As I have already mentioned, the subjects of the _topeng_, or Javan
drama, are invariably taken from the group of Panji poems. The actors
are dressed in the costumes of ancient times, and are gaudily decked
with cheap jewellery, velvet, leather, and gold-embroidered cloths. A
special characteristic of the native theatre is the fact that the actors
wear masks and do not themselves speak, but the words of the play are
recited by the dalang, or manager. The only occasion on which they
depart from this practice is when the performance is given before one of
the native princes, and in this case they also appear without their
masks. In the performance of their somewhat limited functions they
display considerable skill and histrionic capacity, but the piece
resembles a ballet rather than a drama.[30] The recitations of the
dalang are accompanied by the music of the gamelan, which, as in the
case of the wayang, forms the orchestra. A topeng company numbers eleven
persons--the dalang, six actors, and four gamelan musicians.

[Footnote 30: See p. 56.]

The subjects of the wayang plays are taken from the Kavi poems, from the
Panjis, and especially from the chronicles. Some of these plays, or
_lampahans_, are in metre, others are in prose. Both alike consist of
summaries of the original poems on which they are based, and are
intended for the use of the dalang. It is noticeable, however, that the
wayang commands a far wider range of subjects than the theatre.

In the true wayang the figures themselves are not seen, but only their
shadows. The dalang places a transparent curtain, stretched over a frame
ten feet long by five high, between himself and the audience. He then
fixes his figures in the bamboo bar immediately in front of him, and
throws their shadows on to the curtain by placing a lamp behind them. At
the same time he moves the arms with wires in order to produce the
effect of action. The wayang dolls are singularly grotesque. There is
an interesting tradition which ascribes this distortion to a deliberate
purpose. According to this account, after the Mohammedan conquest and
the subsequent conversion of the Javanese to Islamism, it became
necessary to reconcile the continued enjoyment of the national pastime
with the precept of the new religion which forbade the dramatic
representation of the human form. A means of escaping from the dilemma
was discovered by the susunan of that day, who ordered the wayang
figures t