Colin Turnbull. THE FOREST PEOPLE (Pimlico, #10).

* THIS is the story of a man who fell in love with a whole people.

They are the Mbuti, the pigmies of the Ituri forest in Zaire, and the

author lived with them for three years in the 1950s. He writes of them

in a way that conveys a wonderful sense of the otherness of their lives.

The world is more environmentally conscious than it was when this was

first written, but it still could serve as a bible for ecophiles: the

symbiosis of the Mbuti with the forest is both mystical and immensely

practical, and their humanity and dignity shine from every page.