Kaffirs, Jews

THE COMING OF THE LORD--Sarah Gertrude Millin--Liveright ($2.50).

Esteemed and popular in Gibeon, bustling Anglo-Dutch townlet of South Africa, was Arnold Duerden, sportsman, clubman. And yet he was unsuccessful as a lawyer, because, come to think of it, he did have a defect--his brains were not very good. Not that this would have mattered if he had been willing to handle the affairs of petty tradespeople, but Kaffirs and Jews were beneath his dignity. He preferred to let his charming wife support him, though he always implied that Hermia's concert tours were her pleasurable "outlet," in no way connected with the family finances.

There were those, chiefly Jews, who despised this bland conceit--among them Saul Nathan, a brilliant young physician who liked to talk with Hermia. Jealous gossip construed the relationship as jealous gossip would. Hermia loved her Anglo Saxon husband, recoiled from physical contact with a Semitic; but Duerden, man outraged, scattered his self-righteous revenge. His most irrelevant victims were the Levites, a sect of primitive blacks who were conducting their yearly religious orgy en the heights above Gibeon. Baptized by total immersion at midnight, they danced under the moon, had a witch doctor throw bones for them, ate unleavened bread, exchanged kisses of peace. These were too much for distraught Duerden. He formed a vigilance committee to expostulate, threaten and finally turn machine guns on the height. As fate would have it, Saul was tending Levite wounds when a shell burst too close.

As perspicacious South African, Mrs. Millin reports humorous native idiosyncrasies, pompous white superiorities. As thoughtful Jew, she analyzes the poignant inferiority complex of her race, and the passion for conformity which a Jew despises but cannot resist.