1 10 corn. — Harvest Home Amusements. 



chant Siamese and Javanese romantic legends 

 ami are accompanied by a full band of music. There 

 id always a clown, nho wears a comic or farcical 

 mask, and who breaks in occasionally on the u vular 

 action M'ith jests, which are not altogether of a very re- 

 fined description. When princes are introduced, 

 lhe\ wear the peaked tiara of seven stages or circles. 



The Niame-s:: lakh-m nn!>ra<es. in a dramatized 

 form, any one of the popular legends of their literature. 

 The most attractive one is the Kamakean, or tlie Ra- 

 inayaua of India, within the Ganges. But its per- 

 formance dm only be witnessed iu a style of expense 

 — if not gorgeousness — in the Siamese capital, or at 

 tlie Rong or theatre of one of the provincial gover- 

 nors. 



The music, on such occasions, harmonizes with the 

 emotions and passions exhibited in the action. It may 

 here be remarked that the Siamese music is of a very 

 sprightly description, and takes a far wider range 

 than the music of the Uurmese, Malays, or Chinese. 

 Theft is more of piaintiveness, and perhaps of melody, 

 in some of the Malayan airs, but the Siamese dis- 

 play a st\k\ on listening to vt Inch, one cannot help 

 wondering how it grew up, or was created amongst 

 a people who have not yet put on the full -sized toga 

 of civilization — except in their own eyes* 



The Hoo?t is a kind of puppet-shew on a large 

 scale. The number of puppets varies from fifty up one 

 hundred and fifty. They are made of wood and paint- 

 ed and dressed so as to represent the chief personages 

 and inferior agents in a dramatic plot. They are mov- 

 ed by strings. There are two, Khon ChenCha, or men 

 whose duty it is to be the interlocutors for these pup- 

 pets which they carry and work behind and along a 

 gilded pfirajiet which serves instead of a stage. 



The expense of these puppets and m ardr cLe, vli ie 

 according to the ability of the chief. 



