"The bands, whose strains had been increasing in wildness and in time, ceased playing on the removal of the dancers, and the nautch, which had begun at 10 P.M., was over. "The Raja, who had only appeared at 4 A.M., told me that one of the elder girls, when she became "properly possessed," lived for months on nothing but flowers, a pretty and poetic conceit. "As we left the Astana, and taking boat rowed slowly to the vessel waiting for us off the river's mouth, the rising sun was driving the fog from the numbers of lovely green islets, that seemed to float like dew-drenched lotus leaves on the surface of the shallow stream. [688]" The religious origin of almost all Malay dances is still to be seen in the performance of such ritualistic observances as the burning of incense, the scattering of rice, and the invocation of the Dance-spirit according to certain set 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.