No. 29. — 1884.] THKESHING— FLOOR. 



241 



udavukaranavd 'to eat' and 'to kindle (a fire).' The 

 verbs, in fact, seem to be purely euphemistic words selected 

 entirely without reference to their having any, or no, resem- 

 blance in meaning to the words in place of which they are 

 used. Words with such meanings as ' to increase/ ' to 

 multiply,' Ho make fat,' 'to fill,' appear to be considered 

 lucky words to use. Hence the Sinhalese cultivators use 

 puravanavd [" to fill"] and vadanavd [" to increase "] ; for 

 6 to begin the work ' of cultivation, puravadanavd* and vada- 

 navd for 'to sow' [bittara vadanavd],^ or, 'to draw the 

 threshing-floor diagrams 9 [ahtkan vadanavd] .} Just in the 

 same way the Tamils use perukka [" to cause to increase "] 

 with many different meanings. The various meanings of 

 puravanavd ["to fill"] I have already noticed. The Sinhalese 

 Kapurala shouts Purd ! purd ! [''Full! full!"]; the 

 Tamil cultivator urges on the oxen on the threshing-floor, and 

 at the end of the work greets the appearance of the heap of 

 threshed corn with shouts of Poll! poll! ["Increase! in- 

 crease!"]. So the Sinhalese say bokaranda ["to multiply"] 

 for ' to chew (betel),' where the Tamils use metta [" to be 

 abundant "]. 



5. In one or two instances the Sinhalese cultivators 

 make use of ordinary Tamil words as their conventional 

 words, while a corresponding process is found among the 

 Tamils with respect to some Sinhalese words. Thus, in 

 Mr. Bell's list of words from Rayigam Korale, vdlapalam 

 (Tam., vdlaippalam) is given as the threshing-floor word for 

 " plantain," while the Tamil cultivators call a " winnow " 

 kullam (Sin., kulla)^ and 'a lime ' teslkkdi. 



6. Sometimes the general is used for the particular, and 

 vice versa. In Sinhalese, " winnow " is yatura [" the instru- 

 ment "] ; in Tamil " margosa leaf " is pattiri [" the leaf"] , 

 'arecanut ' is koddai ["the seed"], ' plantain ' is kani [" the 



* C. A. S. Journal, 1883, p. 46. 

 f Ibid, 1880, p. 47. 

 \ ibid, 1880, p. 49, and 1883, p. 49, 

 § This, however, is a Pali word. 



