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They knel at last, and another figure advanced from the far end of the ground between the golden and purple domes of the big umbrellas. As he came nearer, dancing deviously up the ground, he proved to be another Sandaran on a larger scale, yellow masked, with delicate profile, who looked like a fairy prince. He wheeled deviously up the ground and came to rest by each pale mask in turn, his right hand fluttering a fan, the left perpetually circling. He tenderly flirted with each of the crouching Sandarans, to a traditional love-melody, then wound away again over the stage. Then they rose and drew towards him, gathering round him in a series of lyrical attitudes. After posing with each pair in turn he danced off to meet the advancing Omangs, his slender body defined by his long, flower-petalled hair and the wide silver stole which hung almost to his feet in front.


On this occasion, though no one knew the story, it looked as if the Sandarans belonged to the side of the Wrong, and that the motley crowd of comic masks, Monkey-faced, elephant-headed, bulbous-nosed. Who now came gamboling and frisking up the stage under the leadership of a magnificent white-masked Djaoek, and were languidly beaten back by the 'angels' when they trespassed too far upon their white-flagged territory, were on the opposite side, i.e. of the party of Rangda. But appearances are deceptive. The Barong has a host of boisterous demon followers as well as his elegant ballet of Djaocks and Sandarans. All are equally demons, though some are much better bred than others and much better looking. They all understand each other perfectly, and the Barong, himself a demon, enjoys an occasional rough-and-tumble with his boeta-kalas just as much as the spectators. Whatever their significance, all parties disappeared as usual before the Barong-Rangda play began.


It seems certain that the Sandarans are found only in a fairly wide circuit of villages round Denpasar, that they never appear independently of the Barong, and that they have no essential connection with Rangda, although on one occasion the Sisias (disciples of the witch) appear in Sandaran masks, and in the Taman Intaran version of the Bar6ng they have been drawn into a mystic relationship with Rangda and must therefore always appear as prelude.

 

 

 

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