5 JUNE 1915, Page 22

SOME BOOKS OF THE WhEK.

[tidies in this column does sot uccessarsly preclude suhequant mine.] Captain C. H. Stigand has written a short study upon the dialectic differences of Swahili, and published it as A Grammar of Dialectic Changes in the Ifiswahili Language (Cambridge University Press, 7e. 6d. net). To this has been added a new recension and a verse translation by the Rev. W. E. Taylor of the Swahili poem "Inkishafi," of which the subject- matter reminds one a little of Ecclesiastes, as may be seen from this typical quotation:— "Thy fancies used thy follies, with the failure and the smart

That hence befall thee, mortal, and wherein thou hest a part, 'Tis these sum up the vain world on which thou setet thy heart; Heart-breaks and vanity—of such is Mammon's store."

Mr. Taylor believes the poem to date before the Portuguese discovery of East Africa in 1493.