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comprises the household. Important events concern the whole village, and on such occasions the village temple becomes the point around which everything revolves: for instance, at the odalan festival, to commemorate the building of the temple, at the njepi, the day on which the village is cleansed from demons and evil spirits, and the harvest festival....And finally everyone participates in the cult of the dead...."

p. 197: "....the Balinese do not place any images in their sacrificial recesses and temples. But formerly such images were indeed fashioned, particularly during that period when a stimulus was provided from eastern Java, i.e. between the 11th and 15th centuries. Most of these images have been found in a narrow strip of land between two small rivers, the Pakerisan and the Petanu, extending from the south coast up to the mountains....It was presumably in this district that the kingdom of Pedjeng was situated, with its centre at Beduluh-Pedjeng, where at one time King Udayana resided. This was the classical period, characterized by sculptures of princes in the image of gods.....Nor do these sculptures mean so much to the Balinese....When Bali developed along independent lines, at any rate, these stone idols no longer played any significant part."

pp. 198-199: As on Java, so also on Bali the kris is the armourer's greatest achievement. On this island, too, this craft is held in high esteem, and is regarded as a gift of the gods. The Balinese, with his pronounced predilection for splendour and estentation, knew how to give these objects an individual cachet. The blade is mostly fashioned in pamor work, but the figures are more accentuated than is the case in Java. This is partly due to the fact that the meteoric steel used here has a higher nickel content. But on Bali the armourer makes the design show up more clearly by polishing the blade, so that the lustrous pamor nickel is set off better against the background of blue-black steel. On the hilt a human figure is represented, usually a raksasa, to ward off evil spirits. These hilts are not so stylized as those on Java; the figures are much more lifelike.

Ivory, precious and semi-precious metals are employed with considerable technical skill and choice taste.

The Balinese love pompo and splendour, and like to use precious metals for making Hindu devotional objects, jewels, vessels for holy water, etc., and also for articles used in everyday life. Various techniques are known, but it is in the very difficult art of engraving gold that is the Balinese goldsmith particularly excels. The reason why this technique is so difficult is because one slip of the graver is sufficient to ruin the technical perfection of the work, and thus its particular attraction and value; the only thing that can then be done is to polish the whole surface anew.

For their figures the Balinese engravers draw mostly upon the inexhaustible source provided by the Hindu pantheon

A special pattern is to be found on the pinang scissors with which hard pinang nuts, an ingredient of the sirih quid, are cracked. Here, too, one finds the swastika motif, the bandji, as on Jav. batiks. It is true of Bali, as of everywhere in Indonesia, that with precious metals it is their form, colour and pattern that are appreciated more than the value of the material