40 



THE DEMONS 



is believed by all Demon -worshippers to have been built in a re* 

 markable manner; and the circumstance is often mentioned, as one 

 of the proofs of the authority, which the Dewatawa is supposed to 

 exercise over his subjects the demons. It is said that the demon 

 chief, a long time ago, wishing to have a new temple constructed 

 and consecrated to him, in place of the old one in which his ser- 

 vice had till then been performed, ordered some thousands of his 

 subject demons to cut and smooth down a rock, which was some 

 seven or eight hundred feet high, so as to fit it for the site of the 

 intended building, they were however to use no other tools, than 

 the common jungle canes called Way Well* with which they 

 were to rub the rock, till by mere friction it should be reduced to 

 the desired level. The demons engaged in the work were, no 

 doubt, those, who having violated his laws were then undergoing 

 the sentence of hard labour. They however succeeded in execut- 

 ing the work in the manner directed in the course of a single night, 

 and hence the name Gala-cap-pu dewale. Pilgrims from every 



* Way Well is a climbing plant, which grows to considerable dimensions 

 in the jungles of Ceylon. It is covered with a coating of short but very sharp 

 thorns. One species of it is used as a file by the people of the inland districts 

 for rasping the hard kernel of the nut of the Sal tree, of which they make a 

 sort of pudding. Being a Rattan of great strength, it is used for a variety of 

 purposes, such as making baskets, rattaning chairs and couches, and even for 

 making rude suspension bridges in the secluded parts of the island. The fol- 

 lowing is a description of one of these bridges by Sir J. E. Tennent. 



" One which crossed the falls of the Maha Welli Ganga, in the Kotmalie 

 range of hills, was constructed with the scientific precision of an Engineer's 

 Avork. It was entirely composed of the plant called by the Natives " Way 

 Well," its extremities were fastened to living trees, on the opposite sides of the 

 ravine, through which a furious and otherwise impassable mountain torrent 

 thundered and fell from rock to rock with a descent of nearly 100 feet. The 

 flooring of this aerial bridge consisted of short splints of wood, laid transversely 

 and bound in their places by thin strips of the Way Well itself. The whole 

 structure vibrated and swayed with fearful case, but the coolies traversed it 

 though heavily laden; and the European, between whose estate and the high 

 road it lay, rode over it daily without dismounting" — Sir J. E. Tennent's 

 History of Ceylon, Vol. I. part I. ch: hi. 



