RETURN TO ETHIOPIA

[Music] good evening ladies and gentlemen from evanston illinois we welcome for their first appearance on our true story adventure series mr mrs willis butler mrs butler was raised in ethiopia the daughter of an american missionary and with her husband returned there recently after an absence of 17 years and here in the still primitive and rugged land she relived the memories of her childhood of the fierce desert tribesmen the trappings of ethiopian royalty and swift herds of wild game seldom seen even by the white hunters of africa for the next 30 minutes we share the adventurous journey of mr and mrs willis butler on a return to ethiopia bull journey your television passport to the exciting colorful world of adventure brought to you each week by the ralston furina company of checkerboard square st louis makers of rice chips [Music] wheat chex rye crisp and instant ralston the famous foods in the checkerboard packages and here speaking for ralston is that celebrated serial salesman lee goodman [Music] attention in attacking an ordinary bowl of cereal the most important thing to remember is how to keep it from bogging down in sugar and milk now this is a battle you never have with a grown-up cereal like wheat chex no sir but with some cereals a classic tactic is to pour the milk carefully down the side of the bowl instead of right on top this attack is known as out flanking the flakes then we have the undercover assault first used during the famous battle of the uh bomber chute finally there's the underground technique you just don't pour the milk into the bowl you send it through a pipe inserted from below well with we checks you don't have any battle at all because it's over the top every time man we checks are a grown-up cereal you see with a pronounced whole wheat flavor they stay crisp and crunchy the whole bowl through so if you want a cereal that doesn't meet its waterloo and sugar and milk march right down to your grocery store for a package of wheat chex the grown-up cereal from checkerboard square and now here to begin tonight's true story adventure is jack douglas despite its proud heritage of independence its long history as a nation reaching back to the bible and even the primitive beauty of its countryside the kingdom of ethiopia is the one region most often overlooked by the african traveler one reason perhaps is that even today outside its capital city ethiopia remains a tough rough even overpowering country a nation of vast contrasts in short a place that one would choose for a visit only for very strong reasons well mrs willis butler had such a reason for virtually every memory she has of her childhood is tied to this land of the lion of judah and so last summer the butler's journey to africa's oldest independent nation and here to tell the story of this adventure our mr mrs willis butler of evanston illinois hello mrs butler hello jack how are you sir hello nice to see you mrs butler how old were you when your parents took you to ethiopia i was two years old jack when my father gathered up his family and set sail for ethiopia where he was to be a medical missionary i see now mr butler was this your first visit to ethiopia yes as a matter of fact it was jack although of course i had heard a lot about ethiopia for about 10 years from my wife well now mrs butler was there some inner reason uh why you want to return to ethiopia beyond perhaps the opportunity to relive some of your childhood memories well of course jack i wanted to see the people and the places that i'd known when i was a child there but i think more especially i wanted to show the country to bill surely just in case your husband begins using some uh ethiopian terms uh during the course of the narration of the film that we're about to see i wonder if you'd give us an idea of what the ethiopian language is like or perhaps the dialect that you learned although one of the main dialects is gala language and i learned to speak it like a native and i might say to you what does that mean which means how are you we're just fine how are you thank you very much mrs butler now mr butler is our journey by air or by sea we start by air deck from new york's idlewild airport air travel makes it so much more simple to get to ethiopia today than it was when my father-in-law 17 years ago set out for ethiopia today it's just a matter of two days and you're in addis ababa 1700 miles on the map of africa south from cairo look at the mountainous terrain we cover as we hit ethiopia from the north which gives way finally to the fertile plateau country and finally here we are in the city of the new flower [Music] seeing it from the site that emperor menelik first looked down upon the valley he said i'm going to call this the city of the new flower addis abuba as we look at it from our hotel room the downtown business district it certainly looks like a very modern city doesn't it yes it is this of course being the capital of the country many different languages the amheric language being the main language of ethiopia there are many picturesque ways in this modern city of getting around town this is the horse drawn gary and then they have a little motorized version of it for short they just call this the