communities of adepts of mysticism, Javan ese religious literature was enriched with new books in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Legends of the saints and their deliberations (see 24.500, and 14.600, 14.800, 14.900) had always been appreciated. In a later period tales about Javanese mystic masters and their disputes were added. Prob ably these narrative and didactic books, writ ten in order to provide religiously minded people with edifying and interesting reading- matter, contain both truth and fiction. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries anec dotic stories and legendary tales referring to the doings and lives of celebrated Javan ese kyahis of the preceding centuries may have been current in the pondoks. As the inmates of religious schools used to travel widely all over Java in quest of instruction in holy lore, or simply in search of adven tures, tales once current in the circles of the vagrant students spread easily all over the country. The personages appearing in the Jatiswara, Cabolar; and Cëntini books all belong to the social group of vagrant students and kyahis of religious schools, living independent of temporal local rulers, only nominally acknowledging Royal author ity. In the present Synopsis the Jatiswara, Cabolai3 and Cëntini books are registered in Part Three, Belles-Lettres (30.780) on ac count of the romantic tales which serve as framework. In the texts which are registered under the present head the edifying and didactic element preponderates over the romantic. Nevertheless some texts contain anecdotic tales which may have been drawn from life. Some mystic songs which have been re gistered under the preceding head also- seem

to contain kernels of historic information concerning the fate of heterodox mystic masters (Lëmah A bat], Aspiya). Nevertheless also in their case registering them in the present Part One seems preferable. A remarkable fact is the inter-relationship between the present didactic tales belonging to the sphere of men of religion and the Nitik or Panitik tales referring to legendary exploits of great rulers (see 26.000). The Cabolèk tale is located in Kartasura, at the time the residence of the King of Central Java, and the Darma Gandul refers to the fate of the legendary last King of Majapahit. Probably the Nitik tales, though as a rule not didactic, but rather novellistic, were writ ten and read in the same, or closely related, circles of popular men of religion as the tales of saints and mystic masters. Neither kind of narrative literature may have found, at first, much appreciation with learned scholars and noblemen. The Cabolèk tale became famous, though, in the version of the Sura karta Court poet Yasadipura. On account of their lively style and gener ally interesting contents, books belonging to the present group of didactic narrative texts were published repeatedly by local publishing- houses in Java. The Cabolèk was published in 1886 (van Dorp, Sëmarait]), the Gato Loco and the Darma Gandul were published by Tan Khoen Swie in Kadiri. In a book on Javanese religious speculation written by van Akkeren (“Een Gedrocht en toch de “Volmaakte Mens”, 1951) the Suluk Gato Loco has been edited and translated into Dutch. The author points to the ithyphallic concepts apparent in the poem, which prob ably are related to pre-Islamic religious speculation. Perhaps some inter-relationship