See, that's where the silly book leaves you with more questions than answers but really I read it time and time again because each article is so well written it doesn't matter if it's true or not if it's entertaining. It's looking a bit battered nowadays and I can't remember where I got it from but it joins a long list of books that I rotate reading. Anyway, here's a story they forgot to add.
The Duffield Drink
In 1972 fresh attempts were being made to penetrate some of the remote areas of Borneo in search of new species. Colonel Duffield, an experienced explorer and hunter led his team of five through six months of hell to eventually reach an area called Intotoba. It was not what they expected, the thick jungle had given way to a lush clearing totally unexpected this deep in. Around the area was scattered remains of a lost civilisation, several ancient walls still stood alongside an almost intact temple. Who were these people and where had they gone?
They set up camp pleased with their new discovery and in the following days managed to catalogue over a hundred new plant species and several unknown insects. They had even managed to enter the temple after removing a fallen stone slab with a makeshift block and tackle but found little inside. Then just as they were about to depart after a weeks encampment Colonel Duffield made one more discovery of a fallen statue that had become wedged behind some kind of ritual table at the back of the temple. Picking it up the statue was of a stone human holding a cup to the sky on a wooden base. Curious he thought, the base was triangular, a peculiarity that made no sense. Then he noticed the triangular hole in the centre of the table, you could only just see it as heavy growth had almost covered it. Excitedly he cut away the vines and cleared the hole. The statues base fitted perfectly.
Too perfectly, for just then he heard a whooshing sound, looking up just as a torrent of green liquid poured down from above filling his mouth. Colonel Duffield did not choke, for the liquid tasted sweet, tropical and above all delicious. In moments his mouth was singing, he was dancing and the liquid poured and poured until overcome with such rapture he passed out.
When he awoke the ground was dry, was it just a delusion? No, he could still taste a little of the nectar and his clothes carried a slight green colour stain. Carefully he picked up the statue and slipped it in his pocket.
This is where our story falters for no records exist of what happened to the Colonel apart from hus death certificate but it was rumoured that he returned to England and left the statue and map to a distant relative in his will. Trying to trace this has been impossible but records show that a few years after his death in 1983 a jungle related drink entered the market place called Um Bongo which showed all the signs of the mysterious liquid Duffield had enjoyed previously.
Had Colonel Duffield stumbled across a mythical Um Bongo producing temple all those years ago? You decide in the final chapter of Tales of Intriguing Unexplained Mystery Of The Unknown.
Tomorrow the strange case of The Man Who Went To Mars In A Dustbin, a sobering tale of a down and out inebriated man who found adventure when he least expected it.
www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Everything Impossimal
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