MIGHTY MO

Mohammed was a titanic elephant, who roamed Africa for a hundred years and became virtually a legend. Miss Arundel has based her story on facts and created Mighty Mo around whom lovers of animal tales will rally. Her central human character is a boy who has come with his anger father to live in Tanganyika, and who absorbs the code of the hunter who involves the animal kingdom only to kill those creatures who have transgressed dangerously against man. Jay and his more limed friend. Suzannah, come to know these creatures of the wilds and love in particular a zebra that, they name Smudge. Jay's proof that he can distinguish between a killer elephant and the huge but peaceful Mighty Mo is evidenced when he kills the meaning Askarl -- and spares Mighty Mo. Miss Arundel does not portray Mighty , she shows him in ferocious battle with a savage lion. Wesley Dennis, whose animal portraits are collectors' items, provides artful renditions of Africa's wild life... And yet, in final analysis, this book lacks something of the mystery of a world in which animals are supreme, a quality that one does find, for instance, in Rene Guillot's books.