20 THE SPORTS AND GAMES OF THE SINGHALESE. 



leave their taint on the national character, the good will 

 yet so far counterbalance the evil, that, with the generous 

 influences already at work, with the agency of a higher 

 and nobler education in operation, and the principles of a 

 purer Religion permeating the masses, the day if distant, 

 will yet dawn when every village will have its school- 

 house and its own play-ground, and the village green 

 resound with the chants and merriment of a future genera- 

 tion of Singhalese Youths assembled in the generous 

 rivalry of those athletic sports, which if they had ever 

 existed at all, have very nearly died out, or re-echo to the 

 sound of bat and ball when cricket shall have displaced 

 their own " Buhu Kelly a". Then, if there is any truth 

 in the saying, " The child is father of the man", shall 

 the Singhalese Youth begin to give promise of a more 

 vigorous manhood than can be predicated of the pre- 

 sent generation. But to return from this digression. 



The Sports and Games of the Singhalese may be 

 classed under four heads, 1st Religious Games, 2nd Gut- 

 door sports, 3rd Games of skill, and 4th Games of chance, 

 It may however, be necessary to mention here that, with 

 but a few exceptions, all the games and sports of the 

 Singhalese appear to have been borrowed from India, 

 and even from the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the 

 English. 



Among the Religious Games the first is the Ang~ 

 Ediema (cpoqp t §®) or the "Pulling of horns," the idea 

 of the tnenry -thought of European superstition developed on 

 a gigantic scale. It is not a game in celebration of a 

 victory, nor in commemoration of any great national event, 

 like the games of classic Greece and Rome, but rather in 



