FICTION: Mystic in Mexico

THE PLUMED SERPENT—D. H. Lawrence—Knopf ($3). Here lies Mexico, a sullen nation of black obsidian, brooding beneath a cruel sun. Christ hangs dead upon his cross and the name of Mary is a sterile myth in dusty shrines. By night, among the peons, the old gods stir, the Aztec gods. Quetzalcoatl, the bird-snake, is come again from "the cave which is called the Dark Eye, behind the sun," where the waters rise and the winds are borne on the waters of the afterlife. Through hia priests he...

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