Five of the yearly number of 15 Fellows come from the United States. The rest come from Europe. Latin America. Asia, and Africa. Bowie said that countries that have participated in the Fellows program before are usually responsible for picking the Fellows. Nye explained, however, that this is not always the case. There was once a radical who was in exile from his government who served as a Fellow. "That was in Dahomey."

"Is that in India?"

"No," Nye smiled, "it's in West Africa."

The Fellows for 1969-70 include a colonel in the U.S. Army who commanded a brigade in Vietnam, a U.S. Navy captain, a former president of the Central Bank of Brazil, an AID specialist on Nigeria, and a cabinet minister from Ghana.

Last summer, about 100 students from Brazil came to Cambridge for a week under the auspices of a large number of American corporations. I was here, and had nothing else to do, and so I talked with them quite a lot. One said that "All of the real student leaders in Brazil were either in jail, in exile, or dead." Another explained that "Armed struggle has already begun in Brazil." I wondered why the Center had not asked one of them to come.

In addition to the constant flow of new ideas from one scholar-administrator to another, the Center's Tenth Annual Report says that "The Fellows also traveled widely in the United States. They made a number of trips together, including a two-day visit to Dearborn, Michigan, as guests of the Ford Motor Company."

I THINK I'm happier knowing that 6 Divinity Ave. wasn't always the CFIA. The University began its Semitic collection in 1889. In 1902. a naturalized banker named Jacob Schiff put up the money for the museum, which opened in 1903. I wish I could have heard the negotiations between the Near Eastern Languages Department and the Center's founders over the building's change in function.

The quick tour will begin from Bowie's office, and go back through the building past the Near Eastern Languages Department offices, and downstairs to the most interesting part of the building. That is the Semitic Museum, which, according to a sign, is not open to the public. My piece of The Inside Story at last.

The whole building seems to be full of fakes. In the dark passageways between the seminar rooms where I think I overheard an Egyptian 201 class, are arrayed an assortment of copies of Near Eastern sculpture. There is a four-sided stella, which, if I remember correctly, is a copy of the copy in the British Museum. It is called the Black Obelisque, and on it the Assyrian king Shalmanesar III recorded his conquest of most of the Near East, including Babylon. Nearby is a cast of an Assyrian bas-relief which shows kings impaling their captives on spears.

In a neighboring alcove, there is an imitation of the Hammurabi code. The original, in the Louvre, is black with a bas-relief of Hammurabi, standing, receiving the law from a god. The Semitic Museum's imitation is white. It has a replica of the bas-relief, but the stella itself seemed to be blank. Later, in the light, I saw that the code had been meticulously cast on the copy. At least they had not classified that, I thought.

I had almost forgotten. There is one more rumor worth dispelling. The Center proudly proclaims that it does no classified research. Personally, I consider it a breach of etiquette to play with words. My humor lies elsewhere, I think. What the Center means, is that the Center itself, as an institution, does no classified research. If you look very closely, however, you will find a safe for classified research in Professor Cheney's office. I would be willing to wager that there exists a similar one in many other offices in the Center. Seymour Martin Lipset did work for the Air Force. But heals, I have not been in his office.

Downstairs again. Of the 12 or 13 extant sculptures of the Sumerian king Goudia, who lived about 2350 B.C., a good number are in the Louvre. One is in the Boston Musuem. The portrait of his head may well be the most beautiful piece of sculpture ever done. In the Louvre, they sell a full-sized reproduction of that head, made in the Louvre workshops, for 55 francs. I have one in my bedroom at home. There is also one next to the while Hummurabi.

Further inside the museum lie two Egyptian sarcophagus from the Lower, or decadent Empire. There is a random collection of glassware and pottery from all over the Near East.

After climbing back up the stairs to the second floor, and passing a manure-colored bas-relief, also a copy, of some Assyrian king, you arrive at the Center Library on the Third floor. The library is small, and books may be borrowed only by Center members. The description of the library in the Center's reports advertised a section on development. I would check to see if they had a sense of humor, I decided. I looked for Walter Jackson Bate's The Stylistic Development of John Keats. It was not in the card catalogue.

LET US BROWSE. however briefly, through the books that are there. First I noticed a manuscript by George Quester, a research fellow of the Center, former Head Tutor of the Government Department, and my section man in Gov 1b. I have two memories form my freshman year. The first is of my only date. The second is of Dr. Quester's section on Karl Marx.