3 



say the • least, very doubtful. The only thing that is proved 

 Is a lower kind of Demon or Yakkho worship among them, 

 which here arid there assumes the form of a worship of ancestors. 

 Mr. Bailey tells us that those in Bintenne had mourned and 

 buried their dead for a longtime, but that the more barbarous 

 inhabitants of Nilgalla had only just begun to do so. Formerly 

 they threw their dead into the jungle, or left them where they 

 had died ; after covering the body with leaves, they laid a 

 heavy stone upon the breast and sought out for themselves 

 another cavern, giving up the one where death had entered to 

 the spirit of the departed. These spirits, — now become 

 Yakkhos — watch over the welfare of those left behind ; come to 

 their relations when they are ill ; visit them in dreams ; and grant 

 them flesh oil the chase. They are invoked with dance and 

 song around an upright arrow. Sometimes while preparing for 

 the chase the spirit is promised a piece of the flesh of the slain 

 animal ; at other times they cook something and put it in the 

 dry bed of a river or other obscure place, invoke the souls of the 

 departed, dance round the food, and perform their incantations.* 

 Mr. Hartshorne describes these sacrificial feasts. While invoking 

 the departed spirit they roast the flesh of the wandura, 

 monkey, or talagoya (iguana) with honey and edible roots, and 

 then distribute it among those present, who eat it on the spot. 



Yakko and Naga-ioor shipping communities in early times. — ■ 

 This word " Yakkho " (Yakko) designates, according to Turnour, 

 a kind of demon ; though the demon-worshippers are also called 

 Yakkhos and Yakkhinis. He derives it from the root Ydga, to 

 bring offerings. This word has, for a long time, justly excited 

 the attention of scientists, since in the great historical work of 

 Ceylon — the Mahawanso — the earliest inhabitants of the island 



* [In respect to these beliefs and customs — apparently put forward 

 as illustrations of barbarism — do we, the most civilized, not also seem in 

 our dreams to see those who have occupied our thoughts when alive, and 

 still occupy our affections when gone ; and who has not at least wished, or 

 hoped, if not prayed for the countenance, the approval, even the aid in 

 our needs, of venerated ones passed from hence ? Do not the vastest 

 number of Christians pray to and invoke the dead, not to speak of 

 sacrifices and vows and offerings to them ? Is the difference so great at 

 bottom between the ideas of the Veddas on these heads and those of 

 Augustan Rome or Modern Europe ? — T. B.~\ 



