"This is a beautiful country, and full of golden palaces, and lovely gardens with gorgeous-coloured flowers and shrubs. Nevertheless, I must look out for something to eat. Thus, turning north and turning south, looking up and looking down, I spy outside the King's palace a piece of flesh, red, red as blood. It is mine, sure as the food in a monk's begging-dish; it cannot escape. I will stoop at it, seize it, and fly away; and now that I may easily reach the large tree in my own mountain from this country of Kauthambi, play a soft and simple air, O leader of the orchestra!" (_The bird seizes the Queen, mistaking her red mantle for flesh, flies away with her to the mountains, and deposits her in a tree. The bird comes as if to devour her, when the Queen claps her hands at him, which frightens the bird, and he flies away_). This scene shows that the Burmese employ in their dramas loud and soft music, according to the events represented; and that the orchestra is conducted by a leader or music-director. The following example, from another scene, indicates the employment of the full orchestra _fortissimo_ in conformity with the action. _Forest. A Hunter._ HUNTER.--"I and my dog will now go and kill whatever enemy appears. With my bow and my dog I care not what I encounter, elephants, deer, or what not; so come along (_to his dog_) brave Tiger. (_To the band._) Now as I go on a grand expedition, burst forth like thunder!" A detailed description of a kind of opera which was performed at Singapore is given by Charles Wilkes;[101] but, as the actors were transient visitors to Singapore, who came from the neighbourhood of Madras, their play must have been a specimen of the popular Hindu dramas. Its title was 'The Results of Misplaced Friendship;' the words were recited in a "monotonous recitative," accompanied by a band of instrumental performers. As regards the plot of the piece, suffice it to say that it had a moral aim, and that a Brahmin and a clown were the most amusing characters of the Dramatis Personae. The clown displayed much cleverness in mimicking a European in his dress and manners. The 'Select Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus,' translated from the original Sanskrit, by R. H. Wilson, London, 1835, contain but few allusions to music; but these are ancient dramas, and the Hindus possess, as R. H. Wilson in his interesting Introduction points out, different kinds of theatrical entertainments. There was in former time no building appropriated to the public performance of dramas. The Kings had in their palaces a kind of music hall, called _Sangita Sala_, in which were given entertainments consisting principally of music and dancing, and occasionally of dramatic representations.