22 THE SPORTS AND GAMES OF THE SINGHALESE, 



pion, who brings with him the stout branch of an elk 

 horn with the frontlet stang on. This horn is held in 

 proportionate veneration according to the number of 

 victories it m«y have achieved, and there are some handed 

 down from father to son— for the championship is heredi- 

 tary—that have come 



" O'er a 5 the ills o' life victorious/ 7 

 for a hundred years. The place appropriated for the game 

 is called the Angpitya, an open place, in some central 

 situation, and generally under the shade of an overspread- 

 ing Bo tree ? thus making the tree sacred to Buddha parti- 

 cipate in a purely Hindoo ceremony. At one end of the 

 Angpitya 



" Stands there a stump s ix feet high, the ruins of a tree, 

 " Yet unrotted by rain and tempests' force." 



The stump selected is generally that of a cocoanut tree put 

 loosely into a d^ep hole, with the root end up ; and is- 

 called the Hmekunde or thunderbolt. A hole large enough 

 for a man's arm to pass, is cut or burnt through this 

 upper end. The respective teams are now ready with 

 stout ropes made of buffaloe hide and strong jungle 

 creepers, when the Kapurale opens the gaais, proclaim- 

 ing like Pelides at the funeral pyre of Patroclus. 



" Come ye that list this prize to win, and ye this bout decide." 

 The men of the upper team now pass a stout huffa- 

 loe-hide rope through the hole in the Henekande and firmly 

 make fast to its end the elk horn of their champion. 

 The horn of the lower team is similarly got ready and 

 tied to the nearest tree ; the Henekande is now leaned 

 forward and the two champions hook the horns one into 



* The Iliad. Merivale's translation. Book XXIII. 

 But what is curious about this stump is, that in the Singhalese 

 Game it is always from a tree struck by lightning. 



