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Dances with singing, in which there is a good 
opportunity for the display of wit in the verses 
which are bandied to and fro between the male 
and female partners, are much appreciated. In all 
Malay dances posturing and the movements of hands 
and arms are quite as, or even more, important than 
the movements of the feet. 
In one form of dramatic performance, which 
comes from the north, there are often a prince, a 
princess, a clown who wears a- ridiculous mask, 
and an ancient female attendant. A good deal of 
humorous dialogue, usually rather coarse, ensues 
and dancing also forms a part of the entertainment. 
The Malay “ opera ” of the towns, with its 
weirdly painted scenery and its still more weird 
cosfumes, is not a natiye product, but even here 
some native touches survive, and the fooling of 
the clowns, of whom there are usually two, is 
often excellent. Such pieces as “ Hamlet ” and the 
“ Merchant of Venice ” are played, but they would 
' be unrecognizable to a western audience under their 
Malayan guise. 
Indoor games for grown-ups are cards, chess 
and draughts, while children have variants of our 
games of marbles, hide-and-seek, leap-frog and some 
curious games in which the principal performer is 
said to be in a more or less hypnotized condition. 
Religion and As in many other countries, religion 
Superstition, and superstition in Malaya are inti- 
mately interwoven. The Malay is 
nominally an orthodox Mohammedan, but he has 
never yet been able to free himself from the doctrines 
of his Hindu religious teachers, who preceded those 
