56 



SPELLS OR CHARMS 



Though a charm be ever so good in the number and proper dis- 

 position of those peculiar combinations of letters we have already 

 mentioned, and though it be complete in all other respects, yet it 

 can have no power for any practical purpose, unless it be subject- 

 ed to a certain process or ceremony called J eewama, which liter- 

 ally means, " the endowing with life." This it is, that makes a 

 charm efficacious for good or for evil. A Jeewama is considered 

 to be a ceremony of greater or less difficulty and danger, according 

 as the object of the charm is considered to be more or less easy of 

 accomplishment. For instance, the Jeewama of a charm to cure 

 a gripe or a headache is attended with no danger, whilst that of 

 another, intended to cause the death of a person or to seduce the 

 affections of a girl, is supposed to be fraught with great danger to 

 the life of him, who performs the ceremony. This danger arises 

 from demons, who endeavour to prevent in various ways the ac- 

 complishment of the man's object. For, should the charm be per- 

 fected by the uninterrupted progress of the Jeewama, the demon 

 would be bound, nolens volens, to accomplish the object aimed at 

 by the charm. Hence their anxiety to interrupt a Jeewama, and 

 to frighten away those engaged in it; the consequences of that 

 fright to the men, being sickness and death. 



When a Oattadiya is asked why it is that he cannot now do 

 any of those wonderful things, which his predecessors of earlier 

 days are said to have done, and which his omnipotent charms pro- 

 fess to be able at any time to effect, his answer is invariably an ar- 

 gument founded on this danger and difficulty of the Jeewama 

 ceremony. 



Every charm has a sort of rubric appended to it, in which the 

 object of the charm* is stated, and instructions are given in what 



* Some people have been so anxious to prevent others from making use of any 

 of those "tried" [Singhalese Atdutu] charms, in whose efficacy they have the 

 firmest belief, that they have managed to render their own manuscript copies 

 mere sealed books to the rest of the world, by writing the rubric in a way un- 

 intelligible to those not initiated into the mystery. For this purpose, they 



