makes violent but unsuccessful love to a charming young Jewess. There
was a poor barber who was raised to the dignity of grand vizier, his
successor’s head being cut off by the yataghan of the Oriental Jack
Ketch, to the great delight of the people. Then a wretched Jew receives
the bastinado, amidst vociferous applause, which increases still higher
when the ears of an unhappy Giaour are cut off and thrown to the dogs.
Throughout the piece, it is of course the Mussulman who always triumphs,
like the French guards at the _Cirque Impériale_, or the British
grenadiers at old Astley’s. The performance concluded with a grand naval
battle between the Moorish and Spanish fleets. The drum as usual served
for cannon, there was a great deal of smoke and confusion, and the
Christian fleet gradually sank under the continuous fire of the
Mussulmans amidst the plaudits and bravos of the crowd.
[Illustration:
FIG. 64.—Effect of cut paper-work.
]
In Java, the subjects of the fantocini are generally taken from the
native mythology. The screen on which the shadows are exhibited is ten
or twelve feet long, and five feet high, and the figures are cut of
thick leather, their limbs being moved by thin pieces of nearly
transparent horn.
In fig. 64 we see another kind of Chinese shadows, in which the lights
of the figure are cut out. These pictures are perfectly unrecognisable
as being even the basest imitation of any known form; but when their
shadows are thrown on the wall, the cut-out portions show us lights,
whilst those that have been left form the shadows. On the Boulevard des
Capucines, at Paris, there used to be a man who managed to pick up a
good living by selling these candle shadows. Of course he used to carry
on his trade of an evening, and with a strong lamp he would throw the
shadows of his figures on the white walls of the houses, or the blind of
a shop window, or even on the pavement. With a little care and ingenuity
a number of these amusing cards may be easily designed. In showing them,
care must be taken to choose the best distances between the light and
the paper, and between this latter and the wall. If the card be placed
too close to the wall, the resulting shadows will be too dark, and the
outlines too sharp; if, on the contrary, the light is placed too far
off, the outlines become confused, and the proper effect is lost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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