5 JANUARY 1929, Page 30

Among the delightfully compact Benn's sixpenny series we must mention

three recent volumes written by- experts in their own subjects. They are. The Islamic' Faith, by, Sir Thomas Arnold, The English Language, by Prof. Ernest Weekley, and Insects, by Mr. Balfour Browne. Sir Thongs dispels the popular • error that Mohammedans believe women to have no souls, and predestination to be a doctrine of fatalism : he also points out (what is so often fOrgotten) that Islam is a political as well as a religious system. He tells a singular story of some lascars keeping the fast of Ramadan in the Arctic Circle. As the sun never set, these unfortunate men would not break their fast and some of 'them starved before the rest could be hurried back.