2 OCTOBER 1926, Page 39

TILE ENCIRCLED SERPENT. By M. Oldfield Howey; (Rider, 25s. net.)—This

is a volume of much good material on ancient and modern symbolism ; but it has not been worked over into any satisfying form, and Miss Oldfield Howey is a little indiscriminate in the writers she accepts as authorities. It is disconcerting, for example, to find a chapter upon "Sea Serpents," in which irreconcilable accounts are cited as accumulative evidence. None the less, the wide range of Miss Rowey's erudition makes the book delightful to wander in. The serpent has been one of the most constant mythical and religious symbols. It is not in all its guises an emblem of evil or horror. With many races it has symbolized the underlying wisdom and power of the universe,, or the eternal continuity within the flux of circumstances. Miss Howey's volume will make clearer a great amount of primitive religion, and even illustrate motives in some of the highest and most systematized religions of the world.