NO. 42—1891.] SINHALESE PLANT LORE. 



127 



rather pleased her. Having cautiously tasted a portion of a 

 seed, she was quite fascinated by its agreeable flavour, and 

 eventually partook of the greater portion of the boiled fruit 

 before the old man arrived. The transformed god on his 

 return seeing what had occurred, accused the woman, calling 

 her Hera-liya, " thief woman," and disappeared. Since that 

 time the jak has been known by the name of Hera-liya, 

 while the fruit has become a favourite food with the 

 people of Ceylon. 



Coffee, — The coffee berry, as it originally grew in its wild 

 state, was looked upon as a poisonous fruit. It is related 

 that a certain woman, after having quarrelled with her 

 husband, made up her mind, in a fit of anger, to put an end 

 to her miserable existence by taking some poison in his 

 absence. Making her way into the neighbouring jungle she 

 found a tree laden with red berries, and gathering some of 

 the fruit peeled off the outer husk and attempted to eat the 

 seeds ; but these were so unpalatable that she decided on 

 roasting them first. The roasted berries, however, proved 

 more bitter and distasteful than the raw beans, and being 

 unable to swallow them, she conceived the idea of reducing 

 them to a powder, and, after mixing this with water, 

 drinking it down. By a strange chance there happened to 

 a pot of hot water near at hand, and this water she poured 

 over the coffee powder, drank off the infusion, and prepared 

 herself for death. To her astonishment, however, the 

 enraged wife found that the coffee, so far from acting as a 

 poison, seemed to enervate her, and at the same time to 

 calm her rage, till she felt ashamed of her cowardly 

 attempt to take her life. On the return of her husband 

 she went to him in contrition and confessed all, and he, 

 after mildly rebuking her for her weakness, decided to try 

 the infusion of the berry himself, which having done he 

 pronounced it excellent. Henceforward coffee became a 

 favourite beverage, and the berry was called Kojje, " anger," 

 since it was the anger of the woman that was the means of 

 discovering its virtues. 



