New Britain Herald Newspaper, November 1, 1927, Page 19

31510 Seek Lost Cifies How Charming Moushka Malmignati, Once Driven Out of the Country, Has Gone Back to Explore Desert Wastes No White Woman Has Ever Visited, With Wild Arab Tribesmen as Her Only Companions Countess Moushka Malmignati, dressed in the traditional feminine costume of the land where she is adventurously searching for hidden cities LONDON. BEAUTIFUL and intrepid An- glo-Russian, Countess Moushka Malmignati, left London for the East a few days ago, to seek the lost cities supposed to be hidden away on the sandy wastes of Southern Arabia, and to explore lands untrodden by Europeans since Aelius Gallus passed that way in 26 B. C. Although she has a courageous hus- band, formerly a cavalry colonel in the Italian army, and an athletic brother, she left London alone. In Arabia, she will pick up a few wild tribesmen to act as guides and servants but she will be the only European in the expedition; and, of course, the only woman. The exploration, if all goes well, will take about five months, and Countess Malmignati expects not only to get & few thrills but to make archaeological dis- coveries of world-wide importance. Per- haps even to locate the buried temples of that lost land of Ophir, Sheba’s coun- try, which is thought by some to be located in Southern Arabia. It is no wild goose chase upon which the Countess has embarked, ne sudden whim of a beautiful, impulsive woman in quest of excitement. Exploration is nothing new to the daring Anglo-Rus- slan, wh. was in Arabia away back in 1914, when the World War broke out, and was arrested and put out of the country by the Turks, who ruled Arabia. She knows the hardships and dangers she is going to encounter and is quite willing to run the risks and pay the price. The tribes among which she will pass are savage tribes, hostile not only to the Europeans and Turks, but even to other Arabians. It is a wild country, in which the peo- ple of one village are said to refer to villagers from over the brow of the next hill as “foreigners,” and where nobody has any conception of the great, hust- ling world outside. It was not without much argument that Count Malmignati consented to be left behind. But at last he yielded in the face of his pretty wife’s logic. “Chivalry is not dead among the Arabians I have known,” said the Count- ess, explaining her decision to go alone. “I have no reason to believe the fight- ing tribes of the hinterland are other- wise. A woman traveling at the head of her own caravan will be given court- esies, I believe, which she would not get if she were escorted by a man of her own people. I shall trust myself to the hdnor of the tribesmen.” Yet the Countess is a sensible soul, and she will carry a load of presents for judicious distribution as she goes along. There will be silk abbas, silver bowls and plates, all sorts of jewelry and near- jewelry, and novelties. The men, she expects, will be hospitable, but it is her experience that the women of isolated tribes do not look kindly upon a lady from abroad, and resent the sensation Dhai Allah Abu Tijir, a powerful Arab chieftain who will furnish the Coun- tess an escort for part of her perilous journey traveler The pres- ents are for the women. A little ribbon, a bit of lace, a silver trinket or a novelty bought in one of the cheap shops of London will some- times do wonders to win over the women. Twenty-six years before the birth of Christ, Aelius Gallus, the Roman prefect of Egypt, made some ex- plorations in that part of Arabia that Countess Malmignati is to pass through. Touching only the fringes of the vast, unknown desert coun- try, he reported trac- es of departed but once glorious civiliza- tions. Then Aclius Gallus was recalled from Egypt, Rome sent no more scholars out to be pr S but only politicians. Civilizations of the West rose and fell, and the veil of mys- tery was drawn again across the e of Southern Arabia. Tales of the buried splendors of the far places have continued to intrigue the arch- acologists, and the Countess says that scholarly old Arbians have told her that their fathers told them there were towns in the mysteri- ous, forbidden coun- try as magnificent as Palmyra and even Petra, that “rose-red city, half as old as time.” The Arabs of Medina have heard such stories, but they know as little of the hinterland as any European, for the Arabs of Southern Arabia are warlike and they do not welcome visitors no such a causes. The type of wild Arab tribes- man with whom the Countess will venture where no white woman has ever been before An interesting camera study of the daring Countess taken just before her de- parture for the mysterious wastes of Southern \ Arabia An Arabian caravan, like that of the Countess Malmignati, ready to start on a long and tedious trek across the desert matter where they come from. Countess