304 



JOUKNAL, K.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. VIII. 



TAMIL CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES 



CONNECTED WITH 



PADDY CULTIVATION IN THE JAFFNA DISTRICT. 



By J. P. Lewis, Esq., c.c.s. 



In a previous Paper I mentioned that peculiar ceremonies 

 were practised, and a conventional language spoken, by the 

 Tamils* of Ceylon, as well as by the Sinhalese, during the 

 operations of paddy cultivation. 



I have since collected information on this subject in the 

 Jaffna Peninsula from different sources, and I have hencef 

 been able to compile an account of these ceremonies, which 

 it may be interesting to compare with the descriptions of 

 the ceremonies practised by the Kandyans and Low-country 

 Sinhalese already recorded by Messrs. levers and Bell. 



It is a rule among the Tamils, as among the Sinhalese, 

 that after the New Year's Day, which is the first day of the 

 month Ckittirai, and falls on the 11th or 12th of April, no 

 work of any kind should be begun, except at a "lucky hour." 



* A list of Tamil threshing-floor words is annexed to the Paper 

 above referred to. 



fl may state that I do not pretend to have myself been an eye- 

 witness of all the ceremonies hereinafter detailed. This would have been 

 practically impossible. The cultivators are very chary of performing 

 them in the presence of a stranger, more especially of a European. I 

 may add, that it is not easy to get an intelligent account of them from 

 the natives, and those who are capable of giving such an account affect 

 to consider them too trivial and ridiculous to describe. It must not be 

 supposed that all the ceremonies described in this Paper are performed 

 on every occasion of paddy cultivation in the Jaffna District. This is 

 the case only in the more remote Districts, such as Poonaryn (Punakari) 

 and Karachchi; in others many details are omitted, or the ceremonies, 

 with the exception of the choosing of a lucky hour, are neglected alto- 

 gether, as in the neighbourhood of Jaffna. 



