28 



THE SPORTS AND GAMES OF THE SINGHALESE. 



And did he not and his fellows get a thrashing ? 



There is no evil in his riead from this day 



(accompaniment of knocks) 



There is no trusting earth and water, you dog ! 



Were your antecedents known, not even Olyas would beg of you 



One after another we are come to-day to sing, 



Go, go, hence away, you vagabond dog.* 

 Another game, a favorite with small boys is Kally 

 Kelya resembling very much the Tip-cat of the English 

 play ground — that it was however, not borrowed from the 

 English, is tolerably certain from the fact of its having 

 been known long before the British period. Any number 

 may play this game, but the sides must be numerically 

 of the same strength. The implements of the game are 

 a stick about eighteen inches long, called the " striker" 

 and a smaller piece of about three or four inches like the 

 " cat " in the English game of Tip-cat". A small hole 

 sloping down at one end of about three inches by one, is 

 made in the ground, near which one of the in-players 

 takes his stand. A line the length of the tallest boy 

 from feet to tip of fingers, is then marked off on the further 

 side, where a boy of the opposite side takes his stand 

 with the " cat " in his hand. He cries out " play " and 

 on being answered " ready ", throws the " cat ", trying 

 to put it in the hole. The boy with the " striker" watches 

 his opportunity to strike, which if he succeeds in doing, 

 the distance to which the " cat" may have been carried, 



* Calculated as these taunts are to exasperate the loosing party, 

 they have seldom led to quarrels and rights. Indeed the writer has 

 been assured that they never created " bad blood" — an assurance 

 which he however regrets to state was contradicted by disclosures 

 made at the Matura Criminal Session for 187I, when the provocation 

 to a murder was traced to this game of Buhukelya, 



