ics were fond of the _mimus_. It was in the hands of strolling
players of the humblest kind. It coarsened with the general decay. All
court festivals needed the _mimus_ for the festivities.[2072]

+646. Drama in the Orient.+ There is no drama in Mohammedan literature
and it appears that there is no original drama in the Orient.[2073] The
_mimus_ declined in the West in the disaster of the fifth century, but
in the Byzantine empire it lasted until the Turkish conquest, so that it
appears that if there is any historical connection between modern and
ancient drama it must be through Byzantium.[2074] The actors at
Byzantium kept a certain traditional license in the face of the emperor
and court which was not without social and political value.[2075]

+647. Marionettes.+ Marionettes are mentioned in Xenophon's _Symposium_.
They were of more ancient origin. The puppet play was used as a means of
burlesquing the legitimate theater and drama. It passed to the Turks as
the puppet shadow play, in which the hero Karagoez is the same as Punch
in figure, character, and acts. This puppet play spread all over the
Eastern world. Lane[2076] says of it in Egypt, in the first half of the
nineteenth century, that it was very indecent. Reich[2077] describes an
indecent shadow play. A special form of it was developed in Java, the
_wajang-poerva_, with figures of the _pantin_ type, operated by strings
and levers. This amusement is very popular in Java and very
representative of the mores. Whether these oriental forms of the _mimus_
were derived from the Greco-Roman world is uncertain. The _mimus_ is so
original and of such spontaneous growth that it does not need to be
borrowed.

+648. The drama in India.+ In India, at the beginning of the Christian
era, there was a development of drama of a high character. The one
called the _Clay-waggon_ (a child's toy) is described as of very great
literary merit,--realistic, graphic, and Shakespearean in its artistic
representation of life.[2078] Every drama which has that character must
be in and of the mores. In the _Clay-waggon_ the story is that of a
Brahmin of the noblest character, who marries a courtesan, she having
great love for him. The courtesan gives to the Brahmin's son a toy wagon
of gold for his own made of clay. The name of the play comes from this
trivial incident in it. A wicked, vain, and shallow-pated prince
intervenes and is taken as a biolog, or standing type of person. Modern
Hind