Japanese acting does not deem it indispensable to have dancers. or action of any kind; much less docs it have to depend altogether on actors or on action, or even on the presence of a human being on the stage. A scene in the Miyako Odori will best explain this. The stage depicted a wide stretch of plain with two old, gnarled, and stunted pine-trees inthe foreground. In the distance was a low line of purple hills and right through the plain stretched a rough moorland road which would criss-cross into the hills and was there lost. The scone opens in a dark eerie light sues tive of approaching autumn; on the ground leaves have fallen showers of gold and brown. almost expects the drip-drip of rai and the sighing of the elements in a monotonous symphony of mournful desolation. 5 appears over the d hills. Higher and higher the orb of night rises, while past, sometimes obser silver light of Luna. The flute player wails his saddest and most plaintive notes, broken only by the of @ samiscene lasts for about ten minutes, the audience sitting suddenly swell out message of hope an ment, the curtain - falls and the entire hall is ablaze with Tigh The audience, so solemnly still a while before, claps in frenzied approval and the hail echoes with murmurs of appreciation that suggest the pounding of the waves a rock-lined coast.
The Miyako Odori that the visitor or soi Far East should try not to The grace of the dancers, cellency of the scenery, t appreciation of th strange blending of discord—all these charm that pectater,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.