540 



BUDDHISM AJN'D DEMON-WORSHIP. 



[Part IV. 



earlier transmigrations, Avas liimself born under the form 

 of a Yaksliyo, and, attended by similar companions, tra- 

 versed the world teaching righteousness. One section of 

 these demigods, however, the Ralcshyos, are fierce and 

 mahgnant, and in these respects resemble the Yakkas or 

 demons so much dreaded by the Singhalese, and who, hke 

 the Ghouls of the Mahometans, are beheved to infest the 

 vicinity of graveyards, or, hke the dryads and hamadryads 

 of the ancients, to frequent favourite forests and groves, 

 and to inhabit particular trees, whence they sally out to 

 seize on the passer by.^ The Buddhist priests connive at 

 demon worship because their efforts are inefiectual to sup- 

 press it, and the most orthodox Singhalese, whilst they 

 confess its impropriety, are still driven to resort to it hi all 

 their fears and afflictions. 



Independent of the mahgnant spirits or Yakkas, who 

 are the authors of indefinite evil, the Singhalese have a 

 demon or Saime for each form of disease, who is supposed 

 to be its direct agent and inflictor, and who is accordingly 

 invoked for its removal ; and others, who delight in tlie 

 miseries of mankind, are to be propitiated before the arrival 

 of any event over which then- pernicious influence might 

 otherwise prevail. Hence, on every domestic occurrence, 

 as well as in every domestic calamity, the services of the 



^ Travellers from Point de Galle to 

 Colombo, in driving- through tlie long 

 succession of gardens and plantations 

 of coco-nuts which the road traverses 

 throughout its entire extent, will not 

 fail to observe fruit-trees of difterent 

 kinds, roimd the stem of which a 

 hand of leaves has been fastened by the 

 owner". This is to denote that the 

 tree has been devoted to a demon ; 

 and sometimes to Vishnu or the 

 Kattregam dewol. Occasionally these 

 dedications are made to the temples 

 of Buddha, and even to the Roman 

 Catholic altars, as to that of St. 

 Anne of Calpentyn. This ceremony 

 is called Gok-handecma, ^' the tying 

 of the tender leaf," and its operation 

 is to protect the fruit from pillage 



till ripe enough to be plucked and 

 sent as an offering to the divinity to 

 whom it has thus been consecrated. 

 There is reason to fear, however, that 

 on these occasions the devil is, to 

 some extent, defrauded of his due, as 

 the custom is, after applying a few 

 only of the finest as an offering to the 

 evil one, to appropriate the remainder 

 to the use of the ovraer. When 

 coco-nut palms are so preserved, the 

 fruit is sometimes converted into oil 

 and burned before the shrine of the 

 demon. The superstition extends 

 throughout other parts of Ceylon ; 

 and so long as the wi-eath continues 

 to hang upon the tree, it is presumed 

 that no thief would venture to plim- 

 der the garden. 



