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Collection Moens II. LOr 12.507-12.577 This collection, acquired by purchase in Jakarta in 1971, comprises 71 large folio volumes mostly bound in leather, containing information on Javanese folklore, popular belief in spirits, the wayaq purwa art, and popular Bima stories, provided by wayag performers of the country-side of Yogyakarta, especially the dalaq Widi Prayitna of Sëntolo. The information is couched in wayaij purwa plays, expressly composed by country dalags for the use of Mr Moens of Yogyakarta, between 1930 and 1942. Almost every play is illustrated by several polychrome drawings either in wayaq style or in naturalistic style. Mr Moens was continuously asking the dalaqs for information on the subjects he was interested in, and he payed them generously for their illustrated wayaq plays. It seems likely that the Javanese authors, trying to please Mr Moens, in some cases expatiated on folklore and embellished popular tales on spirits and spooks, adding inventions of their own. They were storytellers by profession. Even so, the 71 volumes contain valuable information for folklorists, and Mr Moens has deserved well of all those who are interested in things Javanese for taking much trouble and going to great expense in making the collection. The present collection, called collection Moens II, is a supplement to the collection Moens (I), LOr 10.886-10.974, 98 volumes, which was described in “Literature of Java”, vol. II, 1968, p. 679-700. A number of similar volumes containing comparable wayaq plays must still be in the hands of dealers or in private collections in Jakarta. Mr Moens transferred most of his library from his original residence in Yogyakarta to Jakarta at the end of World War II, and after his death in Jakarta his estate was scattered. The literary style of the wayaq plays composed by the country dalaqs is primitive, and their idiom and spelling are unscholarly. The Yogyakarta script is awkwardly and abnormally large written. The latter feature is probably due to Mr Moens, who thought large writing would be easier for him to read.

lined, Javanese leather binding (goat), worked. Sajèns , offerings set for spirits etc. on various occasions, according to Central Javanese popular custom, a compilation of notes in the frame of conversations be tween personages belonging to the wayaq purwa cycle, often Sëmar and one of the gods or the sages. The illustrations repre sent the speakers and the offerings, which