12 



GENERAL REMARKS ON DEMON WORSHIP. 



districts of the Island they still retain this superiority to some 

 extent. The sacred character however assigned to the Priests of 

 Buddha is wholly denied both to the Capuas and to the Cattadiyas. 



III. Grahaism, as it exists here at the present day, owes its 

 origin to Judicial Astrology. The Horoscope of a man is an essen- 

 tial thing for determining both the nature of the planetary influence, 

 which troubles him at any particular time with disease or some other 

 evil, and also the nature of the particular ceremony necessary to 

 remedy the evil. The calculations of the Astrologer shew that 

 a certain position or a certain movement of the planets, or their 

 arrival at a certain point of their orbit, is fraught with some cala- 

 mity or some advantage to a man. When the former happens to be 

 the case, the planet god, who is the cause of the evil, is propitiated 

 by certain ceremonies called Balli ceremonies. These, being of 

 various kinds, will come to be treated of in detail in a subsequent 

 chapter. These Balli ceremonies have become more generally dif- 

 fused through the Island since the reign of Sree Prakkrama Bahoo 

 VI., who commenced his reign at Cottah in the year 1410, A, D. 

 Before that time they were confined generally to the magnates of 

 the land. When a king or a rich aristocrat fell sick, Brahmins 

 and others skilled in the art were sent for from India, who sometimes 

 also came of their own accord, and gave the benefit of their services 

 only to those, who were able to pay them well: but Sreerahola 

 Terunnanse, a Buddhist priest who lived during that reign, and 

 who is reputed to have been the most learned man of his time in 

 the Island, reduced Grahaism to its present condition, by teaching 

 it to people of some of the low castes, and thereby rendering 

 its benefits available to all classes of people. And so to this day, 

 although every class of Singhalese engages in the worship, yet the 

 office of priest or Ballicaareya or Balleadura is still held only by 

 some of the low caste people, especially the Berawayos or Tomtom 

 beaters. 



