ANGAM CHARMS, 



and the fang of a Cobra de Capello. each in separate leaves, toge- 

 ther with a young king cocoanut cut open at one end without 

 spilling its water. Then surround the whole with a Kan-ya Nool 

 thread, so as to include within the ring the Mai Bulat Tatuwa, 

 Pidayni Tatuwa, and yourself. Lie down on your hack with your 

 head towards the north. Place one of the Tatus on your right and 

 the other on your left, and the fire pot and resin near your right 

 foot. Repeat then the charm 108 times, each time smoking the 

 two Tatus with the resin. Do this during the midnight Yama of 

 a Sunday, After this, put the sandal wood powder carefully into 

 a little box, and pronouncing over it the charm three times, shut 

 the lid with your right hand, while you support the box on the 

 back of your left hand. Then take this away, and rub some of the 

 sandal powder on any of the cross sticks of the fence stile with the 

 middle finger of your right hand; every' one, who attempts to get 

 over that stile during the first seven hours, commencing from the 

 time you first rubbed the sandal on it, will fall down senseless and 

 bleeding, and, if not cured immediately, will die in seven hours." 



Angams and Wedding processions are so intimately connected 

 with each other in the mind of a Singhalese, that, if a bridegroom or 

 his bride happen to feel a little unwell while on their way to be 

 married, it will most probably be attributed to an Angam. During 

 these processions, that is, when the bridegroom goes to the house 

 of the bride, or when he returns to his own accompanied by her 

 and all their relatives, it sometimes happens, that either he or she, 

 and sometimes both, get hysterical and fall into swoons which last 

 about a quarter of an hour. This is most probably owing to their 

 having, for the best part of the day, been obliged to remain over- 

 loaded with an amount of clothing,* to which they (especially the 



* The ordinary , dress of a man of the middle classes consists only of a Sarou 

 or four yards of white cloth, wrapped round his person so as to cover it from 

 the waist to a little below the knee. When a man has occasion to go beyond 

 the precincts of his village, this dress is a little improved upon ; he puts on a 

 jacket and sometimes a shirt and wears sandals on his feet, he adorns his bc-ad 

 too with a large comb, which is worn in different fashions by different castes, 



