TIBETAN JOURNEY By Mme. Alexandra David-Neel Tibetan Journey (Lane, 12s.
6d.) is a puzzling book. It begins as abruptly as It ends, and neither dates nor motives are supplied to differentiate the mate- rial it contains from that already chronicled elsewhere by the authoress. Mme. Alexandra David-Neel is a daunt- less and indefatigable traveller ; her knowledge of Tibet and its religion (which is also her own) are very, nearly unrivalled in contemporary Europe. But these carnets de voyage are clearly not to be taken as an entirely fresh contribution to our knowledge of her experiences. The story, as here set forth, of her journey from Kunabum to Jycktmdo—she calls it Jakyeudo—has the agreeable flavour of a well-authen- ticated fairy-tale. She tells us neither whither she is going, nor why, nor when ; and her narrative, composed as it is of anecdotes, scraps of learning, and morsels of recondite folk-lore, must strike both expert and layman as something in the nature of footnotes to work, which has gone before or which is to come. The book, however, makes interesting, though tantalising, reading ; and the authoress, who writes with the maximum of objectivity, emerges as a wise, courageous and diplomatic tra- veller.
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