No. 33. — 1886.] THE VEDDAS OF CEYLON. 



361 



almost reminds one of the customs of the Schamanen. 

 Sometimes, while preparing for the chase, the spirit is 

 promised a piece of 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. 



Sir E. Tennent also reports that the dead were not buried, 

 but simply covered over with shrubs and leaves in the 

 jungle. On the other hand the Secretary of the Ceylon 

 Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society* (1853) tells of their 

 wrapping the dead in mats and burying them ; and 

 Mr. Hartshornet knows of no other practice than burying. 

 When a person is dead they envelop him in the skin of an 

 animal, and dig a grave for him with their axes or pointed 

 sticks. Women are not allowed to be present. No weapons 

 or utensils of any kind are buried with him, and once closed 

 over they never visit the grave again. To the spirit of the 

 departed one, who has now become a yakka, an offering is 

 brought in the following way : While invoking the spirit they 

 roast the flesh of the wandurd (monkey) or the talagoyd 

 (iguana) with honey and edible roots, and distribute it among 

 those present, who eat it on the spot. The word yakko, or 

 yakkho, designates, according to Tumour, J a kind of demon, 

 though the demon worshippers are also called Yakkhos and 

 Yakkhinis. He derives it from the root yaja, " to bring 

 offerings." This word has for a longtime justly excited the 

 attention of scientists, since in the great historical work of 

 Ceylon, the Mahawanso, the earliest inhabitants of the Island 

 are called by this name. 



When Wijayo, the founder of the first known 

 Ceylon dynasty, in the year of Gotama Buddha's death, 

 543 B.C., landed, as is generally assumed, upon the 



* Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch, 1853, p. 89. 

 j* Hartshorne, I. c. 



% The Mahawanso, edited by George Tumour. Ceylon, 1837, vol. I., Index 

 and Glossary, p. 30. 



