characters: The easiest way to pick out the speaker is to watch the puppets' or actors' arms. If they stretch out, they are speaking; if they hang down, they are silent. You can tell the good and evil characters as easily as you can in any American cowboy film by observing the placement and shape of eye, nose, mouth, the absence or presence of body hair or chin whiskers, the pose of the head, the coiffure, the headgear, clothing, jewelry. All of these immediately identify who the character is. Soft or raging voices also assit in zeroing in on a specific type of character. The most easily recognizable wayangs are those of the Hindu epics; Brahma, Vishnu (the gods who create and sustain life); Shiva (the Great Teacher), Durga (consort to Shiva), and Ganesha (the elephant-headed son of Shiva). Each of these heroes has his own melody played for him at his appearance. Facial and body colors (6 in number) show individual characters, temperment and mood. Vishnu's face is black, Shiva's face is gold, Krishna's enemy brother Baladewa has a red face. Black stands for inner maturity, adulthood, virtue, calmness. A black face with gold body depicts a refined warrior in a state of determination. Red shows uncontrolled passions and desires; gold indicates beauty or royalty or glory; white indicates noble descent, youth, beauty; a blue or green face means cowardice. Gods wear long cloaks, a shawl and footwear; kings wear a pleated kain that sticks out. Warriors wear a belt for their kris. Priests and high nobility have eyes almost closed. The clowns Semar, Gareng and Petruk are the deformed sidekicks of the hero. With their short-legged ugly shapes, fat stomachs, sagging breasts, jutting jaws, limping or clowning or fighting, they are the most lovable and laughable characters. The size of each puppet depends on whether they be demons, giants, gods, or just ordinary people. Puppets representing the highest deities are smaller than those of the noble heroes who in turn are smaller than their opponents, the demons, who are the largest puppets of all. This same proportion is followed in the classical relief sculpture on ancient Javanese temples. Big sizes like Bima and Kumbarkarna are an indication of physical power but not necessarily of greatness or passion or violence. Generally, the large figures belong to the negative 'left' side, the bad guys, while the smaller good guys belong to the positive right' side of the screen or stage (though with many exceptions). The posture with the legs held wide apart is found with warriors and rough characters while females are shown with legs close together. There are different shapes of eyes and noses denoting nobility, patience, crudeness, steadfastness, power, loyalty, clownishness, wisdom. Also a dozen shapes of mouths to express emotion and about 25 varieties of stylized coiffures and headgears which represent priests, princes, fighters, queens, deities, high kings, or gods. At least 3 types of hair buns dilineate different characters. Arjuna and his twin brothers Nakula and Sadewa wear their hair in an upward curl like a scorpion's tail or a lobster's claw, showing their royalty. Basically, almond eyes and pointed noses mean beneficient puppets while bulging round eyes and bulbous noses identify crude ones with their pompous display of ornamentation and the cocky angle of their heads, typified by a character like Burisrawa. Arjuna epitimizes aristocracy and refinement with his almond-shaped eyes, finely turned long pointed nose in a straight line from the tip to forehead, slightly bowed head showing his humility, no moustache, and absolutely no jewelry or finery.