Who were the Khmers ? In the eleventh century they
had .5uilt for themselves in Cambodia a great city. Angkor Thom, with its temple, or Vat, where the gods and goddesses of the Hindus still peer through the jungle that now covers their divinity. The Khmers were a highly cultured people, planning and building magnificently, employing millions of slaves : one day—one night—their civilization vanished from living ken. Mr. Robert J. Casey in his remarkable book, Four Faces of Sira (Harrap, 12s. 6d.) considers various possibilities for this sudden disappearance of a mighty race—conquest by the Siamese, sudden pestilence, an uprising of slaves, and inclines to the latter conclusion. There are some good photographs here, and Mr. Casey writes smoothly and pleasantly, save where he employs the fatal Lotiesque dots (e.g. " The tragedy of Angkor lies in its mystery. . . . the dread enigma of a grave without an epitaph").
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