Magic Books from Mexico. With an Introduction and Notes by
C. A. Burland. (Penguin Books. 4s. 6d.) THE Mexican book, a "King Penguin," is reproduced in strong colour, the pictures being taken from some of the deerskin folding books familiar to those who saw the Tate Gallery exhibition of Mexican Art. In these crude and packed pieces of sym- bolism, which seem to be the creation of violent and demented children, is reflected a religion as cruel as Akbar 's was spiritual. One wonders in looking at these compelling horrors whether the judgement, "rotten before it was ripe," does not more properly fit the autochthonous civilisation of North America than that of the United States, to which it has been applied. For here is an art from which no possible development could have come, the art of a people obsessed with the horror and cruelty of the universe, people for whom even the maize that fed them takes on shapes of spiky menace. How peaceful and kindly in contrast are the rich and shady trees in Akbar's manuscript
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