IN GENERAL. 



55 



by Angam charms; three others also replied in the same way, men- 

 tioning some particular department of Sorcery, in which they were 

 most skilled, and by which they could bring diverse calamities on 

 men; but the seventh and last princess said that she knew none of 

 those in which her sisters were accomplished, but that she was 

 well learned in the other class of charms, by which she could restore 

 to health and life men suffering from the former. Upon this, the 

 King of Ceylon, being highly pleased with her, selected her to be 

 his Queen, and brought her away to his country. The other sisters 

 being offended at this as an insult offered to them, determined to 

 take their revenge. For this purpose they collected from all parts 

 of the world every kind of charm, that was productive of evil to 

 man, and inserting them in some peculiar manner in a pumpkin* 

 sent it to their sister in Ceylon, as a present. Their object was 

 to destroy their sister and her kingdom by its means, for on being 

 touched by the hand of the person, for whom it was intended, it 

 was to set on fire both that person and everything else within a 

 hundred Yoduns.]' But while the man, who carried it, was on the 

 sea on his way to the Island, it set fire to his head, and then fell into 

 the sea, from which it was afterwards picked up by a certain god, 

 and presented to the King of Ceylon. These evil spells together 

 with the charms in the healing department, which his own Queen 

 knew, constitute the 240,000 alluded to above. Whatever particle 

 of truth there may be in the story, it is certain that a majority of 

 the charms now in use among the Singhalese were introduced in 

 times much later, than those indicated by this legend. 



* The pumpkin was selected for this purpose, because nothing else in the 

 whole universe could hold such dangerous materials without being immediately- 

 burned to ashes ! In the Ceremony of Hooniyan Kerema, by which all evil 

 influences produced by any malignant charms are sought to be removed, a 

 pumpkin is placed before the sick man, and after ordering, by means of incanta- 

 tions, all such evil influences to " descend to the pumpkin," the Cattadiya cuts 

 the fruit in two, and then throws it into the sea or some other place of water. 



| A Yoduna is 1 6 miles. 



