Evening star., 1934-02-11


going out in search of cannibals and other
people with queer habits just for their news
value Some of his findings he publishes in
this book, which he calls the log of a vaga-
bond reporter" The Toronto Star sent him
around the equatorial belt In 1888 in quest of
"voodoo black magic and cannibal lore" He
found plenty of it. "Are there human man
eaters in 1888, you ask? I answer, thousands,
and most of them women" The female
of the species" again!
In a 2000-ton cargo boat with a mass Of
equipment. he left Sydney. Australia and pur-
sued course to New Guinea, Bali, Java Siam,
Burma, India, Baluchistan and Afghanistan.
The route sounds harmless enough; CunaTd
cruise-lovers and Cook tourists follow it. But
Mr.. Sinclair did not stop merely at ports and
capitals, and then for only hurried day Of
starred sights. He went straight into that
mysterious interior, where still undisturbed
primitive man Is to be found He was not
disappointed, for he found not only the primi-
tive, but much that dates back through hun
dredS of years of what seems to the super
civilized monstrous tradition. He left guide
books, prejudces and nhibitions behind and
so was able to observe with pristine interest
whatever appeared on his trail. At Kalabahia,
island not even mapped by admiralty charts,
he came across an upside down pygmy civili-
zation in which pretty young girl brings no
price at all in marriage, but a splay footed,
droong old woman commands many fish
ropes The reason for this mad taste Mr..
Sinclair does not attempt to explain. BLACK
magic holds all New Guinea" and thousands Of
the natives die every year from fear of it, put
on the spot by some strong willed ju-ju man
of the village" Head-hunters he found in as
great abundance as cannibals, also lethal vam-
pire bats, a Borneo capitalist who had grown
rich on selling crocodiles' entrails to medicine
men, cemeteries in trees, wives who were
chained up every night by Jealous husbands,
and many other surprising things. This book
is written with as great zest as Mr.. Slnclalrs
former book "Foot-lo in India"
SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL. BY
Rearden Conner. New York: William Nor
row & Co.
lORRORS which are as the title indicates,
] ] diabolic, which reveal the possibilities Of
brutality lying not far beneath the surface OF
human beings, form the entire plot Of this
novel, Literary Guild choice. In the Irish
Terror of 1e18-1e22 Ireland was no place for a
man who could both sides of a question
The Irish Republican Army and the English
Black and Tans were alike in their conviction
that those who were not for them were against
them. Kerry Sutton, son Of an English father
and Irish mother, studying medicine IN
Dublin, according to the plan Of his mother.
which she must have lived to regret, was caught
in trap The evening on which he went with
his friend, Peadar Nolan, from the Royal Col
lege Of Surgeons to q cinema theater was the
last evening of his life as free man. On their
way home near OConnen Bridge. they wit
messed the throwing Of q bomb at lorry filled
with Black and Tans and in the SharpShooting
which followed, Nolan ran of up side street.
A Black and Tan followed him and was shot
by Kerry in an effort to save his friend.
Carrying his wounded friend on his back,
ctrl lroI,I Iad into SrlDn has uVhi
proved to be haunt Of the I. r. A. Medical
aid was secured In the person Of Dr. O'Rourke
of the Royal College Hospital known to both
the students, and of the l. r. A. secret
leaders. The trap was closing on Kerry. IL
closed completely when he remembered that
he had dropped his text books with his name
in them, on the scene of the bomb outrage.
He ION the rum" marked man,
whose only protection was the Republican
Brotherhood. whose oath he shortly afterward
took, although his sympathy with the Irish
movement for independence was only mild.
The experiences of Kerry Sutton in the
Wicklow Hills, at the secret headquarters Of
the brotherhood near the village of Ardfalla,
where the fanatic schoolmaster, Lenihan, was
commandant, and the outrages he witnessed,
always trying to keep aloof from them as
possible make terrible tale Involved in the
outrages were Kitty Brady, Lady MORA, daugh-
ter of an anti-Republican Irish peer; the priest,
Father Cafferty, and Brig. Gen. Lawton, COM
mander of the Black and Tans. The spirit Of
the Terror is exemplifed by DR.. O'Rourke, who
replied to Kerry's muttered depreciation of one
tragedy: "rve seen them ripped to pieces
(both their own men and their enen1ies), limbs
shattered Who cares once they're out of the
game? Do you? Do I? No! No, we don't!
We're part of the machine! We're ruthlessi
mexorable We advance advance! We never
pause, never look back And rightly so! Why
should we worry over damned Black and
TanI They don't Unrrv over uStn One of