NO. 42.— 1891.] SINHALESE PLANT LORE. 



123 



person he always falls a victim. In almost all these tales the 

 intended victim has escaped miraculously by means of some 

 talisman which a knowing royal lover had put him in 

 possession of, and the intentions of the wickedly-disposed 

 persons have been frustrated. 



III. — Legends of the Origin of a few valuable 

 Food Products, and of their Names. 



There are many stories which account for the origin of 

 certain trees whose products are widely used ; thus, we 

 have stories regarding the origin of rice, the cocoanut, and 

 the sweet potato. 



To start with I will take paddy, or the rice-producing 

 plant, since rice is the principal food of the natives of this 

 Island. The story relates how in the beginning of this 

 kalpa the earth was inhabited by two beings who descended 

 to our sphere from the Bralima-loka, and how they and their 

 children had at first no difficulty in obtaining their food, as 

 the soil itself was rich and fruitful, and they ate of it gladly 

 and thankfully. But as time went on those qualities which 

 made the soil bear palatable food ceased to exist, and a 

 growth, an edible fungus, sprung up, that these early inhabi- 

 tants were put to the trouble of collecting as their food ; hence, 

 it is said, the necessity for work arose, for the reason that 

 wickedness began to appear among the members of this first 

 earthly family, who had originally nothing but good in their 

 hearts. And as the world grew older its inhabitants grew 

 more wicked, and in proportion the greater was the 

 difficulty in obtaining food. For the first growth, which had 

 merely to be collected and eaten, gave place to another, — a 

 species of plant bearing naked grain, in other words, rice, 

 which the people were put to the additional trouble of collect- 

 ing and cooking before it was fit for eating. 



Later on, as the inhabitants grew more numerous and more 

 wicked, " rice " developed a covering or husk and evolved 

 itself into paddy, thereby causing man greater trouble in 



