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siderable part of pre-Islamic literature, in contradistinction to the literature of the Islamic period, which flourished in Central Java and the Pasisir districts. In the Islamic period incantations of spirits were slightly tinged with Islam. Cor rupt Arabic names make their appearance in the lists. Sometimes the best known poetic incantations are attributed by Javanese tra dition to> saints of Islam as authors, in the same manner as the Javanese way at} and gamelan music (see 31.080, 41.600 and 43.000). This cannot be true. Perhaps the explanation is as follows. Islam, represented by the saints, loosened an ancient bond of sacral secrecy and secularized several ele ments of pre-Islamic religious ritual. In con sequence some ancient religious texts may have developed into' semi-profane or popular literature. A few incantations of spirits written in the Islamic period are in prose, by this fact resembling comparable texts of an earlier period (see 12.000). The majority are ver sified. In modern Javanese, incantations in verse are called kidmy, song. There is some reason to suppose that incantations, though only appearing in written literature in the Islamic period, belong to a very old stratum of Javanese culture. It is a fact that the panakawans of the wayar3 theatre, Sernar etc., are regularly singing songs. Sëmar’s function as an exorcist is apparent in many wayarj plays and literary texts. Originally his songs, regular features in all wayat} per formances, may have been incantations, con nected with exorcism. There is no doubt that the appearance of the panakawans, cunning servants and mentors of the hero of the tale, belongs to an early period of

the development of Javanese literature (see 22.900 and 30.080). It seems possible that the kidw3 incanta tions exercised a decisive influence on the development of native Javanese metrics, so-called macapat metres (see 00070, 14.600 and 17.100). Perhaps in olden times there were officiants of certain exorcist rites in Java (paykur etc.) whose incantations be came secularized in the course of time. Some metres and tunes of songs of a later period may have been imitations or adaptations of the ancient incantations, and these metres retained the names of the ancient exorcists. Among the poetic incantations which have been registered under the present head, the Kiduirj Rumëksa it} Wët}i, Song Guarding at Night, is the best known. It was published by local printers in Java. In Javanese-Bali- nese literature it is known under the name Aji Bëliyas (see 12.030). Probably it was introduced in Bali in the eigteenth century. Manuscripts containing relevant texts have been registered in the General Index under the catchwords incantation and kidut}. Not all texts called kidui} are incantations, how ever. 15.610 Incantations in prose, mixed with magic: cod. 6628, 7746, 7762, 7901. 15.620 Incantations in verse, Kidui) Ru mëksa ii3 W«}i, Kidut} Lëlëmbut, Danyaqan : cod. 4000 (= 10.659 = BCB prtf 81), 5060, 5537, 5777, 7468, 7528, 7546, NBS 319. 15.630 Incantations in verse, miscellaneous kidui}s : cod. 4940, 6624, 7223, 7703, 7766, 8971 (Asma’u ’1-Kusni), AdKIT 1471-1.