240 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [Yol. VIII. 



be at once a tillage elder' [gamaya], and 'the donkey' 

 \_kaludeva\ . More respect is perhaps paid by the Kandyans 

 to the boar ; he is pre-eminently 'the quadruped ' \hataraya] . 

 It cannot be said that the names given to the cock — ' the 

 ground scratcher ' [hinpahura] and ' the crower ' [anda- 

 lannd] ; or by both Sinhalese and Tamils to the elephant, 

 'the great animal' [Sin. makabold, Tarn, perumpolan], 

 are inappropriate. So the Tamil cultivators call the ox 

 6 the walker ' \nadaiyan~]. * 



3. In some instances the system adopted seems to be 

 merely to call the object by some word which ordinarily 

 has a different meaning ; thus a tick is called ' tortoise ' 

 [ibbd], a thorn ' dried leaf [parandala], &c. Sometimes, 

 indeed, things are called by their contraries, or after quali- 

 ties the reverse of those which they possess, as for instance 

 sehellu [" light "] for bara [" heavy"], and miriyd 

 [" sweetness "] for lunu [" salt "] . 



4. A peculiarity which is characteristic of both the 

 Sinhalese and Tamil threshing-floor language is the paucity 

 of verbs and the different significations of which each verb 

 used is capable. Thus, in Sinhalese, jayakaranavd is 

 used both for ' to eat ' and ' to drink, ' and it is the 

 same in Tamil, where kodddppikka means either ' to eat ' 

 or 'to drink:' it also means 'to smoke (tobacco)' and 

 'to chew (betel).' Puravanavd, in Sinhalese, means 'to 

 eat,' 'to drink,' 'to go' (Kegalla), and 'to place,' and 



* Similar nicknames are to be found in ordinary Sinhalese. A 

 mantis is tanagirava, [" the grass parrot "] , and there is another insect, a 

 kind of grasshopper, 1 believe, called bim-urd ["the ground boar."] Sir 

 John Lubbock remarks (" Origin of Civilization," pp.321 — 2):—" Every 

 one who has paid any attention to children, or schoolboys, must have 

 observed how nicknames often derived from slight and even fanciful 

 characteristics are seized on, and soon adopted by general consent. 

 Hence, even if root-words had remained with little alteration, we should 

 still be often puzzled to account for their origin. I believe they arose 

 in the same way as the nicknames and new slang terms of our own day. 

 These we know are often selected from some similarity of sound, or 

 connection of ideas, often so quaint, fanciful, or far-fetched, that we are 

 unable to recall the true origin even of words which have arisen in our 

 own time." 



