26 THE SPORTS AND GAMES OF THE SINGHALESE, 



Captains, divide into two teams, each under its own leaden 

 The players on either side count the same number and the 

 innings is decided by mutual consent, or tossing up a brick - 

 or a pebble. When the parties have ranged themselves 

 on either side, two cocoanut shells with the husks on, are 

 placed on end three or four inches apart, with a piece of stick 

 on them forming a bridge. This may be considered the 

 wicket. The ball used is an unripe Pommelow rendered 

 soft and elastic by being put under hot ashes, and protect- 

 ed against the rough usage it has to encounter by a 

 closely plaited envelope of strips of bark. The in players 

 Who hold the ball, now retire to an agreed upon distance, 

 usually about twenty or thirty yards, while of the other 

 team some take their stand behind the bridge or wicket, 

 and others disperse themselves over the ground as fielders. 

 The game commences with the captain of the first team 

 bowling, his object being to knock over the bridge while 

 that of the other party is to catch the ball as it bounds 

 along past the wicket. If the bowler knocks the bridge 

 over, one of the opposite team goes out, while if the ball 

 is caught, the bowler goes out. The ball must be caught 

 while it is on the bound, at least above the height of the 

 knee. The ball, whether caught or not, having passed into 

 the ground of the second team, one of them becomes the 

 bowler, and the game goes on alternating between the two 

 sides, until one team has all gone out, and the game is won 

 by the other still on the ground. The winners celebrate 

 their victory with song and joke, quip and crank, jeer and 

 jibe, and in the unbounded license of their exultation, show 

 nothing like consideration for the feelings of their van- 

 quished opponents. The apparent spirit of vindictivness, 



