Barbara Toy followed the Mediterranean coastline of North Africa, travelling through what was then French Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, to Cyprus, then down through Lebanon, Syria and then through Jordan to Iraq. While in Iraq she visited several archaeological sites, including in May 1951 Sir Max Mallowan's excavations at Nimrud where his wife Agatha Christie was helping with processing the finds. The work on the site had just finished, and the finds for that season included the stele of King Assur-nasir-pal II. Her journey home is not described in the book, although in her second book "A Fool in the
Ivory Carved Dashavtar India, used to be the hub of ivory craft, before it was banned in the country. Many artisans and craftsmen from various parts of south India (especially Trivandrum) specialized in carving ivory. Decorated with black paint, the screen and the base of the shrine shows the signature style of craftsmanship of Mysore school of ivory painting. However, ivory is a bone medium and so is forbidden to be worshiped in Hinduism. And so this raises the question as to why this shrine was carved in ivory. All the images are fixed on a painted stepped base made of sandalwood. The