OR TAKSEYO. 



B9 



arising from decomposed leaves and sticks. Their bodies are lite- 

 rally mere skeletons, and as the fleshless ribs project on each side, 

 thej r are obliged, when they wish to lie down, to lie on their backs,* 

 Had Dante ever heard of Ceylon Pretayo, he would have been able 

 to make his Inferno, terrific as it already is, still more terrific by 

 the picture of a Pretaya figuring among those miserable beings, 

 with whom he has peopled it. The Pretayo are not included in 

 Demon worship. They are not possessed of power to injure a man 

 in any other way, than by spoiling his appetite, which they effect 

 by looking with desire at the food he is about to take; but this is 

 a power, which is attributed to dogs and men and some other crea- 

 tures, as well as to Pretayo. When any kind of food, especially 

 meat, is sent from one house to another, care is generally taken to 

 cover it well, and to put on the top of the cover a piece of iron of 

 any kind or size, as a precaution both against the Pretayo and 

 against the Yakseyo demons, who otherwise might affect it with 

 the mysterious influence, which looking at it would produce. 

 Children are seldom fed in the verandah of a house, and a Singha- 

 lese mother would rather die than allow her child to eat anything 

 in the open compound or yard of the house. Even a medical de- 

 coction, during the process of being prepared on a fire, is not con- 

 sidered safe from this mysterious influence, and a piece of iron is 

 often tied for protection to the vessel, which contains the preparation. 



The Pretayo, like the Brahmas, Asuras, Cumbkas, Gandhar- 

 was, Garundhas, and Nagas, are creations of Buddhism, and not 

 of mere popular fancy. 



The chief of all Ceylon demons is Wahala Bandara Dewiyo, 

 or as he is more commonly termed, Wahala dewiyo. His principal 

 temple, called Gala cap-pu dewale, is at Alutnuwera, a village 

 about 1 1 miles from Kandy on the road to Colombo. This temple 



* When a person sleeps on his back, the posture is derisively named Preta 

 Seyiyawa, or the sleeping posture of a Pretaya; lying on the face is called 

 Manduka Seyiyawa or the sleeping posture of a frog ; lying on the right side 

 with the right hand placed under the head is considered the most becoming 

 posture in sleeping, and is called Singha Seyiyawa, or the lion's sleeping posture. 



