scenes. Still later, the scenes came to be taken from one story only,
so that a whole story was given by the pageant. Dresses became
quite gorgeous and the scheme elaborate. The pageant now needed
organization. Therefore, the village came to be divided into two
parts, eastern and western quarters or northern and southern quarters
(the village was usually greater in length than breadth, being built along
a mam road). In larger villages and towns, the division was into four
quarters. Each quarter \as responsible for the production of a
pageant. There was intense rivalry between the quarters to produce
the finest pageant; it was usually friendly, but often enmity arose,
and many pageants were occasions for free fights. The rivalry further
developed the pageant, for new ideas would be introduced by one
quarter to outrival the others. Soon the pageant became a play, its
scenes coming to life.
The Nibhatkhin was the Burmese equivalent of the English miracle
and mystery plays. It was the pageant come to life. With the
pageant, the religious processions went along the main streets without
stopping, each cart representing a set scene. But with the Nibhatkhin^
each cart stopped at certain places. The most common of such places
were the market-place, the house of the chief administrative officer,
and the pagoda where the procession ended. At each of those places,
each cart stopped, and the scene came to life. Dialogue and action
were used. Therefore, people at the stopping places saw what was in
effect a play.
The Nibhatkhin was extremely popular, and it lived on until
recently, just as many of the English miracle plays continued to be
produced right through the Elizabethan period. I saw one in the out-
of-the-way town of Pauk as recently as 1916. However, I do not think
that Nibhatkhins are produced anywhere nowadays. Sometimes one
sees a procession on cars and motor lorries as a sort of reminiscence
of the Nibhatkhin. But such processions are mere shows and lack
the essential features of the Burmese miracle plays.
It was for the entertainment of the populace that the Nibhatkhin
came into being, and as the Burmese entertainment connotes
laughter, soon the element of humour came into the NibhaMiin. At
first none of the characters was made humorous, for they all came out
of religious stories. And so the clown was introduced. The clown or
Lu-byet ('the non-serious man*) was put into the Nibhatkhin as an
extra character, an attendant on the prince-hero. He was extremely
popular, and soon another clown, an attendant on the princess-heroine,