To tell you the truth, I thought it was old Egyptian.

All I do know is that it was given, or rather lent, to me by a lady whose title is Walda Nagasta, and who is supposed to be a descendant of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba." Higgs took up the ring and looked at it again; then, as though in a fit of abstraction, slipped it into his waistcoat pocket.
"I don't want to be rude, therefore I will not contradict you," he answered with a kind of groan, "or, indeed, say anything except that if any one else had spun me that yarn I should have told him he was a common liar.

But, of course, as every schoolboy knows, Walda Nagasta--that is, Child of Kings in Ethiopic--is much the same as Bath-Melachim--that is, Daughter of Kings in Hebrew." Here Captain Orme burst out laughing, and remarked, "It is easy to see why you are not altogether popular in the antiquarian world, Higgs.

Your methods of controversy are those of a savage with a stone axe." "If you only open your mouth to show your ignorance, Oliver, you had better keep it shut.

The men who carried stone axes had advanced far beyond the state of savagery.