TO 



HOONIYAN CHARMS. 



minds of his friends are so many proofs of a Hooniyan cause, 

 although some unfriendly wag of a neighbour might insinuate that 

 the man was tipsy with Toddy rather than affected by a Hooniyan 

 cause at the time. Suppose a man and his wife constantly quarrel 

 and do not like each other's company, especially at the commence- 

 ment of their matrimonial life, and neither of them can assign any 

 adequate reason for it, then, although the man's friends will say 

 that the woman is wholly to be blamed, and the woman's friends 

 that the man is solely to be blamed, it is most probable however 

 that both these sets of friends in their cooler moments will say that 

 a Hooniyan must be the sole cause of this domestic misery. A 

 young woman is betrothed to a young man, but sometime 

 afterwards the match is broken off through the non-consent, 

 say, of some of the girl's relatives, and she is therefore given in 

 marriage to another young man, and in due course of time she 

 gives birth to a child; if, during the pains of delivery, she 

 suffers much, and is not easily delivered of her burthen, you will 

 then hear but one word whispered in low accents from mouth to 

 mouth among all the relatives and friends assembled there; and 

 that word is Hooniyan. You may see some of these relatives 

 standing in groups of 2 or 3 in the compound or behind the house, 

 engaged in an earnest, anxious, grave, and whispering conversation, 

 others hurrying here and there either in search of a skilful Catta- 

 diya, or in making preparations for performing some special demon 

 ceremony, although similar ceremonies had been performed months 

 before in anticipation of such a calamity, a suspicion of which 

 necessarily arose from the circumstances attending the marriage. 

 Or you may see one Cattadiya, standing near the house, muttering 

 his charms over a small tea-cup containing some cocoanut oil or 

 over a thread; and another standing before the distressed woman, 

 and with an "Arecanut Cutter "* cutting three limes, j at the 



* An Arecanut Cutter is an instrument, which is found in every Singhalese 

 house. As its name implies, it is used for cutting Arecanuts preparatory to 

 their being chewed with betel leaves, chunam, and tobacco. 



f The cutting of limes on this, and on every other occasion when it is intend- 