mg the motorcycle a lot of the people from out in the country come into town in style burrows carrying the produce down to the market the borough's doing this african can can on the way in the market [Music] hannibal's are not the only bearers of goods the people also carry very heavy loads they think nothing of it and this is what you see any day in the week on the way to artist obama everybody seems to be in a hurry in this country one american who had spent a good many years here said this is the walkingest talkingest country i've ever seen we've come down now two hundred miles to the east of arizona by air where at seven o'clock in the morning as the animals returned from their water hole you can sometimes see them racing through the swamps antelope down there ethiopia has just as many animals as the other african countries to the south 36 oryx trying desperately to get away from our airplane one of the villages of the dreaded dynakills one of the reasons why it's still unsafe to travel alone out here in the desert area that name was the donaquel the donahuels jake one of the most primitive people on the earth today now we've left that area and are flying over the old raccoon church community of la la bella tucked away in the mountains at ten thousand feet with these eleven monolithic churches carved out of solid rock eight hundred fifty years ago under old king la la bella rather than breaking up the rock and reassembling it they've just carved the rock as it stands and interconnecting these 11 churches by means of mysterious subterranean tunnels it'll take about eight days by mule caravan to get up here if it weren't for the airplane continuing on into the interior of ethiopia to mizantafri and up there on that hill is the home site of charlie haspel's an american missionary charlie's on the way back from the airport he's bringing in the christmas mail this is february and the mail is right on schedule from the united states they're really out here in the middle of nowhere is he a doctor no charlie is a missionary administrator you might say but they do have a doctor here and charlie's responsible for the overall program lois his wife from new galilee pennsylvania has joined charlie out here this is where the doctor works this little galvanized iron clinic but it's really a wonderful thing for the people here there is the doctor at the left campbell miller is he an american also no he's a scottish lad as a matter of fact working for the american mission and these different patients have come in some of them have walked for two or three days to find the doctor of course kids all the world around i think have the same reaction to medicine i think that little one turned away it sure did well campbell has examined this woman and an operation was found necessary but she said not until i get the consent of a witch doctor the physician very wisely pointed out this fellow who happened to be a witch doctor and had to be a patient at the same time he said ask him the witch doctor said yes the american has cut on me and has helped if i were you i'd let him cut on you and so you have a witch doctor sanctioning modern medicine in ethiopia today charlie has been very industrious with this channel he dug for six months he has diverted some water from a little jungle stream there's a 30-foot difference between it and the level of the jungle stream so charlie built his own little hydroelectric plant in this little shack where a turbine is operated the do-it-yourself program in ethiopia and he learned it all by correspondence remarkable charlie has electricity 24 hours a day out in the middle of the jungle and he pipes the surplus water into the house where he has tap water out here in the interior we travel now by automobile up this road 750 miles to the north traveling on the way through this rugged terrain which is so typical of ethiopia obstacles to navigation occasionally like this fellow up ahead i said look out but my driver said don't worry he wants us to run over his devil he thought was following they've tried to scratch out the name on the top of that tunnel mussolini of course we zoom out of that tunnel a few miles further we arrive at the bati market right at the edge of the donaquel desert the desert inhabited by those people who lived in that village we saw from the air everything is very primitive and it takes a long long time to arrive at the price the camels have been through this many times before with their masters and so they get bored with the whole thing and one by one drift off to slumberland this was the first donaquel lady we had met very reluctant as you can see to be photographed well now a few moments ago mr butler when you mentioned these people you inferred that probably they weren't very good company just why are they a warrior people yes they still bestow admiration and glory on the man who has killed a lot of people killing is the royal road to glory and you can see the tools he uses which can strike terror into any traveler's heart and before the airplane you had to travel right through their countryside days and days from any police station so their activities are rather difficult to control but the government has been trying to discourage with the