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JOURNAL, R. A. S. (CEYLON). [Vol. VII., Pt. I. 



Pitaka* and then explains the meaning to his audience. For 

 this service he is lodged and fed during the time of his ministry 

 and is afterwards presented with robes, white cloths, handker- 

 chiefs, etc., and sometimes money. 



8. — Pirit, a ceremony to ward off evil. This is generally 

 performed on the occasion of some epidemic, or in the case of 

 serious illness. A large hall, called a Bana Maduwa, is pre- 

 pared and decorated, and as many priests as possible are invited 

 to take part in it, the number never being less than thirty. 

 The floor of the hall is covered with mats, over which white 

 cloths are spread. Cushions are placed all round for the 

 priests, two for each, one to sit upon and the other to lean 

 against. A low platform is erected in the middle, on which a 

 table is placed, with two chairs on one side. This table is 

 covered with a cloth, and the Pirit book is put upon it. A 

 relic in the usual bell-shaped casket, called a karanduwa, is 

 placed on a second table close by, and a bowl of water, taken 

 from a newly-dug well in the vicinity, is put on a bench beside 

 it. A piece of string is attached to the karanduwa and to the 

 Pirit book, and is then carried up to a ring in the ceiling and 

 thence down to the ground. It is of sufficient length to be held 

 by all the priests when they are assembled, and sitting round the 

 room; and during the ceremony they all hold it. On the 

 appointed day the priests are brought in procession to the hall; 

 their feet are washed at the entrance, and they are escorted to 

 their places along stretched-out cloths. The place is conse- 

 crated and the deity is invoked, while the hall is perfumed with 

 incense and tom-toms are beaten. An elder of the village then 

 steps forward, and requests the priests assembled to open the 

 Pirit, and to continue it for seven days. The priests assent, 

 and thereupon dedicate the hall to that purpose. They then 



* The records of the teachings of Buddha are contained in the three 

 Pitakas— i.e., the Sutra, Vinaya, and Abhidharma Pitaka, 



