It is literally true of the tribe described in "The Sea Gypsies of Malaya" (by W. G. White), that "their home is on the deep." They live in their bamboo boats off the islands in the South of Malaya, ing practically naked, eating shel] fish and roots, stealing ashore occasionally to build a new boat or to rest from their voyages, and being preyed upon now by native traders, who covet the pearls they find, as they formerly were by the! more powerful tribes who seem to! have driven them off the mainland where they were once the people of the soil. They are very nearly in a State of nature. The author learned their language in order to engage in the double task of carrying on missionary duties and taking an official census. Only some five thousand of them exist. They are incredibly simple in their ways and beliefs. They cannot keep a record of their own ages, they have not even learnt to row in unison, yet their treatment of children and the relations between husband and wife are generally very beautiful. Mr. White seems to have found that even more marvellous than the differences between these people and civilized men and women are the similarities in fundamental things.
A favourite English novelist of the old days once said, "I'm not happy unless I'm a novel ahead of my readers." He meant that while they were reading his latest printed story he was packing up the manuscript of another. This plan seems to be in the practice of Mr. W. J. Locke, for while we are reading his "Triona," he has finished a further tale and called it "Mordius and Company.'"? What it is and whom it concerns we shall shortly discover, for it is going to appear serially. All Mr. Locke's stories do that now, and in America particularly his serial rights have great value.
5 oe Mr. Sidney Dark, who is some thing of an adept at bringing ideas within the grasp of untrained minds, has already written -'A Child's. Book of France,' and now he has followed it up with a companion volume, "The Child's Book of England."" His record extends from the earliest times to the present day, and he has tried to strike a balance between the history of Kings and state policy and the history of people and social life. It ig an adequate record of its kind, and a child who has come fairly to Brips with it will not be lacking a good foundation for more advanced studies. Mr. Dark says that his book is not a lesson book, but a story book, which boys and girls will read for fin. It is a pity that books for children cannot be reviewed by children, for it is difficult for us, who have not even a child handy on whom to test it, to say what appeal such a book will make to the average child. Without making a travesty of history, Mr. Dark has succeeded in simplifying historical ideas, and he has an_ easy, avuncular manner that should make his book attractive. It is a fine big volume, illustrated by sixteen reproductions of well-known historical pictures.
Messrs. George Allen and Unwin have in the press the authorized biography of Sir William Wedder-burn (1838-1918), by Mr. 8S. K. Ratcliffe, formerly of: the Statesman," Calcutta. It describes his years in the Bombay civil Service, his seven years in Parliament, his help in founding the Indian National Congress, and guiding the work of the British Committee in London; his support of Lord Morley in relation to the 1909 reforms, and his labours after the rise of Indian Extremism to \hold the National Congress to the constitutional position. The biography should thus throw much light on the influence of English public men in shaping the Indian reform movement.
"A Century of Children's Books,'' by Florence V. Barry, which Messrs, Methuen recently published, recalls many forgotten treasures belonging to the childhood of our ancestors. It traces the growth of juvenile literature from the pedlar's chapbooks to the quaint devices of a "Lilliputian Library," and then to the portraits of the Edgeworth school, The modern school is re-ing it good. There are few corners of London into which he does not peep, and he contrives to give a succession of pleasing literary pictures of places, of people, of institutions and all the kaleidoscopic character and movement of London by day and by night. His style is fresh and entertaining, with no special claim to distinction of phrase, but there is keen observation, and the book is packed with detail. Those who know their London will appreciate this visit in company with an agreeable and very well informed guide.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.