Review of Reviews, 1/11106. 



Leading Articles. 



579 



AN AFRICAN POMPEII. 



Under this title Miss Ellt-n Maples describes in 

 the PaH Mall Magasnic the ruins of Timgtid, in 

 French Algeria. This is the story in brief: — 



It is not every day that we light upon a city 200U years 

 old. It is easier for a town to disappear, like San Fran- 

 ■cisco, than to re-emerge from ashes like Pompeii and Her- 

 culauenm. But when, some years ago, certain French dis- 

 ■coverers lit ux)on the Roman city in the Algerian hinter- 

 laiul, it was hailed as an almost miraculous resurrection. 

 It turned out that this was the original Tliamagudas, huilt 

 ^y the Romans as a station for their Thirtieth Legion, and 

 used hy them to bar the advance of the nomad tribes from 

 the desert and the interior, who used this way to Rome. 

 After 900 years, however, the city was sacked and destroy- 

 ■ed by the Arabs. So it remained for centuries, until the 

 place was inspected and excavated, twenty years ago, and 

 came into the light again as a new and wonderful link 

 betw^een the old civilisation and the new. 



Landing at Philipville, the traveller takes the rail- 

 way across the Atlas Mountains and the desert to 

 the terminus at Biskra, where the Sahara really 

 begins. Twenty odd miles eastward lies the re- 

 discovered city, about a hundred miles or so inland 

 from the Mediterranean. The city was built in 

 loo A.D. Burnt by the Berbers, it was rebuilt in 

 535 by the lieutenant of Belisarius. In the seven- 

 teenth century it was again destroyed. In 1880 the 

 work of excavation seriously began. Previously the 

 Arch of Trajan alone stood high above the buried 

 cit)'. The Forum " is of great extent, and includes 

 rows of shops, the temple of Victory, the Tribune 

 for speeches, the Curia, and of course the Basilica, 

 which at Timgad is peculiar in having no aisles." 

 One inscription engraved on the pavement of the 

 Forum may be quoted. It is as follows : " To hunt, 

 to bathe, and to laugh — this it is to live'": — 



This theatre is larger than the one at Pomiieii, but 

 smaller than those of S.yracuse and Taormina. Two col- 

 umns of the Capitol, which had been overthrown by an 

 earthciuake, have been recently re-erected, and form, next 

 to the .\rch of Trajan, the most imposing feature of the 

 city. There remain also large baths, one of which includes 

 three larse halls and annexes, whilst various chambers — 

 tepidarium, frigidarium, and so on — are in wonderfuUv good 

 preservation. 



The sketch is made more interesting by the ad- 

 mirable photographs accompanying it. 



THE LOTTERY OF RACEHORSE BUYING. 



'■ Spearmint in Private Life '' is the subject of a 

 sketch in the Fall Mall Magazine by Edward Moor- 

 house. In 1904 Spearmint was knocked down for 

 300 guineas to Major Eustace Loder. It has since 

 w on the Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris. " The 

 two races were worth ;^i6,ooo." The writer goes 

 on to show that the purchase of racehorses is, to say 

 the least, a very speculative proceeding. As a foil 

 to Spearmint's 300 guineas, he says: — 



In 1895 there were twenty-two fashionably-bred yearlings 

 sold for £48,510. During their active careers on the Turf 

 they won stakes of the total value of £2799, leaving a de- 

 ficiency of £45.711. 



There are othci cases in which very high prices 

 have been more than justified : — 



Cases like that of Sceptre, who. bought as a yearling 

 for the unprecedented sura of 10,000 guineas, won all the 

 classic races except the Derby, and was sold as a four-year- 

 old to her present owner, Mr. William Bass, for the net 

 sum of £25,000. The value of the stakes slie won amounted 

 to more than £38,000. When M. Edmond Blanc gave 37,500 

 guineas for Flj'ing Fox {who had then finished his racing 

 career), cautious people stood aghast. But it has since 

 proved one of the very greatest bargains ever made. This 

 ixorse's progeny have won stakes to the value of over 

 £110,000, and four of his sons have been sold for sums 

 amounting to £94,000. 



It is stated incidentally that " a classic race " is 

 the Two or One Thousand Guineas, the Derby, the 

 Oaks or the St. Leger ; and a classic horse is one 

 who has won a classic race. The writer adds: — 



This r.aoe of equine aristocrats, of which we have just 

 reason to be proud, and which is the envy of all other 

 nations who love the horse, has been built up by a careful 

 process of selection extending back to the time of the 

 Charleses. 



When as long a period has been taken in de- 

 liberate improvement of the breed of men, one won- 

 ders what will be the result. 



FROM THE OCCULT MAGAZINES. 



The Hindu Spiritual Magazine for August con- 

 tinues to keep up the high standard which its 

 editor has set before' him from the first. In the 

 August number we have, in an article entitled " The 

 Mahatmas are not Fictions," an astounding narra- 

 tive of the achievements of one Haridas, a Yogee 

 at the Court of Ranjit Sing, who proved before 

 many English officers and many thousands of natives 

 that he possessed the faculty of dying at will and re- 

 turning to his body when he pleased. It took thirt)' 

 years to acquire this power fully. He allowed him- 

 self to be buried alive dozens of times and kept there 

 for months. During the time that he was in his 

 coffin he declared that he was enjoying an ecstasy 

 which he would not exchange for the Kingdom of 

 Heaven. The writer gives curious information as 

 to the way in which this adept would empty his 

 stomach of all matter. It took him eight days' 

 preparation before he died. The cell or grave in 

 which he was buried was stopped up, and his body 

 remained absolutely dead for weeks or months until 

 he was dug up at the appointed time and his soul 

 returned to its abandoned tenement. In a paper 

 entitled " Yoga " particulars are given of the various 

 posture in which men practise voga. 



The Occult Review for October contains a very 

 weighty article, by Edward Carpenter, entitled '■' The 

 ' .\ ' behind Phenomena." His conclusion is that 

 phenomena are ideas conveyed to our minds by a 

 self or selves outside of us. A Californian tells the 

 story of how Leland Stanford Junior University was 

 founded. It is the one free educational institution 

 of its kind in the world. It has an endowment of 

 nearly seven millions sterling, is open to all boys 