Mal- mignati explained her itinerary as follows: “Mr. St. John Pailby, the well known Bri- tish scholar, will meet me at Jed- dah' in Arabia. Jeddah is the port for the holy city of Mecca, the point of pil- grimage for all devout Moslems. He will intro- duce me to Ibn Saud, the ruling sheik of the whole country, and I do hope Ibn Saud’s gallantry will not impel him to try to make me take an escort of soldiers, for that would be expensive, and probably mean a fight at the first outpost of the hidden cvuntry, and no further progress. From Jeddah I shall proceed eastward to Taif, one hundred and fifty miles, cighty miles to Turaba, sixty miles to Hamabh, fifty miles to Bishna, one hun- dred miles to Dam, fifty miles to Sulaiyl. “Beyond Sulaiyl, no Europeau, not even Mr. St. John Philby, has penetrat- ed. The subjects of Ibn Saud do not venture there. And there my real ad- venture begins.” Dr. F. J. Kahil, a native, will be in- terpreter on the expedition, and Mahmoud Bassaam will be guide. Kahil is a linguist, but is not sure he will be able to talk to the elusive tribesmen he will encounter. Countess Malmignati will include milch camels in her caravan, not being at all certain of finding water when she wants it. There will be fourtean camels in the transport train. Ten for riding, and four for baggage. The diet of the party will include dates and o~ meat, the latter uncooked but dried in the sun. The Countess expects t take her turn gunning for meat, for she can use a rifle petter than most men. There will be a well stocked medicine chest. And Copyright. 1927, by Johnson Features. Inc. the Anglo-Russian’s own personal lug- gage will include, of course, a camera, a typewriter and sketching materials. “What am I going to w 7 she laughed, when the inevitable question was put to her. “Oh, I am ta ng a number of white Shan..ig riding dresses, worn with a white silk abbah and a head shawl to keep off the fiery sun. 1 shall wash with face cream, or in fine sand. You may be sure the water we find will be for drinking. Much too precious to waste on ablutions or beautifying.” And she expects ‘o be very happy, for she loves the desert, and enjoys the company of the Arabs, who are its people. For others, the thrill of first night per- formances in the theaters, comfortable travel on ocean steamships, half holidays at the seashore or week-ends on the moors. For the Ccuntess, the lure and mystery of desert night, with natives sitting cross-legged before the fire, sip- ping ¢~ -, smokin, na ilehs, speaking rarely, while the .on works its magic, and the wind whispars to those who are able 3 And, of course, somewhere in the outer distance, great heaps of shifting sand, which may be nothing but sand dunes, or which may cover cities that were old in Solo- mon's time. All of which will be quite different from the life she and her husband have becn leading in their villa at Hendaye, near Biarritz. But love of adventure is likely to be a predominant trait when one is the child of English and Russian parents. A few s ago, when the life at the Hendaye villa became too tame alto- gether, and she was not yet ready to ex- plore Arabia, the Countess made a little bet with a friend that s d her hus- band could make the v through Spain masquerading as gipsy mus Under the terms of the bet, were to start without funds, from the Spanish frontier, and take no money except that thrown to them by admirers of their melody. “We did it,” she chuckled, just before she set sail for the East this time. I played the banduria, and my husband sang songs of Araby. Of course, he knows no Arabic, and can't sing, but that didn't matter. In fact, I think it made the illusion better.” The Countess hurried her departure from England somewhat as a result of the to-do that has been made over re- cent statements by Commander Crau- ford, a British naval officer and explorer, who just got k from Arabia. Crau- ford has been telling audiences he found the lost land of Ophir there, and has been having quite a dispute with the geographers and archaeologists, some of them saying Ophir could not possibly be where he says it is—400 miles east of Aden, and a few hundred yards back from the sca. She means to find out the truth of that, among other things. The first contact of the Countess with Arabia was not over and above pleasant, as has been indicated. She was just getting interested in the peo- ple when the World War broke out, and she was marked for deportation by Gen- eral Liman von Sanders, the German who was the military and political rep- resentative of Berlin at Constantinople. Put under arrest, she was detained for a short time, in spite of her protest that her mission was not political. After several talks with her, Sanders Pasha de- cided that she was too observing to be allowed to roam at large in any city be- hind the Turkish lines, and ordered her sent to Egypt.