Account of the Rodiyas. 175 



sary medicines on their describing the symptoms of the 

 disease. Even the Durea medical men, I am informed, will 

 not go further than the entrance of the Kuppayam, where 

 the patient is brought up for them to look at him and pre- 

 scribe the remedies. 



The Rodiyas follow no other pursuit than strolling about 

 the country, to beg, or tell fortunes, and manufacturing 

 rattan baskets, and winnows, and whips, and ropes of hides 

 and of various vegetable fibres, which they barter for grain. 

 When they go to beg, which they chiefly do at harvest time, 

 they may be seen in groups, both men and women, with their 

 children ; the men carrying their chatties and pots, and what- 

 ever else they possess, in baskets hanging on a pingo at one 

 end only; it being contrary to custom for them to load their pin- 

 goes at both ends, as the other people do. On these occasions, 

 the women sing and dance, as well as exhibit their juggling ex- 

 ploits, by balancing and spinning a brass plate on one finger, 

 or tossing up a number of balls in the air, and keeping them 

 in continual motion, without suffering them to fall on the 

 ground: whilst the men are beating the Bummedia, a kind of 

 drum made of an earthern vessel, covered with monkey skin. 

 Since the British accession, however, some few of the Rodiyas 

 in the Central Province have turned their attention to agri- 

 culture, and are cultivating, near their Kuppayams, small 

 patches of paddy lands let to them by the Gameralles,* who, 

 however, instead of taking a share of the crop for the rent, 

 receive from them an annual supply of ropes of hides, as it 

 would be inconsistent with the notion of defilement which 

 they connect with the touch of a Rodiya, for them to make 

 use of the crop raised by him. 



The Rodiyas rear pigs and poultry in almost all their 

 Kuppayams, and some of them also keep cattle; but in order 

 to distinguish their cattle from those belonging to the Sing- 

 halese, they are obliged to have a cocoanut shell perforated 

 and hung on their necks by a strap of hide. 



* Proprietors. 



