Miss Bapsy Parry has conceived and carried through an excellent
project in re-telling the stories about women in Firchiusrs Shahnama. Her book is called The Heroines of Ancient Persia (Cambridge University Press, ids.) and will serve as an introduction to the important literature of " The Book of Kings." Both type and illustrations (the latter chosen from the collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and fine examples of the miniaturists .of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) fitly adorn a tale that is famous throughout the East. Many of the incidents related are quaintly modern : we have such pictures as " Sohrab in combat with a woman in disguise," and " Gushtasp plays polo with the Emperor of Rum " (he seems to be playing with the wrong side of his mallet) and Ruslmnak (Rosana) in the presence of Sikander (Alexander)." No doubt these stories will charm a chosen few ; for the many we fear the mind of Firdausi is too distant from this restless age.
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