ILLUSTRATIONS
| Tree of the Marionettes | [Frontispiece] |
| HALFTONES | |
|---|---|
| Marionettes | |
| FACING PACE | |
| Marionette play, “Men of Iron,” given by ninth year pupils, Fairmount Junior High School, Cleveland, Ohio | [18] |
| Scenes from Marionette play, “Adventures of Alice,” given by ninth year pupils Fairmount Junior High School at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Marionettes made by Tuesday Marionette Club | [34] |
| Scenes from the Marionette play, “Men of Iron” | [98] |
| Marionette Ballet, “Petroushka” | [114] |
| Upper. Marionettes from “The Adventures of Alice.” Lower Left. Bear and Trainer from “Men of Iron.” Lower Right. Marionette from “Petroushka.” | [130] |
| Masks | |
| Masks. Indian Corn Maidens. Clowns. Japanese Characters: Old Woman, Devil Mask, Old Man | [146] |
| Upper Row. Bishop, Queen, King. Middle Row. Lady-in-Waiting, Crusader, Child. Lower Row. Jester, Old Woman, Little Jack | [150] |
| Masks. Upper. Mummer, Queen, Jester. Middle. Egyptian Priest, Persian Poet, Greek Maiden. Lower. Columbine and Pierrot | [158] |
| Characters from Christmas Mask | [162] |
| Scene from Christmas Mask given by ninth year Fairmount Junior High School pupils at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Lady-in-Waiting, King | [178] |
| Shadows | |
| Upper: Scene from cut out shadow play, “The Traveling Musicians of Bremen.” Lower:—Behind the scene in a cut out shadow play, given by eighth grade pupils of Fairmount Junior High School, Cleveland, Ohio | [210] |
| Scenes from the cut out shadow play, “The Traveling Musicians of Bremen.” | [214] |
| Behind the scenes in the human shadow play “The Indian and the Oki.” | [222] |
| Scenes from the human shadow play, “The Indian and the Oki.” | [226] |
| More scenes from the human shadow play, “The Indian and the Oki.” | [232] |
| Scenes from the human shadow play, “The Shepherdess.” | [236] |
| FULL PAGE LINE DRAWINGS | |
| PAGE | |
| Constructional drawing of Marionette stage, back view | [50] |
| Side view of Marionette stage, with lighting | [51] |
| Knight Marionette | [77] |
| FACING PAGE | |
| The Map of the Mask | [146] |
MARIONETTES
CHAPTER I
The Marionette—Its Family Tree
This is the family tree of the marionette. Its roots are deep in the life of ancient Egypt, India, Persia, China, Japan, and Java. Its great trunk springs from the soil of Greece and Rome. Its branches spread over Europe and reach to America.
Long ago, in Egypt, there were little carved figures of wood and ivory with limbs that could be made to move by the pulling of strings. We do not know for what use these little figures were intended. They may have been the very first dolls in the world or they may have been little images of the great gods which the people of that country worshiped. We do know, however, that they were treasured, and were buried with the kings and queens of ancient Egypt in their tombs near the banks of the Nile. Some people tell us that the great idols in the Egyptian temples were puppets and that the priests concealing themselves inside their bodies could make them move their hands and open their mouths. This so amazed many of the people who saw them that they fell down and worshiped them.
Imagine a very long avenue with a row of carved stone figures called sphinxes on either side, leading all the way up to a great temple. Imagine a slowly moving procession of a hundred priests on its way to the temple to do honor to the great god Osiris. These priests are carrying a colossal golden boat on their shoulders. But more wonderful than the temple with its lotus-flower columns and its beautiful colors, more wonderful than the golden boat carried by these white-robed priests, was a marvelously made statue of the god Osiris, which rode in the golden boat. It moved its head constantly from side to side. The priests knew which way it wished to go by the way it turned its head. This figure of the god was a marionette. We also know that the ancient Egyptians had miniature puppet stages. One has been unearthed which has doors of ivory with the rods and wires still in their places. Among the Egyptian puppets that have been found was one of a crocodile. Its lower jaw moves on a pivot and its feet are connected with a kind of hinge.
INDIA
It is possible that India rather than Egypt may have been the first home of puppets. The people of India believed that puppets lived with the gods long before they came down to this world. There is a story of Parvati, wife of the god Siva, that tells of a puppet which she made, that was so beautiful that she was afraid to let her husband see it, she carried it away secretly, to the Malaya Mountains. But Siva suspected his wife and followed her. When Siva saw the beauty of the puppet that she was trying to hide from him, he fell in love with it, and brought it to life.