to the hem of the skirt.
“All four dancers were dressed alike, except that the older girls wore white silk
bodices with a red and gold handkerchief, folded corner-wise, tied under the
arms and knotted in front. The points of the handkerchief hung to the middle of
the back. In the case of the two younger girls the entire dress was of one
material. On their arms the dancers wore numbers of gold bangles, and their
fingers were covered with diamond rings. In their ears were fastened the
diamond buttons so much affected by Malays, and indeed now by Western
ladies. Their feet, of course, were bare. We had ample time to minutely observe
these details before the dance commenced, for when we came into the hall the
four girls were sitting down in the usual^152 Eastern fashion on the carpet,
bending forward, their elbows resting on their thighs, and hiding the sides of
their faces, which were towards the audience, with fans made of crimson and gilt
paper which sparkled in the light.
“On our entrance the band struck up, and our special attention was called to the
orchestra, as the instruments are seldom seen in the Malay Peninsula. There were
two chief performers: one playing on a sort of harmonicon, the notes of which he
struck with pieces of stick held in each hand. The other, with similar pieces of
wood, played on inverted metal bowls. Both these performers seemed to have
sufficiently hard work, but they played with the greatest spirit from 10 P.M. till 5
A.M.
“The harmonicon is called by Malays chĕlempong, and the inverted bowls,
which give a pleasant and musical sound like the noise of rippling water,
gambang. The other members of the orchestra consisted of a very small boy who
played, with a very large and thick stick, on a gigantic gong, an old woman who
beat a drum with two sticks, and several other boys who played on instruments
like triangles called chânang. All these performers, we were told with much
solemnity, were artists of the first order, masters and a mistress in their craft, and
if vigour of execution counts for excellence they proved the justice of the praise.
“The Hall, of considerable size, capable of accommodating several hundreds of
people, was only dimly lighted, but the fact that, while the audience was in semi-
darkness, the light was concentrated on the performers added to the effect.
Besides ourselves, I question whether there were more than twenty spectators,
but sitting on the top of the dais, near to the dancers, it was hard to pierce the