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JOURNAL B. A. S. (CEYLON). [Vol. VII., Pt, III, 



FOLK-LORE IN CEYLON.* 

 By W. Gunatilaka, Esq. 

 (Read, September 14th, 1882. 



Very great interest and importance attach to the folk-lore 

 of any nation, as is evidenced by the labors bestowed on the sub- 

 ject by eminent writers, and the manner in which those labors 

 have been appreciated. The tales of a people once collected and 

 recorded afford material alike for the ethnologist, the philologist 

 and the historian to build upon, and enable them to arrive at 

 truths previously unknown, and to throw fresh light upon theo- 

 ries which are but partially established. It is not the amuse- 

 ment which the tales and stories afford that makes them valuable 

 but it is the great truths which they point to in the field of 

 literature and science that commend them to our notice and 

 study. Readers who wish to have some idea of the importance 

 of folk-lore to ethnology and its cognate sciences, will find the 

 subject fully treated in the " Chips from a German workshop" 

 of Max Miiller, and in the introduction to the " Popular Tales 

 from the Norse" of Mr. Dasent. 



While different writers have labored in the work of collect- 

 ing tales in other countries, while each successive number of 

 the " Indian Antiquary" presents to us the folk-lore of the 

 Panjab and other parts of India, it is a matter both of regret 

 and surprise that no writer in Ceylon has, so far as I am aware, 

 yet begun to work in a systematic manner in collecting the 

 folk-lore of this Island. 



* I was requested by the Honorary Secretary of this Society, about a 

 month ago, to prepare a Paper to be read at this Meeting, and he suggested the 

 Folklore of Ceylon as a subject that would be of interest. Although the time 

 at my disposal was insufficient either to collect materials, or, when collected, to 

 digest them, 1 readily accepted the undertaking, convinced that any short- 

 comings on my part would be excused in view of the shortness of the time" 

 given me ai.d the difficulty of the subject to be dealt with. 



