New-York tribune., 1921-06-06
Books u.,,,.a sY p,,.,

Gllpeft Frankaus The Seeds Of En-
chantment begins as a rather interest
Ing romantic tale of adventure, al
though we wish the author would re-
train from footnotes. He is not con-
tent to write that See-Sim poured out
the stengahs" without immediately
leaplng into an asterisk to explain that
stengah is "a small glass of whisky"
10 the American public that itself is
phrase sufficiently romantic and exotic.
The use of "stengah" adds no extra
flavor of excitement. We have also
learned from Mr.. Frankau's footnotes
that ola touffiane" is opium and that:
"the natives of the French colonies in
the East address all white men as
'Capitaine.'
Occasionally local color comes SO
thick and fast in The Seeds of Enchant-
ment that there is not time for foot
notes. We like it better that way.
When deeds Of daring are under way
word lost here and there is of no
consequence. Still, there are moments
when Mr.. Frankau's enthusiasms, par
ticularly his passion for geography,
leave us behind, little too breathless
to follow.
Suddenly emotion mastered the
Frenchman; he sprang to his feet. Il,
too, have heard that rumor, not once
but fifty times. The Khmers of Pnom
PENN have told it to me in the ruins
of Angkor Wat. l have heard it in the
red lips of Moi girls in Tin-Shuong,
from the toothless gums of the fisher
folk in the Bay of Halong. At PAX
hoi have I heard it, and at Khemerat;
in Wen Chan and Phitsalok, from the
pilots of Catba and the convicts Of
Pulau Condore.'
The stengahs we might have guessed,
because the author expressly said that
the folk in his novel sat around and
drank them, but just what the Khmers
are we have no notion and even less as
to where or what Pnom- PENN NAV be.
Stlll, it did not matter much, for we
learned after awhile what it was that
go NHNoO SuI iouo pCOplc Sdiu III SO
many different places. 1t was tale of
a mysterious part of China, deep in
the interior, in which there lived white
women of surprising beauty, the sur
vivors of some ill-fated expedition
many centuries ago. This was the
magnet which drew Mr.. Frankau's
heroes upcn the path of adventure. for,
as he expresses it somewhat rhapsoi.
ically, "'The demon which had seized
upon these three was the most power
full, the most secret, of all the white
mans demons-the demon which never
leaves the white mans elbow-the de-
mon which is called woman"
1t may be that this is the demon
which other writer's have described as
the white mans burden, although
frankly we were lured to follow the
three men on the path of adventure not
SO much by the stories of the mysteri-
Gus white women as by the magic drug,
the purple seeds, which came from the
same country. 1t was a drug which
cheered but did NOT inebriate. When
the Frenchman first accused his Eng
list friend of plotting to steal away
from him Nellie, the beautiful woman
OF mystery, the Englishman indignant
ly denied it. Then he ate a purple
seed and admitted "Yes, | did covet
her. Before answering. the French
man took some of the drug and replied
If she had lived / would have given
her to you"
Here, we thought, was one of the
most genial of stimulants, and we pur-
sued the novel eagerly only to find that
Mr.. Frankau's adventure novel was
merely q vehicle to carry propaganda.
The purple seeds turned out to be sym
b0ls for the pernicious doctrine of the