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 base, covered completely with ivory sheet has the traditional south Indian design of flowers and is decorated with several knobs fixed at the bottom step. Also two pillars support the fence in the background on both sides. The backdrop of the shrine is decorated with perforated ivory screen. These Jaalidar (lattice work) screens are divided in three parts by two small European style columns. An ivory strip on the wooden edges of the steps and base of the shrine depicts the foliage pattern. There are total 10 images, each depicting Lord Vishnu's avatars, carved in ivory. The topmost image is