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THE JAINA GAZETTE
Hunt For King Solomon's Mines.
Toiling under the scorching sun of Southern Rhodesia, three English girls are now carrying out the most romantic job of work that ever fell to the lot of English women.
They are searching for King Solomon's Mines!
The leader of the colourful little party is Mrs. Gertrude Caton Thompson, the explorer and archaeologist, and she has as her assistants Miss Norie, a professional architect, and Miss K. Kenyon, daughter of Sir Frederic Kenyon, Director of the British Museum.
The girls are well armed in case of emergencies and they have a specially chartered aeroplane to facilitate their moving speedily from place to place over the wide stretch of country where their work lies.
Miss Caton Thompson, who is a cool, self possessed young woman and who has her instructions from the British Association, left London in December.
She spent some time in Egypt arranging for her equipment for her adventurous quest, and she was joined by her companions in Southern Rhodesia at the end of the rainy season in the late spring.
The scene of the great work, now well under way, is the legendary site of King Solomon's Mines, Here stand the famoss Zimbabwe ruins, consisting of large circular walls with fortified gateways, which are generally supposed to be fortresses and temples.
According to legends, King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba were associated with an older civilisation here and the late Sir Rider Haggard, the great novelist, has perpetuated them in his books.
Miss Caton Thompson is wary enough not to commit herself to any definite opinion on the possible truth of such legends, until her excavations have been completed.
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"We know, however" she says, that the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon had very large dealings in gold and that Rhodesia is a gold mining country but we have so far no tangible evidence."
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
