No. 29.-1884.] 



AlST-KELIYAc 



369 



performed on the occasion of some epidemic ascribed to her 

 interference. Though seldom witnessed now, it was formerly 

 the one great national game of the Sinhalese, and was per- 

 formed in many places on a scale of great magnificence, and 

 in the presence of thousands of spectators. 



I have been unable to trace out the true origin of the 

 game, though its mythological one, as believed in Udapalata 

 at any rate, is as follows:— The goddess Pattini was out one 

 day with her husband Palanga, gathering sapu* flowers. 

 To enable them to reach the flowers, they had long hooked 

 sticks, and while they were stretching out together, their 

 two sticks caught in each other in the tree, and they could 

 not extricate them. While they were considering what they 

 should do, the three sons of Maha Vishnu came by, and on 

 being appealed to by the goddess, they good-naturedly took 

 hold of the ends of the two sticks, and with " a long pull, a 

 strong pull, and a pull altogether," broke the crook of the 

 husband's stick, and so liberated them both. The goddess 

 was so pleased with the performance that she suggested 

 a game after the model of what she had just seen. So the 

 game of an-keliya was inaugurated, and whenever it is 

 necessary to appease the goddess, the game of which she 

 is said to be so fond, is performed to propitiate her and to 

 rid the country of the particular scourge, which she is 

 considered in her anger to have brought upon it.f 



The game is played as follows : — A flat piece of ground 

 (an-pitiya) having been selected, — the esplanade in Kandy 

 is said to have been once a favourite place, — the trunk of a 

 large tree (an-gaha) is planted in the centre, (unless there 

 is a large enough tree growing there already) and strong 

 coils of jungle creepers called perehe are loosely wound 

 round its base. About four or five yards in front of this 

 tree an oblong hole is dug, 6 or 7 feet long, by 3 or 3J feet 

 broad, and from 4 to 5 feet deep. The exact distance from 

 the tree depends on the description of horns to be used in 

 the game. The sides of this hole are lined with cocoanut 



* Michelid champakd. 



t Note (2). 



