376 



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



M 



Ceremony of " Pulling of Horns" (March 1, 1830). — The cere- 

 mony of " Pulling Horns " is now taking place in this village, and I went 

 this evening to see it. In passing through the village 1 was surprised 

 to see so very few people in their houses, but when 1 got near the place 

 I found they were all there. A place in the jungle is cleared, in the 

 middle of which a deep hollow is dug. In this hole is put a cocoa-nut 

 tree, about ten or twelve feet high, which has been rooted up for the 

 purpose, with its root upwards. The people of the village divide 

 themselves into two parties, called the " Upper Party " (uda pild) and 

 the " Lower Party " (yati pila), and each party has a large branch of a 

 tree with the bark peeled off, notched in the middle, and another piece 

 of wood very strong fastened tight across it, so as to resemble a hook. 

 In some places the horns of the elk are used. When they have linked 

 the two together they are fastened to the cocoa-nut tree by very strong 

 topes or creeping plants (wel), and each party pulls with all their 

 strength, at the same time making a tremendous noise, till one of the 

 horns break. The broken horn is put into a little cadjan bungalow 

 built on one side, and the other is carried in procession on a man's 

 shoulder, wrapped in white cloth, together with the ropes with which it 

 was fastened, round the cocoa-nut tree about a dozen times, under a 

 canopy supported by four men. They then stop at a tree, in the middle 

 of which is placed a cocoa-nut shell used as a lamp, and putting the 

 victorious, that is, the unbroken horn, in it, they repeat some verses in 

 Singhalese, the object of which is to invoke the goddess Pattini to take 

 away the "great sickness" (the small-pox) which is now prevalent among 

 them. Having concluded the verse, they worship the " horn," with 

 their hands clasped and raised to their foreheads, in the same manner 

 as they worship Buddha at the temples. They continue afterwards to 

 go round the cocoa-nut tree as before, dancing and singing and blowing 

 the conques, and beating the tom-toms ; and then the conquered party 

 sit down in the ground, and being separated from the other by a rope, 

 they suffer themselves to have all. the abuse which the Singhalese lan- 

 guage supplies heaped upon them. This, however, though spoken with 

 apparent earnestness, consits merely in words which are repeated, or 

 rather sung, by the head of the party, the rest joining in it by way 

 of chorus. — Selkirk, Recollections of Ceylon, 1844, pp. 398-9. 



(«) 



Ceremony to drive away Small-pox (May 2, 1838). — A few nights ago I 

 went to the an-pitiya } or place where the ceremony of "pulling the horns" 

 takes place. (See March 1, 1830, supra.) In the midst of a large open 

 space of ground a high pole is erected, generally an areka-nut tree, with 

 the bunch of leaves at the top cut off. From the top of this pole, ropes, 

 made of parts of the cocoa-nut leaf, are extended to the four corners of 

 an enclosed place. A burning lamp ia fixed on the top, and there are 