gallows their murderous practices this is the kind of terrain we travel through these mountains which may travel so difficult before the airplane at oxuma french expedition is excavating ancient ethiopian structures we find the 70-foot high obelisk this is the oldest known object made by man found so far in ethiopia said by scientists to be at least 16 centuries old this 120-foot one was toppled years ago here is the pool where according to legend the queen of sheba swam highly salicy of course claiming that his lineage goes back all the way to the queen of sheba and king solomon and it was here in this little coronation place that the old kings of ethiopia were crowned right on the stone diocese the old crowns that decked their heads the gentleman in charge of them gave us his personal fly switch as a token of the occasion a very christian gentleman and a man and charged with a great responsibility here in looking after these precious and historically important crowns and look at this beautiful handwork all done here in ethiopia they look as if they might be worth the king's ransom i don't know their exact value hundreds of years old really with their semi-precious jewels but priceless in worth because of their great historical importance we left the city of aksum because we had heard about a monastery not too many hours away monastery of debra damo up on top that huge rock very formidable location we were to discover we continued by automobile as far as we could travel but we had been grossly misinformed to put it mildly we were told that it was going to be a two-hour walk but they neglected to say that it was down 5000 feet and up another 5 000 feet so we arrived totally unprepared in street shoes and ordinary clothing no ropes or climbing gear of any kind we finally got up here five thousand feet exhausted we saw this reception committee peering down on us out of the clouds like something out of shangri-la they told me jack i'd have to take off my shoes here because i was going to be treading on sacred ground and then look at the 75 foot cliff that i had to go up by means of this rope it's the only way you can get up there it was a means of defense fortunately there was a man hauling away on a rope which was tied to my waist and so with his efforts and my last ounce of strength i managed to swing my leg over and i had arrived down below my wife waiting rather dejectedly this being a monastery she wasn't allowed on top holy ground visited by a few men from our civilized world i wondered what i'd find thank you very much mr butler mrs butler part two of your true story adventure will continue in just a few moments first here's a word from our happy inhabitant of checkerboard square lee goodman at last inspector crunch was closing in on the gang of cheese counterfeiters he had traced him to the back room of the skullduggery delicatessen on the waterfront peeking through a back window he observed their operation the inspector entered without knocking nobody moved he commanded you are suspected of printing imitation swiss cheese from his coat he drew out his trusty package of rye crisp crackers and made himself a snack he munched it expertly just as i thought he said you're making counterfeit swiss the imitation is perfect except for one detail the flavor is that of limburger and the proof is in the rye crisp because rye crisp always brings out the true genuine flavor of any cheese you are under arrest boy i sure like these stories with a resting dialogue especially when it's about cheese and rye crisp in fact i eat it up you see nothing brings out the best in a slice of cheese like the tantalizing taste of rye and right here in rye crisp you get the real flavor of 100 whole grain rye in its most munchable crunchable form rye crisp the smorgasbord cracker in the checkerboard package and so jack this is what we found up at the top of debra damo the oldest surviving christian church in all of ethiopia with these men standing out in front in all of their religious finery i was deeply impressed when they told me that this was no particular religious festival or celebration of any kind but they were just appreciative of having travelers come their way there are about 100 monks in all who live up here on top and who've given their lives to the coptic christian church ethiopia having been christian of course for over 16 centuries they were very kind they took me across this plateau over to one of their stone to green style houses where we were entertained with food water and i was so thirsty that i threw all hygienic standards to the wind and gulped the water down later i got curious where did you get my drinking water i said well right down here sir in these stone reservoirs we got yours from this one last year's rainwater you know but apparently the algae had devoured all the germs and it was quite safe we left debra damo flying now to root's old hometown gory and you see how we travel in the c-47 with the cargo lashed across the aisle from us often it's live and the chickens cluck madly as you take off coming in for a landing here at the gory airport which is on top of a five thousand foot mountain and jack you never worry about which way the wind blows in ethiopia when you're landing