NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS

XXIII

remarkable. The cube to the left of the dalag is the kotak, the chest of the wayag puppets.

Plate 8, from LOr 12.542, Magic, coll. Moens, Yogyakarta. The worshipper is waving the smoke of the incense which is burning in the burner with the right hand in the direction of the image, which appar ently is suspended on a peg. The square in front of it is a plaited bamboo tray, it holds the principal offerings, a cone of white cooked rice, some bunches of yellow bananas, a small brass mortar with pestle used to crush betel leaves to prepare a quid for toothless old people, and various de licacies. The five rounds in front of the tray are puddings (jenatj) of prescribed colours and compositions. The chicken on a string fastened to the tray is also a standing com ponent of Javanese offerings. The image on the pusaka board is an old woman entirely wiapped up in a white garment, a shroud, leaving only her face and hands visible. She ls called demon (probably an error; wëdon

ls a spook), and she is said to be the grandmother of Rimbag Kala, the king of the pests (ama). Therefore the pests are afiaid of her, and leave the fields where she ls seen. The pusaka itself is called kyahi Wataij Dlururj. It is marched through the fields in a small procession of entirely naked men and women, and afterwards worshipped out of gratefulness. The face of the worshipper is remarkable well drawn. The outspread lappets in his neck belong to the knot of the neatly folded kerchief. Another end of the kerchief is visible as a small upstanding lappet on the man’s forehead.

Plate 9, from LOr 12.542, Magic, coll. Moens, Yogyakarta. The ceremony of the bathing of the aijkhj tlawhjan by naked women is not mentioned in the Javanese text. The women carry small torches made of resinous material (damar) stuck in their vaginas, the protruding ends are smoul dering. The image which is carved on the board resembles Nala Garèi3, a well-known panakawan of the wayag purwa theatre who has connections with the earth and agriculture. In the text no name of theaqkir; tlawigan image is mentioned, only the course of the procession of naked men and women carrying it through the fields, and the incantations, to destroy the rice pests, are related. The incantations, called mèl, invariably begin with the basmalah and end with salalahuk or salalahu qalahi wasalam, the Prophet’s standing eulogy, but the text is Javanese and non-Islamic. Plate 10, from LOr 12.542, Magic, coll. Moens, Yogyakarta. The magic board which is carried by the naked peasants is called aijkiij Këntug. It bears an image of Dawag Anala (as a rule called Badawai) Nala), the chthonic tortoise which occupies an important place in the tales of the village dalarjs of the Yogyakarta country side. An incense burner and sections of bamboo stems which are beaten like xylophones accentuate the importance of the cere mony.