Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1906-01-18

there exist mysterious isolated white
tribes bearing strong resemblance to
Europeans has long possessed curl
Gus fascination for the old world. The
early adventures in Central and
South America brought home many
tales of extraordinary cities beyond
the mountains and vague stories afioat
in south Africa thirty or forty years
ago furnished Rider Haggard with a
theme for one of his best known
novels, ALLAN Quartermain"
Similar legends are met with in al
most all the less explored parts of
the globe and they have always GER
tain features in common. The iso-
lated white people almost invariably
inhabit mountainous region in a
vague interior'-always the lust
beyond" they hold aloof from the
surrounding races; they are seldom
seen, and yet are definitely stated to
be more civilized and better educated
than the darker masses whom they
avoid
Whom they are and whence they
came no one knows; native fables af-
ford no explanation. Once it was
thought that forgotten white ex-
plorers might have built up unknown
kingdoms in the wild places of the
earth. But upon examination these
theories vanish so rapidly as do the
white tribes themselves and the ulti-
mate explanation is almost prosaic.
Yet so strong hold has the idea
gained that even at the beginning of
the twentieth century the possibility
race is not altogether scoffed at. 1t
is less than two years ago that an
{ American officer engaged in the opera
tons against the Moros in the Philip
pines collected apparently substantial
evidence relating to mysterious
white tribe in the island of Mindanao.
The mountainous district in the
center of this island has never been
explored and even the coast is not
well known. But along the seaboard
many stories are told Of the fierce
white people who have their home in
the forest-clad mountains of the in
terror Eye-witnesses depose to hav-
ing seen a strange, fair-complexioned
girl lettering near a coast village,
girl who fled toward the hills as soon
as she was addressed.
Other men and women OF light
complexioned race are said to have
been seen by more venturesome
natives who were bold enough to APP
| preach the wild mountain district.
| The United States officer was so inn
pressed that he determined to con-
duct an exploring party across the
center of the island. But apparently
the mysterious white folk had van
! ished. for the world has as yet
heard nothing of his search being
crowned with success.
Arabia, however, can, with more
reason, boast of white tribe. For
years stories of such a race have
been told in the Persian gulf, ami
Rev. S. NJ Zwemer, an American mis-
sionary stationed at Muscat, alluded
some time ago to 'coffee-house" bah
/ BILE in eastern Oman concerning
mysterious race of light-complexioned
people who live somewhere in the
mountains, shun strangers and speak
| language of their own. Various
theories have been propounded to
explain the fable, but probably the
explanation is to be found in the mar
rative of a journey made in Oman in
1876 b. Colonel S. B. Miles, published
some time ago in the Geographical
Journal Colonel Miles, in the course
of his travels nearly thirty years ago,
came across a town named Sheraizi
\ in the heart of the Green mountains.
| The strange place was perched like
an eagle nest on the top of a great
cliff and was inhabited by apeople of
/ lighter skin than the rest of the tribes
of the interior. They rarely de-
/ scended to the plains, and refused to
mix or intermarry with the Arabs.
Colonel Miles found they were the de-
seendants of a portion OF the Persian
army which invaded Oman IN the
tenth century.
The isolation of the town and the
peculiar behavior of its people
through so many generations would
undoubtedly give rise to exaggerated
stories in the bazaars on the distant
coast, and in this case the origin of
the fable may be regarded as fairly
/ certain.
Unfortunately for the romance of
I the world it seems practically impos-
sible for stories of this character TO
have the origins novelists would wish.
/ The world is comparatively small to-
day. The trail of the explorer is over
/ every land from Paraguay TO Thibet.
/ Forbidden lands are entered; hidden
/ cities exist only in the imagination of
the fictiopist In perod when trains
! run TO Bokhara ana the great African
lakes, when the tourist appea S at
Khartoum and Lhasa itself has been