New-York tribune., 1911-01-08
BRITISH RULE
Work and Play in the Soudan
and Nepal.

glo-Egyptian Sudan. with Some Inter-
yals Of Sport and Travel. BY d. &. f..
Ff. Comyn, F. r. G. s date of the Black
Watch. Illustrated. SvO pp. XXii 3}l.
The John Lane Company.
TWENTY YEARS IN THE HIMALAYA.
by Major the Hon. G. q. Bruce. VI. V.
O., Fifth Ghoorka Rifles. With 20 illus
trauons and map. Svo, PIP. xiv, S}5.
Longmans Green & Co.
The two books here under review. far
different as they are in subject. be-
long together as results of the gigantic
days work of the British Empire Major
Comyn's account of his service in the
Soudan is only incidentally record of
the recreations that spelled his heavy
task; Major Bruces, on the other hand,
is, first of all, a narrative of mountain
travel, which is a far different thing
from mountain climbing. yet his book as
well as his colleagues has its value as a
document on the territory, inhabitants
and conditions of part of the empires
wide dominion.
Military service in the Soudan Major
Comyn begins by explaining, is of three
kinds-that at Cairo, which is not ardu-
Gus professionally and quite delightful
socially provided one has some means
of his own; that at Khartoum, which is
official life pure and simple, chiefly adj
ministrative, and finally service on the
utstations," which means many hard
ships and constant patrollng. Compan-
iOnship of ones own kind is not to be
had; the lonely white officer must rely
upon his own small medicine chest in
native remedies, but
AS a set-off he sees big game and shoots
IL il his eye is straight He secs countries
and peoples. lie administers large dis
tricts Very often he wanders in those
most fascinating tracts OF the World-the
blank spaces of cartographers-th unex-
plored. In word, ne makes empire.
Major Comyn is not an anthropologist,
a geographer naturalist or botanist, nor
does he make elaborate attempts at de-
sCribing the scenery of the stations
and the roads along which he travelled
to them, east and west and to the fur
thest southern boundaries of the Soudan
OF native customs he speaks only in so
far as they offer problems to be solved
by the British administrator; big game
means sport TO him, though he devotes
a final chapter to the ship Of the
desert" the steed of the camel corps to
which he was assigned. The natives are
to him. first of all. raw material for the
Egyptian army, and nature 20 reflected
only in his pages as it takes hold on
him in that distant country, under the
tropic sun, and leads him to explain why
the East calls all who come TO know it:
often wonder why we "mafick' over the
explorer. He lives life comprising I'm its
full the freedom and ecstacy of sensations
lis very being longs for. Rather admire the
man chained, all unwilling, TO an office
stool.
OF the material that composes the
Egyptian army, Major Comyn saw but
little OF the felaheen. Physically they
are superb. he says. but they lack char
acter, defect that, however becomes
a virtue when they have acquired con-
fdence in their leaders. whom then they
follow like sheep The regular Soudan-
ese Of to-day is an unreliable, because a
spoiled, article" He shirks work and is
when he dares The irregu-
lar Soudanese negrOids, who have not yet
been spoiled and taught To speak of their
rights" receive high enComium from
Major Comyn, and he wakes enthusiastic
over the Arab soldier, "facile princeps in
the affection of all who have had To do
with him. The native Egyptian officer
he praises. and he warns British officers
of the importance of making themselves
acquainted with the customs of their
native soldiery, and Of respecting them.
Part of Major Comyn's administrative
equipment was a graphophOne, for the
record of Nine. Patti was known among
them as "the screaming mad woman
whom her husband is beating" The
great elephant hunters, the Mandallas,
told him that
When chased by a wild elephant one
should shout loudly. The intelligence Of
the pursuer leads him TO look for the COM
paniOn TO whom one shouts Shouts like
monkeys "Baugh!" are also useful, as ele-
plants are terrified of them. Monkeys give
lilflIl al bdi ililltt especially NlltU lNtN are
young, chase and pinch them. jump on
their backs and pull out their hair.
Major Bruce, a distinguished British
Indian officer of long and arduous SER
vice, f'"es in his pages some account Of
the Hindu Koosh and the Himalaya
ranges, from the Kahr border on the
west TO the Bhootan border on the east.
Through this enormous stretch Of noun
tain territory there are found contrasts
of population, customs, country and
vegetation as great as those between the
Scottish Highlands and the Italian Alps.
The author has. he says, pierced this
region only here and there during the
nineteen years Of his wanderlngs, "as
one sticks a needle into "A bolster" In
Nepal there is a stretch of five hundred
miles Of the Himalayan chain that re-
mains practically unexplored.
Apart from the interest of its descrip-
tiOns Of people-Major Bruce's picture
Of the Ncpalesc makes one long To visit
thcm-and from the account of its au-
thOrs personal adventures and dangers,
the book will be found Of practical SER
vice by all who would supplement his
work of exploration, overcome new diff
ficulties and taste new pleasures Of
mountain travel Local guides, such as
the Airs furnish, are not to be found :
reliable porters are hard TO get The