Inquirer and Commercial News (Perth, WA : 1855 - 1901), Friday 21 September 1900, page 2


REVIEW, 'BLACK HEART AND WHITE HEART.' In this work Mr. Rider Haggard has returned to the country which he annexed (in a literary sense) about 15 years ago. The reader will be prepared to find that in the first of the three stories, which, are comprised in this volume, Black Heart is a white man and White Heart is a gentlemanly negro. Poetical justice is meted out with great liberality: Black Heart is killed— far more mercifully than he deserves — and White Heart lives to marry Nanea, the dusky heroine of the story. Perhaps her escape from the waters savors somewhat of the supernatural, but Africa is a land of marvels, and it is possible that there may be a 'substratum of historic tridh' in the author's narrative. In 'Elissa' Mr. Haggard essays to reconstruct the history of the fall of the mysterious city of Zimbabwe or Zimboe (in South. Central Africa), which he is disposed to identify with the Oghir of the Biblidal narrative. It is obviously impossible to say how. far Mr. Haggard's account agrees with the actual facts, seeing that Zimboe, if it did not 'live without a history,' certainly perished without a memorial. But it may be noted that there is a modernity in Mr. Haggaxd's style, which tends to destroy the flhiBion that we are' reading of the days b^'three thousand years ago. The story is interesting, though the regulations with regard to the office of priestess of Baaltis are slightly operatic in character. Many readers would rather that the author had allowed the Princess Elissa to marry Prince Aziel (grandson of King Solomon), and had martyred the crafty old fox, Metem, instead of the prophet Issachar. But the story is more probable as it stands. 'The Wizard' is a Christmas number reprinted. The title is intended to ' denote Hokosa, an African mystery man, but it would be equally applicable to Mr. Owen, the missionary, who left a country living in England to evangelise the Children of Fire, and who, like Iolanthe, 'certainly did surprising things.' From the author's description of 'The Second Trial by Fire' — a chapter which may hate been suggested by the story of, a contest which once took place on Mount Carmel, we select the following passage : — 'He heard a murmur of fear and wonder rising from ten thousand throats. Well might they fear and wonder, for of the twenty and one wizards eleven were dead, four were paralysed by shock, five were flying in their terror, and one, Hokosa himself, stood staring at the fallen, a very picture of despair. Nor was this alL for the meteor stone with a human shape, which for generations the People of Fire had worshipped as a god, lay upon the plain in fused and shattered fragments.' Our copy is from the publishers, Longmans, Green, ,and Co. *