16 NOVEMBER 1929, Page 31

It is impossible to agree with the publishers' estimate of

Chief of the Herd, by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., (is. net). We should like to see the chief feeding the souls of his herd as well as their stomachs, but only one who has achieved the author's intimacy with elephants may claim such a favour. The stories give us no feeling of reality, and surely hati is an unusual form to give the elephant's name. The format of the book is deplorable and the illus- trations are in keeping with it.

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