
No Turkish caravan may cross their ter
ritories without paying tribute. No Turk
ish official dreams of attempting to exer-
else authority over them.
Some of these kings are the Arabs of
tradition-brave truthful, chivalric, look
ing on their guest as their brother and
holding sacred the man who has broken
bread with them. Others as brave are rob-
bers and murderers undiuted, who plumber
the man who dares to penetrate to their
land, and often spear him after they have
stripped him.
All of them-noble and robber alike
the land. Hence the vast interior of Ara
bia, the land OF the Nedjd and the Desert
of Roba-el-Khali, have remained mostly
unknown for more than 1900 years; and
what was known of 1t before that time was
In the form of scattered and vague his
torical tradition and story rather than his
tory.
Austria's Field.
Austrian scientists became eager to search
out the story, past and present. of this I'M
known land some years ago, and before long
generous sums were subscribed in many
quarters to aid in the work.
The leading explorer to go into the field
was a professor of theology, DR.. Alois
Musil. In the past three years he has had
adventures enough to satisfy half a dozen
men for life; and he is going to dive into
the deserts again to get some more.
His leading achievement has been the dis
covery of the ancient palace of Amra, which
was built by the great kings of Yemen in
the days of the Old Testament and which
was old when Christ was born. When Ma
homet swept upon the old governments
Amra was abandoned, and for 1900 years it
has been only name, full of mystery and
allurement.
Wonderful tales have been told of 1t by
the desert jewellers and they reached the
ears of the world through the wanderers
who met Bedouins in the coast strip cities
Of Alden. Basorah and Muscat.
The Ghost Palace of Amra.
The Ghost Palace" they called It; they
spoke in one breath OF its splendors, its
mighty paintings on the walls and Its ter
rors that killed him who dared go near 1t.
All Arabia believed it was the abode of the
Djinns. Whoever approached it was>~met
and slain by Djinns. appearing as pillars of
sand, as serpents or desert robbers, but
equally deadly whatever form they as
sumed.
For many hundred years travellers tempt
ed by the legends tried to find Amra, but
always in vain. Most who tried recently
were turned back before they passed into
the desert; for the sultan, while he pre-
tends to control the desert jewellers, knows
better. Therefore, to evade responsibility
and still to keep up his pretense, he adopts
the happy expedent of forbidding travellers
to cross the dead line"
= The explorers who were turned back were
mckier than most of those who got
through. Most OF the latter never return
ed The few who did had little to tell ex-