you always land uphill and take off downhill the airline terminal building our only touch with civilization out here in the interior the radio shack much different of course than in the days when ruth lived here now the airline limousine takes you into town not exactly the most steady ride in the world but you get there and you're glad to have it another change since ruth lived here electricity unknown at that time provided today by this italian between 7pm and midnight no meters in the households the charge is being determined by the number of light bulbs of various wattages they own and he sells all the bulbs in town the skies began to darken just a bit as we arrived at the former compound where ruth lived the rain beating down on these galvanized iron roofs and she said this was a very familiar sound as a child she used to go to sleep during the rain beat down on the metal roofs the sky is finally cleared and we took off once again from this gory airport the american pilot telling me that this is one airfield mr butler where you must be airborne or else at the end of the runway because you're automatically at five thousand feet as you zoom off this carrier deck in the jungle magnificent scenery very spectacular and dramatic we've changed to automobile here now often in the mountainous terrain the warm air meeting the cold causes rather eerie scenes like this fog drifting up the mountainside since ethiopia is so mountainous it's quite natural that the people should live on the mountainside and be known more or less is mountain people really it was here in this hut that we met otto goodah 48 years old who was the cook back in gory for ruth's father here he is starting his typical day with the rest of the family gathered round for morning prayer mama their young son leaves for school and these ethiopian lads think nothing of walking up to two hours to school most of it uphill the little sister here bringing the firewood the other sister bringing water from a half mile down the mountainside one of the ironies of ethiopia water being so precious even though the heavy monsoons deluge the countryside but it all runs off to egypt so they use water very sparingly having no beauty shop down at the corner mother is the local beautician you notice with this double-edged razor blade how she works on the hair the neighborhood gang coming around to watch the proceedings the little boy's hair cut in the opposite manner with the hair left in the center we're getting closer to meal time and martha's preparing the grain here pounding it in the old mortar and pestle method this grain they called dura and it'll be used to make their bread which in the amheric language they refer to as angera this will be eaten with the what as they call it which is a very hot and that's putting it mildly dish somewhat similar to our chili it has 21 different spices in it and this bread will sort of cut the hotness a little bit actually it didn't cut it too much for me it was very hot there's the water in the center you have bean water chicken watch all kinds of what so you never ask watts for lunch in ethiopia it's always what even the babies eat the hot wat we left our family continued on from demba dolo ethiopia and don't you like these musical ethiopian names it took us eight hours to travel this 33 miles in four-wheel drive because we're descending seven thousand feet this is the dry season by the way we didn't wait around for the heavy rains to arrive the saco river bridge i got out and examined the floor of the bridge it doesn't exactly inspire one with confidence but we made it our immediate destination here pogo the city of light in the anuac language there's lots of game around and every man carries a spear the main activity of the day begins at 9 30 for the men as they all gather under the biggest shade tree in town where they'll spend the rest of the day lying here peacefully on these sleeping mats with a wooden pillow rests after all it's about 130 degrees out in the sun you can't blame them i guess very sensible the baro river is right here alongside the village and so the women come down and get the water and since the men must survive under this big shade tree they bring them food and water at intervals and that's all that the men do all day long just take it easy you notice how the women are decorated here with the scar tissue a little junior with his beads looking out wide-eyed at the world 300 yards downstream from the village we saw these crocodiles which infest the borough river our missionary host came up with a rather astounding suggestion i thought at this point he said let's all take a swim in the river i said well you must be crazy don he said no there's one sandbar where i've shot at the croc so many times they know not to come here and he said the only thing we might have to worry about is a few travelers from upstream not acquainted with the local rules that's ruth in there drums called us out of the river soon afterward and we discovered that a dance was being held in our honor even if it was a 130 degrees out on the sun i thought the only proper and right thing to do is that you there that's me well never seen anything like this here before he said probably he hasn't we noticed the