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



having to separate the grain from the husk. But this was 

 not the last of the troubles to the future agriculturist, for 

 now the paddy plant ceased to grow perennially with no 

 help or attention on the part of man, and then came the 

 necessity for the preparation of fields and the sowing of 

 the grain in order to obtain the crop. 



This is the story of the paddy plant, which, as such, has a 

 charming simplicity about it. But on looking closer we find 

 a moral significance in it, inasmuch as it attempts to show 

 how labour, trouble, and care were the outcome of evil, and 

 how they increased in proportion as the human race grew in 

 wickedness. Again, there is as it were a scientific glimmer- 

 about the account, for it is evidently intended to indicate, 

 after a crude fashion, that law of agriculture according to 

 which deterioration must eventually result when no attention 

 is given to the soil, so that those qualities may be preserved 

 upon which certain desirable effects depend. 



The Origin of the Cocoanut Tree. 



The story runs, that at one time there lived in a kingdom 

 of the East a mighty king, resplendent with glory and 

 surrounded by a large retinue of ministers, among whom 

 were several wise men — both physicians and astrologers. 

 These latter, by observing the stars and the courses of 

 heavenly bodies, professed to predict events and fix on 

 " lucky " days and hours, and made reports of the results of 

 their observations to the king. The astrologers royal, though 

 well remunerated, were in no little dread of His Majesty, 

 who, if ever their predictions proved incorrect, immediately 

 condemned them to be beheaded. 



One day a learned astrologer of the Berawaya (tom-tom 

 beater) caste, noted for his erudition, discovered, after careful 

 observation and calculation, that a certain day was exceed- 

 ingly " lucky " for planting trees — in fact he went so far as 

 to declare that anything, no matter what, planted at a certain 

 hour on that day would be sure to grow into a tree, which 

 would be a great boon to humanity. The king having been 



