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



129 



to die, her daughter would suffer a good deal, for she knew 

 well that the gamardla. being a comparatively young man,, 

 and possessing extensive fields, would take unto himself a 

 second wife after her death, and she had a presentiment that 

 the step-mother would not treat her daughter well. The 

 woman got worse and worse and was dying, but her thoughts 

 were centred on her beloved daughter. Before breathing 

 her last, with a great effort she told her daughter she would 

 get on by pleasing any step-mother she might get, and 

 that she (the mother) would be transformed into a white 

 tortoise and inhabit a pond in the vicinity, and requested 

 her daughter to think of her whenever she was in distress. 



The woman died, and, as she had rightly guessed, the 

 gamardla very soon married a second wife. This woman 

 proved herself to be very kind to the step-daughter, but all 

 this kindness disappeared when she got a daughter of her 

 own. Henceforth Kirihami led a miserable life ; she was 

 made to do all manner of irksome work, and was vexed in 

 many ways. Remembering her dying mother's injunc- 

 tions, she repaired to the tank, where the white tortoise saw 

 her every day, bathed her, dressed her, and gave her choice 

 food. The wicked step-mother was soon told of all this by 

 her own daughter, and determined to put an end to the 

 tortoise. With this idea she pretended ill-health, and when 

 the gamardla questioned her what remedy would cure her, 

 she informed him that she would become perfectly well 

 if she could have the flesh of a white tortoise. So the white 

 tortoise was caught and brought home, put in a boiling pot 

 of water, and Kirihami had to cook it for her step-mother. 

 The tortoise, who loudly lamented not its own death, but 

 the fact of having to leave Kirihami behind, instructed the 

 daughter, before dying, to preserve a piece of bone and throw 

 it in a certain place, when it would spring up into a mango 

 tree, which would supply her with fruits and anything she 

 was in need of. The girl did as she was told, and the tree 

 sprang up in due course of time. Whenever she went near 

 the tree the boughs, laden with sweet fruits, bent down, so 



98—91 K 



