forms, the spirit being duly exorcised again (or “escorted homewards,” as it is
called) at the end of the performance.
The dances which have best preserved the older ritual are precisely those which
are the least often seen, such as the “Gambor Dance” (main gambor), the
“Monkey Dance” (main b’rok), the “Palm-blossom Dance” (main mayang), and
the “Fish-trap Dance” (main lukah). These I will take in the order mentioned.
The “Gambor Dance” (lit. Gambor Play) should be performed by girls just
entering upon womanhood. The débutante is attired in an attractive coat and
skirt (sarong), is girt about at the waist with a yellow (royal) sash, and is further
provided with an elaborate head-dress, crescent-shaped pendants (dokoh) for the
breast, and a fan. The only other “necessary” is the “Pleasure-garden” (taman
bunga), which is represented by a large water-jar containing a bunch of long
sprays, from the ends of which are made to depend artificial flowers, fruit, and
birds, the whole being intended to attract the spirit (Hantu Gambor). In addition
there is the usual circular tray, with its complement of sacrificial rice and
incense. Everything being ready, the débutante lies down and is covered over
with a sheet, and incense is burnt, the sacrificial rice sprinkled, and the
invocation of the spirit is chanted by a woman to the accompaniment of the
tambourines. Ere it has ended, if all goes well, the charm will have begun to
work, the spirit descends, and the dance commences.
At the end of this dance, as has already been said, the spirit is exorcised, that is,
he is “escorted back” to the seventh heaven from whence he came.
The invocations, which are used both at the commencement and the conclusion
of the performance, consist of poems which belong unmistakably to the “Panji”
cycle of stories; here and there they contain old words which are still used in
Java.
The “Monkey Dance” is achieved by causing the “Monkey spirit” to enter into a
girl of some ten years of age. She is first rocked to and fro in a Malay infant’s
swinging-cot (buayan), and fed with areca-nut and salt (pinang garam). When
she is sufficiently dizzy or “dazed” (mabok), an invocation addressed to the
“Monkey spirit” is chanted (to tambourine accompaniments), and at its close the
child commences to perform a dance, in the course of which she is said
sometimes to achieve some extraordinary climbing feats which she could never