The puppet-shows, called _kaut-pootlies_, (_i.e._ wooden infants,) are certainly superior to Mr. Punch and his wife, as exhibited by various renowned persons throughout England. In India, there is to be seen far greater variety, both in the subject, and in the several dramatis personæ: there, something like a regular piece is represented, and it rarely requires a glossary, or interpreter, to define the several scenes; an aid, without which our artists, in general, make but little impression on their spectators, whose imaginations are generally set on the stretch to divine the meaning of various antics, which, though abundantly ludicrous, seem to proceed from momentary fancy, rather than from any regular system.
The _kaut-pootly-wallah_, or puppet-dancer, does not confine himself to a small centry-box-like theatre; on the contrary, when he is to display before any respectable persons, he makes a point of paying his respects during the day, and of soliciting the loan of either a small tent, a _konaut_, a _satrinje_, or some such article, for the purpose of enclosing and covering in the necessary space, so that he and his co-adjutors may perform their parts in secresy. It is commonly made a point that the performance should be by candle-light, and at some little distance from the line of tents. This is almost a _sine quâ non_ with this tribe, who, being in league with rogues of all descriptions, rarely fail to profit by the absence of servants from the charge of their masters’ property, and, while perhaps both master and man are grinning at the objects presented on the _proscenium_, are employed in removing from the tents whatever articles, of a portable description, may be exposed to depredation.
Sometimes the farce is concluded by a shower of clods, &c., thrown from a distance, and the whole fly in confusion. This is a device practised on the liberal, under the representation of the dealer in wood and wire-work, that some of the _nutkuts_, or frolicksome youths, of the camp, have battered the whole of the paraphernalia to pieces; in confirmation of which, some heads and tails of _ci-devant_ kings and queens are produced. I was once much amused with an imposition of this kind, that was practised, with admirable address, upon a good-natured field officer, who actually credited the representation, and, in addition to the loss of several candle-sticks, and some other small items, lent to the artists, compounded to pay for various fractures, simple and compound, sustained by the inanimate heroes!