of the tropical night veiling the dusky lawns, crowded
with mysterious figures drawn by the weird music from every quarter,
the brilliant robes and grotesque masks of the actors, compose a
picture of archaic charm. Passers-by pause on their way to look, and
listen with unwearied interest to the oft-told tales, for the stories
of the world's childhood, like the fairy lore of our own early days,
deepen their significance to the untaught mind by perpetual repetition.
The Hindu cloudland which veils the Javanese past "was reached by a
ladder of realities," for the exploits of gods and mythical heroes were
afterwards attributed to native Rulers, until the medley of truth and
fiction, history and mythology, became an inextricable tangle. The
birds' beaks, and hooked noses of the masks in the _topeng_, and of the
puppets in the shadow-play, were made compulsory after the Arabic
conquest, in order to reconcile the national pastime with the creed of
Islam, which forbade the dramatic representation of the human form. The
reigning _Susunhan_ evaded the decree by distorting mask and puppet,
but although the outside world might no longer recognise the heroes of
the play, Javanese knowledge of national tradition easily pierced the
flimsy disguise, and credited their deified heroes with a new power of
metamorphosis. The fantastic play lasts so far into the night that the
prolonged _libretto_ is brought to a summary conclusion by the hostess,
since European nature can stand no more, though the rapt attention of
the Malay would continue till morning. The satiety of modern days has
never touched these simple minds, and an entire absence of that
critical element which disintegrates so many of life's simple joys,
ministers to the supreme satisfaction derived from the crude ideals of
native drama. Silently the brown spectators slip away like shadows from
the dim and dewy garden, for the simple and untaught Malay, though
eagerly welcoming the privileges permitted to him, never encroaches
upon them, and the conduct of these Eastern playgoers affords an
example of order and sobriety which shames many an audience of higher
education and social superiority in distant Europe.

DJOKJACARTA.

A long day's journey lies between Garoet and Djokjacarta, which popular
parlance abbreviates into Djokja. From the blue Preanger hills and
palm-shadowed upland plains, the railway descends by steep gradients to
the dense jungle and fever-laden swamp