KANDYAN HORN COMBS. 151 



KANDYAN HORN COMBS. 



By Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, B.Sc, and Ethel M. 



COOMARASWAMY, 



With three Plates and two text-figures. 



A S its title shows, the present paper has no reference to the 

 -^-^ merely ornamental tortoise-shell combs now worn by the 

 low-country Sinhalese (a comparatively modern fashion), nor to 

 the practical and beautifully carved ^^;ory combs formerly used, 

 and still often preserved in Kandyan families ; these ivory combs 

 are pretty well known and are seen in most collections ; there is 

 a fine series of them in the Colombo Museum. Horn combs, 

 though more generally used, are less familiar, but in some respects 

 even more interesting than the ivory ones ; for the latter, though 

 for the most part certainly made in Ceylon, sometimes seem to 

 show Dravidian influence, and at any rate are often very like 

 Indian combs of the same type, while the horn combs are more 

 purely native in form and decoration. 



A short account of the making of the ordinary 10-cent horn 

 comb (PL B, fig. 3), used even by the poorest classes,* will now 

 be given. The horn comb-makers are men of low caste, Rodiyas 

 in the Bandarawela district for example, and blacksmiths (achari 

 caste) near Kandy. At Ratnapura and Balangoda the work is 

 done by Beruwayas and Durayas ; it is never done by goiyas, 

 who would consider it very degrading. The pictures and descrip- 

 tion apply specially to the manufacture of combs by Rodiyas 

 near Bandarawela. 



The combs are made of bufEalo horn cut transversely, the tops 

 of the horns being used for tool and knife handles and the like. 

 The usual tools of the horn comb-maker include a small adze (1^ 

 inch cutting edge), a coarse rasp, one or two knives, a marking 

 awl, a vice, two or three saws, a file, and one or two tools for 

 incising patterns ; the iron tools are made by local blacksmiths. 



A flat piece of horn is sawn off and cut roughly into the 

 shape of the comb, and then made thinner with adze and rasp 

 (PL A, fig. 1), and the shaping then finished with a knife. Next 

 the guide lines for the inner ends of the teeth and for the patterns 



* Those who are better off would now use ordinary European-made combs, 

 instead of decorated horn or ivory ones of native make. 



