A. Mirage of Sheba. By John Guisborough. (Mills and Boon.
7s. 6d. net.) The mention of Mosul in the headings of Chapters I. and III. is sufficient to attract the reader's interest ; but the book is disappointing except for some description of the city.
"The dying sun cast their shadows on the walls as they entered the Sinjar Gate of Mosul. The horses, shod with flat metal plates covering the hoof, clattered loudly over the cobbles. Narrow alleys of mud-walls, high houses with flat roofs and faced with elaborate marble slabs, primitive shops, a rare minaret, one or two poor palm- trees, mangy dogs lurking in the streets gnawing offal, stray cats prowling like ghosts for garbage—such was Mosul. Yet it is a rich city, and kind Mother Earth provides from her bosom a soft marble which the inhabitants have quarried for building ever since masons could square and shape stones. The Assyrian masters of craft used it on the far bank of the river where the ancient palaces lie under the two mounds, Kouyunjik and Nebi Yunus. Mosul is a fairer city than Baghdad, where no stone exists and the buildings bare their yellow bricks like some old beldame's teeth."
Neither the love-story nor the archaeology are particularly well managed, but all the descriptions of Asia Minor cannot fail to be of interest at the present moment.
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