er various
deliverances from dangers, moral and physical. It commences with a
sentence which is subtle enough for the nineteenth-century era. I quote
this and the two following lines:--

"That is true love which makes the heart uneasy.
There was a woman who shone like a gem in the world, for
she was distinguished by her conduct, and her name
was Jowar Manikam.
Pure was her conduct like that of a saint, and she never
forgot her devotions to the deity: all evil desires were
strangers to her heart."

The dramatic works fall naturally into two divisions. The circle of
poems, partly historical, which recount the adventures of Panji, the
"knight" or national hero of Java, and which are called, after his name,
"the Panjis;" and the wayang plays. The Panjis are important as alone
supplying the Javan theatre with subjects for its representations. Among
the titles of the various works included in the group are such as these:
"The marriage of Panji and Angreni," "The History of the Lady Kurana,
Princess of Bali," and "Panji and his Amours." There appears to be great
uncertainty as to the origin and date of these poems. Vreede, after
giving Raffles' account of the "Angrene"--the title under which the
Panjis appear to have been then (1819) known--says that he has quoted
the account of Raffles _verbatim_ "because, notwithstanding the palpable
inaccuracies of his conclusions, seeing our faulty information about the
origin, the date, the authors, and the compilation of the Panji
narratives, his indications may have, for all we know, great value."

As to the works directly due to the introduction of the Arabic language
and literature simultaneously with the establishment of the Mohammedan
power in the island, it is certainly remarkable, considering the
completeness of the Mohammedan conquest and its long duration, that the
Javanese language should show such few signs of Arabic influences as it
does at the present time. The Koran was rendered into Javan verse a
century and a half ago. Beside the various adaptations from the Arabic,
there are a large number of Arabic treatises current in Java. Long ago
Arabic schools were established in the island, and of these schools
that in the district of Pranaraga at one time boasted of having as many
as fifteen hundred scholars.

I shall conclude this account of the Javanese literature with a short
description of the native theatre, and of the wayang.