No. 4. — 1848.] SINHALESE RURAL ECONOMY. 39 



Books on lucky days are supposed to have been written 

 before the time of a traditional king named Mali a Sammata 

 Rajjuruwo, whose queen, having become sick from a fright from 

 tigers, was the first person cured by devil-dancing. To this 

 period the origin of many other superstitions is referred. 

 Almost every part of the business of life is undertaken by 

 these simple people upon appointed days ; they seem to have a 

 singular dread lest misfortune should follow the neglect of 

 these observances. Lucky days are sought for, for turning and 

 hoeing the fields, sowing, tying fences, reaping and tramping 

 out the grain, also for building the small houses for the people 

 who watch the fields at night, and for tying up white tatties to 

 scare away animals ; again, for pounding the paddy and storing 

 in their houses. 



When grain is to be tramped or threshed from the straw by 

 the feet of men or buffaloes, a place is selected and a curious 

 ceremony follows. A hole being dug on the spot, a shell filled 

 with the leaves of the 136 tree, the Nik a and the Niyagala- 

 wela, and some Hillock (a long grass) is placed in it, besides 

 a reaping hook, with precious stones, gold and silver, or sub- 

 stitutes for them. These being covered over with earth, a 

 stone is placed above, and three rings are made round them 

 with ashes, after which it is left until the stars appear at night, 

 when it is supposed good luck has now come to the place, and 

 the work must be commenced forthwith, the articles deposited 

 in the ground being in the first place removed. Offerings of 

 grain are sometimes but not invariably made to the priests ; in 

 the case of reaping the first fruits of a new field it is never 

 omitted. The custom is to take sufficient rice boiled for a meal 

 and a number of different kinds of cakes made from the flour ; 

 of these the holy man must partake before any one would dare 

 to make use of the remainder of the crop. 



The fields are seldom cultivated by the owners, most fre- 

 quently they are given in charge to some one who undertakes 



