re exhibited themselves to
the audience instead of being made to project shadows on a transparent
screen. Here, as at most plantations, it was customary for the weekly
market, held after pay-day, to be followed by a wayang.

When I reached the factory I found that the wages were being paid. The
coolies were seated (or rather squatted) on the ground in rows inside
the coffee-washing shed, while H---- sat at a table, with his manager
and foremen standing round him. After receiving their wages, the crowd
of natives flocked through the factory gates to an open space in front
of the storehouse. Here the different itinerant vendors had already
arranged their goods on stalls or on the ground. There were all manner
of cottons and silks, trinkets and hardwares. In addition to these,
queer edibles were to be seen--little dishes of pickled vegetables and
cured fish, fruits and cakes, even gold-fish. These latter were kept in
vessels filled with water, so that the fish could be put back into the
ponds again if they were not sold.

[Illustration: A DALANG. _Page_ 179.]

It was a pretty scene, this crowd of bright-coloured humanity. The skin
of the Javanese is little darker than that of the Italian, and his
clothes are gloriously picturesque. As usual, the hats, jackets, scarfs,
and sarongs displayed every shade of colour and variety of pattern. The
wayang did not begin until the evening. The chief performer, called the
_dalang_, or manager, squatted on the ground before two poles of bamboo
placed horizontally at a height of about three feet, into which he
stuck the puppets, taking them from a box placed by his side. He chanted
a long legendary tale taken from the ancient Javan literature, and
dealing with the times before the European occupation of the island. At
intervals he broke into a dialogue, when he worked the puppets' arms and
legs with wires, so that they seemed to be acting their several parts.
Behind the dalang was a _gamelan_, or series of gongs mounted on a
wooden frame much like an ordinary couch. These gongs were struck with
wooden hammers by other members of the company, and thus served as an
orchestra. It was interesting to observe the deep attention with which
the audience followed the movements of the puppets, and listened to the
recitations and dialogue. H---- said they would sit there listening for
hours, far into the night, without getting tired.

Owing to the restrictive trade policy of the Government, the