27 APRIL 1929, Page 29

THE FIRE-SPIRITS. By Paul Busson. (Heinemann, Ts. 6d.)—This novel, translated

from the German, is a romance of the Tyrol in the days of Napoleon. Peter Storck is a young Austrian, who, hearing that his uncle has died in his Tyrolese hermitage, suspects murder and goes to investigate. He meets with love adventures and becomes involved in a peasant rising, while the climax has for its setting a festival of the "fire-spirits," with their devilish rites. The plot is con- ventional, but as a picture of the Tyrolese life of the period, and of the Mithra-worship then still surviving among the peasants, the story has power and charm.