"Queen Sheba’s Ring"
Dr Richard Adams isa medical practitioner who had a married Coptic Christian lady in Cairo (who later died of the plague in Assouan). He has been searching for his son Roderick for 14 years. Roderick, (aka Singer of Egypt), had been kidnapped by Mahdists when aged 12. Dr Adams, who himself had been a prisoner of the Khalifa for 5 years, discovers Roderick – now Singer to the god, reader of dreams, and a priest of Harmac, in the sultanate of Fung – which is surrounded by the state of Mur, in north central Africa (northern Chad, perhaps). He fails to rescue Roderick, but falls in the Mur, where he is asked to obtain whatever necessary to destroy the idol of the Fung, Mur’s hereditary foe.
This involves an expedition by Professor Ptolemy Higgs, archaeologist, Dr Adams, Capt Oliver Orme, of a volunteer engineer regiment, and Sergeant Samuel Quick, Orme’s servant. Orme acquires the dog Pharaoh in Egypt.
Mur is on a hill much like Kor, and is surrounded by the lands of the Fung, who are led by Barung, Sultan of Fung (who holds Roderick prisoner). Mur is inhabited by the Abati, Abysinian Jews who have ruled Mur for 500 years, under Maqueda, Child of Kings (aka Walda Nagasta, the Ethiopic for Child of Kings, or Takla Warda, or Bud of the Rose), and her uncle Joshua, senior prince, and her betrothed. The Fung, who are worshipers of Harmac (from Harmachis, Egyptian god of dawn), have a huge sphinx, from which they lower sacrificial victims to their sacred lions. Higgs speculates that the Fung are the ancestors of the Egyptians, rather than the other way around.
On the way to Mur the party, loaded down with explosives, are lost in the desert after their Abati guide Shadrach (aka Cat) declines to accompany them of a lion hunt. They kill a lion, and manage to survive a sandstorm by using its pelt as a cover. Arriving at Harmac, they are attacked by Fung cavalry, and through the treachery of Shadrach Professor Higgs is captured. They manage to escape the Fung by using a little of their explosives at the city gates, and they are then met by Maqueda and Joshua, and escorted to the fortified city of Mur.
Apart from Maqueda, the Abati are vain and lazy, and are not particularly keen to fight the Fung. However, they reluctantly agree to employ the party to destroy the Fung sphinx, as the legend told that if it were destroyed the Fung would leave. It is a major task, however, as it is primarily nature rock, and is massive.
With the particular help of Japhet, a Abati mountaineer (and with the assistance of Shadrach – who had been sentenced to death for betraying Higgs), the party rescues Higgs just as the lions are about to have supper. They now realise that the partially ruined subterranean city below the palace of Mur is quite close to the sphinx – indeed, there is a filled-in passage from the tomb chamber which leads to within a few hundred feet of the sphinx. This houses the Fung kings of Mur, and was only recently discovered by Maqueda – none of her subjects were brave enough to explore it.
A shaft is run to the sphinx – or where they think it is – and this is filled with all their explosives. While this is being done Shadrach, no doubt at the instigation of the jealous Joshua, tries to stab Orme in the night, but he is discovered with his throat torn out – Pharaoh had discovered him. Unfortunately Pharaoh is then poisoned.
Joshua and most of the Abati are offended that the foreigner Gentiles are being shown such favour by Maqueda, especially since she is now in love with Orme – despite the fact that she can only marry a close relative to preserve the ancient bloodline of Solomon and Sheba.
The mine is detonated, but rather than destroy the idol – which would have been hard to do in any case – the head of the sphinx is blown into the sky (the explosives were placed a little to high up and near the front of the beast). The head falls to earth near the Mur royal palace. The Fung appear to leave Harmac, in accordance with the superstition that they would leave if the idol is destroyed, but they had their own legend, that they would follow wherever Harmac led – to Mur.
As soon as the explosion appears to destroy the idol Joshua’s men attack the palace to seize Maqueda, and take her to his palace. This is thwarted by Higgs and Quick, who were on guard in the palace antechambers, having heard some rumours of such a plot. Quick is killed, but Maqueda is safe. The party leave the palace and led by Japhet, who has been made a captain for his services, join a regiment of mountaineers guarding the gates of the city. They can be trusted because they are not as bigoted as the lowlanders, and not under Joshua’s command. Roderick now turns up, saying that the Fung have all fled – though he cannot be sure they won’t come to Mur when they realise that the head of Harmac is there.
The regiment makes its way back to the palace, and are besieged by the much bigger army of Joshua. The palace is on fire, and they have no supplies, so the regiment flees after a perfunctory fight. Marqueda, Orme, Higgs, Adams, Roderick, and Japhet all withdraw to the city below, and await events in the tomb of the old kings. While their lamps remain Higgs busily fulls 25 boxes with gold goblets, rings, statuary etc from the old kings, carefully nailing them up in the boxes which had contained their explosives. Food has run out, and the nights have failed. They then awake to find themselves above ground – Japhet has sneaked away and told Joshua where they are.
After recovering from their hunger Orme, Higgs, Adams are charged with instigating civil war, and kidnapping the Child of Kings. Maqueda herself is the president of the court. This finds them guilty, but the punishment which she pronounces – much to the annoyance of most of the Abati, is banishment – with all their possessions and a supply of camels, horses and gold.
Orme is not particularly happy, since he thinks Maqueda has been unfaithful and been using him, but the others are happy to be leaving the city in one piece – especially as Sultan Barung of the Fung could well come back.
Barung’s army, which has attacked Mur through a secret entrance, and is persuaded by Maqueda to put an end to the massacre of the inhabitants. Joshua and 10 others however are to be executed for their untrustworthiness. She declines his offer to become queen of Mur beside him, and is allowed to leave the city with an escort, which will leave her when the sight the Gentiles.
After several days Orme, Higgs and Co see a lone horse and rider, and think they are being spied upon. It is Maqueda, who has tricked Joshua. They all get safely back to civilisation – with the 25 boxes of archaeological material and some ordinary gold bullion besides.
The story is reminiscent of "Elissa", with the effete Zimboe and the surrounding fierce tribes of Ithobal. But this time Barung is a much more civilised king than Ithobal. It is also akin to "She", with the mountain fastnesses protecting a city ruled by a queen, surrounded by lands ruled by a sultan – though they make the point that Maqueda is not strictly a queen, it being a purely local rank (I’m not so sure about that). We don’t see much of Barung’s followers, but they are portrayed as fairly savage – certainly the lion sacrifices were bloodthirsty. The Abati were the upstarts, since they had only been in Mur for 500 years, and the Fong were much older. They had at least kept their primeval virtues of courage and loyalty, as Haggard put it. Though Jews (of a sort), the Abati were not particularly interested in money, land was important to them – particularly since they were hemmed into a relatively small area.
The idea that one must be prepared to defend one’s country against the hordes is fairly strongly made, but the story is not as much of a tract as I remembered from having first read it some years ago. It is only in one or two passages that the message is overly strongly made. The book was published in1909, so it probably was motivated by concerns over German militarism, but I don’t think the analogy should be taken too far.