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rnour. The spiritual affinity between childish foolishness, deceit and divine wisdom which surpasses human understanding becomes apparent in these panakawan scenes. The studies of W. B. Kristensen and J. P. B. de Josselin de Jong on the Divine Deceiver (“De Goddelijke Bedrieger”, and “De Oor sprong van de Goddelijke Bedrieger”, Meded. KNAW, left. vol. 66 and 68, 1928 and 1929) are relevant to the place of the panakawans in Javanese civilization. In the wayarj theatre the act of the clowns often begins with the playing of games and the singing of songs, and the wayar) puppets and masks representing panakawans always show a gnomish grin. Yet in the quinque- partite frame of the composition of the clas sical wayarj plays the act of the panakawans occupies the central place. In Javanese spe culations on cosmic Order the centre of the quadratic world, with its four quarters, is the place of the supreme divine power > the Unifyer of antitheses (see the present au thor’s “Javaanse Volksvertellingen”, bijlage III). The role of the panakawans in Javanese literature seems to have become most im portant since the efflorescence of theatrical art in the nineteenth century. The appear ance of panakawans or other clownish per sonages is often a welcome relief in the tedious sequences of heroic scenes of the long epics and romances of Old Javanese, Javanese-Balinese and Pasisir literature. Ja vanese narratives compare favourably with similar products of other literatures, e.g. classical Malay hikayats and even Indian epics, by tbe insertion of humorous inter mezzos of clownish scenes, where merry tomfoolery appears as a relief after the pre

ceding seriousness and deadly dullness. In Javanese narratives the tension of dramatic situations is often relaxed, near its culmi nating point, by the insertion of a humorous clownish intermezzo'. Evidently the Javanese consciousness of eternal Order in the cosmos and in human society produced an aversion to extremes of dramatization in literature. Probably the panakawans of twelfth cen tury narrative Court literature are borrowed from contemporaneous folk-tales, and folk tales contain elements of ancient myths, ex plaining the origin of cosmic and social order in pristine tribal society. Perhaps in the panakawans some semi-divine personages belonging to indigenous Javanese, pre-Hin- duistic mythology survive. By the introduc tion of the clowns into high literature mpu Panuluh marked the period of Javanization of imported Indian culture. Since that time all Javanese authors and thinkers have shown a remarkable aptitude in establishing a fusion of indigenous Javanese concepts with elements of foreign origin, at first In dian, afterwards Islamic, still later European. Mpu Panuluh’s Javanizing tendency has been mentioned in 30.010 with reference to the fame of his patron Jaya Bhaya of Kadiri as a wise King and a prophetic wizard of pre-Islamic heathendom. The introduction of panakawans in literary works has been discussed already in 22.900, with reference to the Books of Tales of the Pasisir period. The panakawan-like personages mentioned in the Ghatotkaca kakawin are called Juru Dèh, Punta, Prasanta, names which, with some modifications (Juru Dèh Prasanta be came Jodèg Santa, according to Poerba- tjaraka) recur in later Javanese literature.