coptic cross again in miniature scale the influence of the christian church and also the work of the missionaries you were improvising a little bit here weren't you mr butler i don't know what kind of a dance you'd call this jack but you were having fun after this i couldn't walk for about a week the local telegraph service arriving you've heard of the african runner well here he is adding his telegram on the traditional forked stick to our host don mcclure don looks at this he says it's good word an airplane is going to take you back to audisava very quickly after arriving at the airport in the capital we happen to notice that at the same time another plane was arriving bringing in his imperial majesty highly selected these little dogs always precede him wherever he goes here he comes with full appropriate dignity the lion of judah he's quite beloved by his people isn't he yes he certainly is and the entire royal family they're sort of symbols for everybody of the head of the country this is the main religious celebration of the entire year this is what has brought heidi salazy back to addis ababa after a brief absence in eastern ethiopia he reviews it all the following morning at 6 00 a.m it's very cold as the high mass is celebrated we hear the chance of these priests who have gathered here swaying back and forth exotically leaning on their praying sticks assisted by the drummers a little later the formal proceedings got less and less formal people began to feel like dancing very spontaneously engaging in what they call their country fun sort of a reenactment of the tribal dances of yesterday and they used to carry real spears but many people inadvertently got hurt and so they carry poles today in the palace in addis ababa the man who is tying together all of these diverse elements and peoples of ethiopia the lion of judah himself very shrewd man a very sensitive man we all remember his league of nation speech defying a modern european army his point was that there should be equal rights for all nations including his the ethiopian flag reminding us that ethiopia is the only country in africa that never really bowed to colonialism thank you very much mr butler well mrs butler it's easy to see why you wanted so badly to return to ethiopia you've both proved that it certainly is a fascinating wonderland for the world of adventure well now mr butler we we've seen you with that souvenir what is it by the way well this is an ethiopian fly switch jack and it's very useful may i you certainly may it was given to us by the guardian of the royal crowns over in the sacred city of oxum a man who was perhaps one of the most christian gentlemen i ever had the pleasure of meeting he was 300 miles from the nearest camera store he had never had a photograph made of himself he requested that we take one and when i offered to give it to him he said well no as a token of this occasion you must accept my picture and when i naturally refused he said well then you must take my personal fly switch as a momentum how very very nice mrs butler perhaps this question has a touch of the bridey murphy uh influence to it i don't mean it that way but quite seriously were you able to identify the people and the places that had played an important part of your 10 years in ethiopia as a child oh yes all the buildings were there and a lot of the old friends and i must have dragged bill around saying this is where this took place and so forth but the most uh the thing i enjoyed the most was seeing the rest of the country that i hadn't seen as a child surely the backwoods country particularly in the jungle and the felt as well now you had two sisters who were born in ethiopia yes as a matter of fact there were six children in my family and the two youngest girls were born in ethiopia well mr butler mrs butler i very much want to thank you for showing us these very lovely pictures of yours and i think that we are quite fortunate to have as our guest two people who have such a genuine affection for the land they visited thank you good luck mrs butler thank you so very much mr williams in just a few moments highlights from next week's exciting action adventure first however a last gentle reminder from lee goodman hmm instant ralston [Applause] that's the way to get off to a steam and start in the morning with the power of ralston's whole grain wheat instant ralston or regular ralston the power pack and cereals from checkerboard square [Music] [Applause] we journey deep into equatorial brazil with mr paul crum of henderson nevada to the unexplored jungles of amapa mr krum and his guides must battle the swift rapids of the jarry river a young jaguar ventures out unperturbed by the passage of the explorers a rare black ant eater takes to water and quests of food the world's largest rodent a capybara is destined for a jungle cooking pot natives fish with enormous bows and arrows here's a jungle hitchhike a whole family including the dugout on mr crumb's outboard canoe my thanks now once again to mr mrs willis butler and as always to you ladies and gentlemen boys and girls thank you so much and good night bowl journey is brought to you every week on film by the ralston purina company checkerboard square st louis missouri