The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1921-03-17
EHODESIA: A 1921 LAND
OF OPHIR

Suggestions by psychologists that
Rhodesia may be the land of Ophir,
mentioned in the Bible as source of
Solomon's riches, lends added interest
to region already attracting attention
for its present-day resources. The act
creating the important Union OF South
Africa to the south reserves the right
to add Rhodesia to that dominion OF
the British empire. II. II. Parsons,
writing to the National Geographic So
ciety, describes some phases OF Rhode
sian life as follows:
1.-THE wet season i'm Rhodesla begins
i'm November and lasts until the first
of June. All kinds of garden seeds
and cereals are in the ground by
Christmas and in January the first
crop of millet is harvested. Great
ceremonies attend both sowing and
reaping. The dry season begins in
June and lasts until the end of Octo-
Der. 1t is occupied with threshing,
boarding grain, storing wood and burn
ing brush on seed beds for the sake of
the wood ashes.
mo matter how hot the days are,
the nights are cool and campfires are
needed. On the elevated tablelands or
plateaus the nights are very cold.
TAKES are not onerous i'm Rhodesia,
as each hut pays only three shillings a
year, which is ~ cents, or rate Of
cents per month.
.rI,I,~ oh 10
southern boundary of North Ithodesia,
is spanned at Livingstone, just below
the Victoria falls, by an American
made cantilever bridge bearing the
Cape to Cairo railroad As the water
plunges 400 feet, the electrical energy
to be developed is incalculable. 1t Is
proposed to carry the wires on steel
poles fashioned like oil derricks, to
the Kimberly mines, Johannesburg,
Pretoria and around to Cape Town, on
the one hand, and up through Khar-
tum and the Nile valley. Even the
pyramids may be decorated with lights
made to glow by current from these
mighty falls.
"In country Ike Rhodesia where
there are no roads either good, bad or
Indifferent, getting about is no fun. All
the British officials have bikes but
they are more ornamental than useful,
so they use the 'machilla' which, to
quote them, is an invention of the
devil. 1t consists of a long pole with
two natives at each end. Midway
/ hangs the hammock for the broana.'
alias the English victim, whose back
is lacerated by bushes and stumps and
his body more or less submerged when
going across river. The bearers keep
UP a chant that sounds like the wall
of lost spirits, and il never occurs to
them that the passenger Is not as
| happy es IL in a Pullman chair car.
"Somc of these African tribes have
alert, active minds. They can com
NIT to memory page after page of a
textbook, but the trouble is they do
not comprehend the meaning. They
learn telegraphy, typewriting, the
manual of arms, etc, with wonderful
rapidly and as nothing is more dear
20 the African heart than ceremony,
they go into ecstasles over parades
and the morning and evening flag tao
tics.
"In most OF the tribes are to be
| found sklful artlfcers. Show them a
piece of imported furniture and they
will exactly duplicate it. They weave
bark fabrics of every kind and manu-
facture musical instruments, keyed,
string, wind and percussion.
Wherever suitable clay is found,
they make pottery, tiles and brick. Al
most every English official has n pic
turesque residence of brick with tile
roof, surrounded by beautiful gardens.
"when Rhodesia gets proper trans
portation facilities, 1t will supply the
British empire with cereals, cotton.
tobacco, rubber, cattle. nuts am
fruits"