92 



P1LL1 CHARMS. 



ately brought him a handful of rice from a Chatty* in the kitchen 

 opposite, wondering all the while what my brother was going to do. 

 He took the rice into his hand, and muttering a charm over it 

 threw it to the hen, which during this time, which was not more 

 than 4 or 5 minutes altogether, was moving round and round my 

 brother's bed. The hen first fluttered its wings, and then very 

 quickly picked up the grains and went away, all the while croak- 

 ing and cackling in a peculiar way. My brother then shewed me 

 a small piece of flesh looking like the heart of a fowl, still dripping 

 with blood, which, he said, fell on his breast and roused him from 

 sleep; this was the Coli Pilli (No. 4 in the list); and he congra- 

 tulated himself on his narrow escape, and on his success in turning 

 back the Pilli to the very man, who had sent it to him. Well, 

 Sir, the next morning we heard that the Matura man had died 

 during the night, Well, now, what say you to that ?" Knowing 

 very well that the greatest miracle, that could be performed in 

 these modern times, would be to convince by reasoning an un- 

 educated old Singhalese of the absurdity of any of his opinions, we 

 contented ourselves with quietly remarking, " that it appeared to 

 us, that, without the agency of a Pilli or any other charm, it was 

 quite possible that a hen and its chickens should come into an open 

 Verandah, also carrying with it a piece of flesh picked up some- 

 where; that it was equally possible that the hen should, while 

 moving about the bed, drop the piece of flesh on the man sleeping 

 on it; and that it was not at all miraculous that a neighbour, with 

 whom your brother may have had a quarrel lately, should die by 

 some natural means the same night." On this, the old man looked 

 daggers at us, but suppressing his rage he replied, " but I was 

 wide awake, and saw the hen from the first moment she came into 

 the Verandah to the moment of her leaving it, and during all that 

 time I did not see her getting on the bed or dropping a piece of 

 flesh on my brother's person." " Could not the hen have come 



* Chatty is the name given to any earthen vessel of a moderate size used as 

 cooking utensil, 



