Having read her previous book with interest, we opened Madame
David-Neel's new book with pleasant anticipations. With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet (The Bodley Head, 15s.) both entertains and disappoints. An introduction by Dr. A. d'Arsonval vouches for the writer's long residence in Tibet ; that she has the gift of tongues and is herself a professed Buddhist we already knew. We had hoped, therefore, to find a revelation of the inner doctrines of Buddhism which it was also her aim to discover. Indeed, the authoress recounts how she passed a test suddenly sprung on her by a suspicious lama and was able to satisfy him on 'her understandink of some of the most abstruse doctrines of his creed. So it is clear that she has deep knowledge at her command, and it is doubtless an honourable reluctance to divulge what are virtually secrets of the confessional that prevents her from being more explicit. Our disappointment, however, is tempered with pleasure at the vivid account she gives of her personal experiences, which all carry the hall-mark of sincerity. Her anecdotes are charming and combine to produce an atmosphere which carries us to the mountains of Tibet. Where so much is good we commend especially the chapter headed " Psychic Sports," in which she describes the religious discipline which enables true votaries to develop amazing powers of endurance and super-normal energy. It is a very readable book, and well illustrated.
* * * *
Previous page
