66 SPOLTA ZEYLANICA. 



a shrub close by, and the male bird amused itself by repeatedly 

 scrabbling and pecking at the windowpanes. 



E. E. GREEN. 

 Peradeniya, May, 1907. 



4. An Eighteenth Century Relic. — There is an annual pilgrimage 

 in the Jaffna peninsula to the church of St. James the Great at 

 Ealali on the Jaffna lagoon between Chavakachcheri and Pallai, 

 which is attended by from 1,500 to 3,000 people. It takes place 

 in July on the festival (25th). The church possesses an image of 

 the Saint, who is represented as a mounted warrior wearing a 

 military cloak and in seventeenth or eighteenth century costume. 

 There appears to have been a shrine here dedicated to the Apostle 

 in the Portuguese period, when the village was inhabited by Parawas 

 from Tuticorin. During the time of the Dutch the church was 

 destroyed, but it is said that about 100 years ago, during the early 

 years of the British occupation, a box was dug up here by 

 Samerasekara Mudaliyar alias Don Louis Poothar, who acted as 

 guide to the British forces on an expedition into the Vanni, which 

 contained this image, a representation of it cut on a piece of wood 

 and a gold hat belonging to the image, all of which are still 

 preserved. 



It is the hat to which I wish to draw attention. It is of the 

 three-cornered shape characteristic of the middle of the eighteenth 

 century, with a Portuguese inscription giving the name, I presume, 

 of the donor : " Servo do Santiago Mayor, Ls. Ferras " (or Ferrar?), 

 the meaning of the description being that he was a " Servant of 

 St. James the Great." It is a curious instance of the survival of 

 the Portuguese language among a Tamil caste. 



It weighs 1^ ounce, the length of each side of the brim is 2| 

 inches and the diameter of the crown nearly 1| inch. I give 

 drawings of 4,he exact size of the hat. While the image is of clay 

 or pottery, the hat is of gold. The present Samerasekara family 

 have provided a gold sword. 



Samerasekara Mudaliyar rebuilt the church and founded the 

 pilgrimage, which has gone on now for five generations. 



Kilali was a stage on the old Jaffna Coast road, and had a resthouse 

 in Dutch and early British times. 



J. P. LEWIS. 

 Kaiiidy, September, 1907. 



5. Leocyma sericea. — In November, 1906, hearing of the great 

 number of moths coming to the electric lights round the Boer camp 

 at Diyatalawa, I became a guest of one of the officers there for three 

 daj^s. 



