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At
last he is led back to his stall in the inner court,
his voluminous golden mane with difficulty through the
narrow temple gateway. His two dancers mounted with
him the platform of his stable, since he must never
touch the ground, and only climbed out of him when his
body had had been hauled by ropes to its beam. Offerings
were made to him, and he was left surrounded by the
lofty cones of fruit, built up in slender pillars to
an astonishing height. They almost seemed like furled
banners, tall slender round towers of rice, fruit, cakes,
sweetmeats, neatly bound together at their pointed crowns.
Belonging to the Barong Landoeng family is the giant
mask of Tjoepak,' of which several occur in the neighbourhood
of Denpasar. This goes its rounds in time of epidemics,
acting as an exorcism. We saw one of the Tjoepak' masks
in a small temple at Bandjar Bangkal, associated with
a singularly lovely mask of Djero Loeh, with a red 'Cupid's
bow' mouth and gold lines on her cheeks.
After
the early blessing next morning the temple was quickly
deserted, all the villagers returning to their own homes
to dance the Baris there, for it was the universal festival
of the April full moon. 'Me roads and mountain paths
were filled again with flags and spears, lively processions
of pilgrims retracing the long road they climbed yesterday,
or setting off to another more distant village across
the hills. Two days later we met such a procession returning
with its music and its dancers from the village to which
we were ourselves going, to see a peculiar type of Baris
which is only done there. A man had died unexpectedly,
so there was no feast at all. it will take place next
year for those who are still there to see it, if no
twins are born and no one dies, and no epidemic brings
impurity.
And after the home-coming with holy water from the great
temple there is the reception in one's own village;
a gamelan to meet the returning pilgrims, a few small
boys to dance some irresolute Baris steps in the meadows
outside the village; the procession through the surrounding
groves, more offerings in one's own temple court in
front of the holy water under its ceremonial umbrella,
the holy water in a bamboo container bound round with
a white cloth and surmounted by a crown of leaves.
There
were two white masks of the Sandaran variety, of whom
possibly one was Gran". as the dram, of the two
brothers is sometimes enacted during the season when
then masks are in action. The mask of Tjoepak was a
dark chocolate colour, with glass eyes and alternate
black and white eyebrows and moustache. His mouth hung
greedily open, showing a great row of teeth. He had
a rudimentary nose, rather like that of Toealen in Wajang
Wong, and, like Toealen also, feminine car-plugs set
with semi-precious stones. 'Me usual hibiscus flower
was stuck above his car. He was surrounded by offering,
and it was only as a special privilege that we were
allowed to see and photograph the mask during its period
of inaction.
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