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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XIII. 



houses abounding with wealth, women, adorned with sweet- 

 smelling flowers, light their lamps and offer evening prayers ; 

 when forest-rangers in their par an* reaching the sky 

 kindle torches with friction-born fire ; when black clouds 

 overhang the hills ; when wild animals make night resound 

 with their cries, and when birds' notes become frequent. 

 Then did the chief give his pledge : " I shall marry thee, 

 who art decked with brilliant jewels, when thy relations 

 apprise thy people and place thy right hand in mine. For a 

 while yet shall I spend some days here in order to experience 

 the great joy of conversing with thee in private. Be not 

 alarmed." These and other gracious words he said to her, 

 and accompanying us to the stream skirting our town, where 

 the drums never cease to sound, he left us. 



Since then has he, with the same love as he had at first, 

 come every night. Often disturbed by the town-guards' 

 approach, or the angry dog's bark, or your wakefulness, or 

 the bright moon's rise, he would depart without meeting 

 her ; and even if we, imagining causes of fear when there 

 were none, remained indoors and kept not the tryst, he 

 would depart, never blaming us. 



He is not one who has passed the time of youth ; nor has 

 vast wealth, which ever hath the tendency to breed evil 

 habits, changed the good qualities due to his birth ; he 

 knoweth. too that it is not fitting to meet a maiden at 

 untimely hours, and yearneth to ask her hand in marriage 

 in order that their united lives may be spent in the per- 

 formance of the duties prescribed for the married. But thy 

 daughter, thinking in the meantime of the perils of moun- 

 tain paths, of bears and tigers hiding in caves, wild oxen 

 and elephants crossing his way ; thinking of thunderbolts 

 overhead, demons and snakes roaming the forests, alligators 

 swarming in streams, and robbers and boa constrictors; think- 

 ing of all these dangers nightly encountered by him on his 

 way to meet her, is ever in dire distress, her eyes streaming 

 with tears, and alas, she resembleth a tender blossom crushed 

 by rainstorms fearful and heavy. 



II. — PORUNARATTUPPADAI. 



Oh, minstrel, ever careful to avoid the stale food served 

 the day after the festival, and only present when the festival 

 is still at its height ! 



When thy wife, — graceful as the peacock, gifted with learn- 

 ing, her hair soft as moss, her beautiful brow resembling the 

 crescent moon, her lips red like the ilavam's^ young leaves, 



* Paran, a raised platform for watching fields, 

 j- Ilavam, the silk cotton tree, 



