THE SPORTS AND GAMES OF THE SINGHALESE, 



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game, and begins a-fresh. If when she throws up the 

 stones and catches them on the back of her hand^ it 

 be only one, any player may strike it off, and she is out. 

 Should she also in picking up the stones on the ground, 

 touch a stone and fail to pick it up, or leave only one 

 stone the last on the ground, or fail to catch the ston® 

 thrown up, she is out. When the play is over, the winners 

 are entitled to give the losers' as many raps as there were 

 stones won. 



Irrata Kelya. This game is usually played with 

 {i lekels" (pieces of the mid-rib of the cocoanut leaf about 

 4 inches long) of which each player has from six to twelve* 

 sis agreed upon, The order of play is decided as in the 

 previous game, each player tossing up her " lekels," in a 

 bundle and catching them on the back of her hand. This 

 settled, the player that has the right to begin, gathers up all 

 the " lekels/' and shaking them in her hand drops them 

 on the ground in a heap, and with a hook also of " Iekel," of 

 which each player is proyided with one, proceeds to remove 

 them Iekel by Iekel at a time, taking care not to disturb 

 or shake those in the heap, which if she does she is out, and 

 the play passes to the next in order. The players who at 

 the end of the game have taken more * - lekels" than what 

 they brought to the game, are winners by so many, and 

 claim the agreed-upon penalty, A game very much like 

 this called Spelicans" is described in " Every Boy's 

 Book" published by Routledge & Sons. 



Madinchy or Oticy Irattey, " Odd or Even"; this is 

 sdso a common and favorite game among women during the 

 Cashew season. A number of women sit in a circle on the 

 ground each with a heap of cashew nuts beside her. One 



