21 MAY 1921, Page 25

The University of Calcutta has just published a vol ume

on the Folk Literature of Bengal by D. G. Son. Some of the stories told are delightful, but unfortunately the author has adoptid the method of giving, first, a very short summary of the stories, and then adding afterwards those flowers of illustration which made them live. This is unfortunate, as the European reader is not able to get the full savour. The moat important of the stories is that of Malafichamida, who is an Indian Patient Grisol. Her trials—married at twelve years old to a baby husband whom she nurses and cares for—far exceed those of Grisel, and she never attains to earthly but only to spiritual happiness.