Letters to the Editor Which way to Mecca?

After the usual meeting with the local headman & council, and since my transport would not carry all and sundry, we set off walking in about 45 degrees C a distance of some five kilometres. We arrived about noon at their “mine.”

The “mine” was a quartz vein of about one metre with many stringers, all of which, including the gangue, carried free gold. I was impressed.

The headman told me that the village had not shown “the mine” to any of the three previous colonial powers. I sketched the outcrop and examined their pits, about three metres in depth. They were not able to attack the quartz proper, and only mined the friable material and the gangue. Then they carried the material about one kilometre to water.

When I took my Brunton compass (a prize from The Northern Miner at the PDAC) out, it had chosen that time to pack up.

Since the villagers were devout Muslim, I inquired in what direction they turned to make their prayers each day (five times). After some discussion, all hands pointed in the same direction.

To this day, my sketch book carries an arrow with the one word legend, “Mecca.” Brian Howes Toronto, Ont.

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