ADVENTURES WITH A CAMERA IN MANY 



LANDS 



By Maynard Owen Williams 



Author of "Russia's Orphan Races," "The Descendants of Confucius," "'Syria, the Land Link ov 

 History's Chain," and "Czechoslovakia, Key-land to Central Europe" 



With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author 



The author of the following article has recently returned to America after a 

 years tour of Europe and Asia as a staff observer for the National Geographic 

 Magazine. In addition to the countries of western and central Europe, Mr. 

 Williams visited Egypt, Palestine, Ceylon, southern, central, and northern India, 

 Baluchistan, and Burma. 



THE snap-shot photograph is the 

 magic carpet which adds a fairy- 

 tale touch to a routine world. It 

 satisfies man's desire to extend his hori- 

 zon, to reach out into the unknown, and 

 to identify himself a little more closely 

 with the world of which he is a part. 



Photographing the common people of 

 foreign lands is a fascinating pastime. 

 No fisher is forced to use more patience 

 than the man who seeks through photog- 

 raphy to show the folks at home how the 

 other half of the world actually lives. 

 Xo hunter can boast of so satisfactory a 

 bag as falls to him who hunts with the 

 clairvoyant eye of the camera. The fo- 

 cusing knob of a graflex is a more thrill- 

 ing bit of mechanism than the trigger of 

 a rifle. 



THE PHOTOGRAPH IS A BASIS EOR 

 FRIENDLY UNDERSTANDING 



But photographing the world is not 

 frivolous, nor is it merely good sport. If 

 people and places are worth writing 

 about, they are worth picturing. Such 

 work is a step in the visualizing of our 

 distant neighbors and the introduction of 

 strangers to those who know no more 

 about them than the camera tells. All 

 the world is watching how the rest of the 

 world lives. 



It is habitual to speak of "the mask- 

 like features of the Chinese." Unques- 

 tionably, when a Chinese wishes to con- 

 ceal his emotions, the Sphinx looks viva- 

 cious in comparison, but when a casual 

 observer insists that the people of China 

 never smile or laugh, a few photographs 

 reveal such an error of generalization. 



The Chinese is unusually clever in dis- 

 guising his feelings when he wants to 

 disguise them ; but a frank show of 

 friendship and a readiness to smile in 

 spite of toil, cold, or hunger are among 

 the most prominent of Chinese character- 

 istics (see pages 89 and 90). 



When members of a family are sepa- 

 rated, they exchange photographs. The 

 same method is applicable to the building 

 up of international relations. Photog- 

 raphy, with all its faults, is a social art. 

 It furnishes a basis for friendly under- 

 standing. 



About once a year we of the Occident 

 hear of little glass or metal bracelets, 

 such as the girl babies of India wear, be- 

 ing found in the stomachs of slaughtered 

 crocodiles. At times I wish that some 

 one would vary the tale by making the 

 reclaimed property a shirt-stud or a col- 

 lar-button. But when the camera is called 

 in to report on the inhumanity of distant 

 and little-understood peoples it is quite 

 as likely to reveal proud mothers in India 

 as in Indianapolis. 



The camera enthusiast often has the 

 same sort of an alibi as the fisherman. 

 The ones that get away are always the 

 best. Nor is this unnatural. Taking pic- 

 tures requires concentration, and such di- 

 version as a charming subject offers may 

 drive all thought of formulae from the 

 amateur photographer's head. 



A QUEEN OE THE HOLY LAND 



Coming up through Palestine some 

 years ago I was traveling with an enthu- 

 siast who had read somewhere that the 



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