232 
BURMA AND ITS PEOPLE. 
Oct., 1891 . 
piece, new costumes were taken at intervals ; and on our 
right of it, almost lost in the dim and smoky light, stood the 
orchestra, consisting of numerous drums, arranged round the 
inside of a circular wicker-work pen and played by a man 
standing in the centre, fifes and horns, which emitted sounds 
suggestive of bagpipes, castanets, &c. 
The front rows of the audience were squatted close round 
the square space which served for stage, and behind them 
sat and stood tier upon tier of spectators, men, women, and 
children, to the number of several thousands, the whole 
assemblage being girdled round by three or four rows of 
bullock carts, which had brought their owners in to the play 
from villages around, the cattle being tethered outside within 
easy reach. 
The dramatis persona consisted of two clowns, several 
princes, a Woon, or Minister of State, and two princesses, and 
the piece was an elaboration of one of those almost endless 
Eastern stories in which youthful princes roam the world in 
search of mates who are to be paragons of beauty and virtue, 
and encounter manifold adventures byland and water in the 
process, in which evil spirits, false Hpoongyees, and wild 
beasts play a prominent part. 
The greatest attraction in the performance seemed to 
consist in the dancing of the princesses. These ladies were 
richly bejewelled, and wore close-fitting silken robes of delicate 
colours, and of such length that they encompassed the feet in 
an amount of drapery which would make dancing of any 
European fashion entirely impossible. Their movements 
were in fact a series of posturings in which the head was 
thrown back and the arms and bodv contorted into the largest 
possible number of angles of which the human frame is capable 
after long training. Each ballet, if one may use the term, 
ended by a remarkable performance, the danseuse bending 
the knees and gyrating rapidly by a succession of quick, 
pattering steps, and then suddenly springing up to her full 
height and gliding to the edge of the stage, where she lay 
down at the feet of the front row of spectators and lighted her 
cheroot, amid the applause of the audience. 
The vast crowd made way for us to pass on our arrival at 
the Pooe, and we were ushered to seats of honour close to the 
performers. After watching the piece for a couple of hours 
we rose to leave, and again, as if by magic, a way was opened 
for us, and we made our exit finallv through the surrounding 
fringe of carts into the open space. Already this was dotted 
over with recumbent figures, each wrapped in its long robe. 
These were spectators who, after watching the play for some 
