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SEPTEMBER, 1902.]
GLIMPSES OF SINGHALESE SOCIAL LIFE.
this is an invocation to Sarasvati,
rubbed in it is given to the babe (rankiri kata ganavd), the goddess of speech, and the little child's ability to learn and pronounce well is assured.
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When the sex of the child is known, if it be a boy a pestle is thrown from one side of the house to the other; if a girl, an ikle broom; those who are not in the room pretend to find out whether it is a she or a he by its first cry, believing it is louder in the case of the former than of the latter. The cries of the babe are drowned by those of the nurse, lest the spirits of the forest become aware of its presence and inflict injury on it.
The mother is never kept alone in the room, a light is kept burning in it night and day, and the oil of the margosa is much used in the room for protection; this tree is sacred to the Seven Ammas (or Mothers) left in charge of the earth by the goddess Pattini, who is probably Durga in her beneficent aspect. Care is taken that the navel cord is not buried and a little of it is given to the mother with betel if she falls severely ill. Visitors to the lying-in-room give presents to the midwife when the child is handed to them, especially if it is the first-born one.
A month after birth, the babe, nicely dressed and with tiny garlands of Acorus calamus (wadakaha) and Allium sativum (sudu lúnu) tied round its wrists and lamp-black applied under the eye-brows, is for the first time brought out to see the light of day (dottavaḍanava); and it is made to look at a lamp placed in the centre of a mat or table, with cakes (kevum) made of rice-flour, jaggery, and cocoanut oil, plantains, rice boiled with cocoan it milk (kiribat), and other eatables placed around it. The midwife then hands round the little child to the relatives and gets some presents for herself.
A thank offering to the seven Ammâs is performed three months after childbirth, when seven married women are invited to partake of kevum, kiribat, and plantains. Before eating they wash their mouths, faces and feet, and purify themselves with turmeric water; a lamp with seven wicks representing the seven Mothers is kept where they are served. After the repast they severally blow out a wick, and take away what is left of the provisions with them. This ceremony is also performed when a family recovers from Small-pox or a kindred disease.
The rite of eating rice (indul kataganavá or bat kavanavá) is gone through when the child is seven months old; the same eatables are spread on a plantain-leaf with different kinds of coins, and the child placed among them; what it first touches is carefully observed, and if it be kiribat it is considered very auspicious. The father or grandfather places a few grains of rice in the child's mouth, and the name that is used at home (bat nama) is given on that day. The astrologer, who has already cast the infant's horoscope and has informed the parents of its future, is consulted for a lucky day and hour for the performance of the above observances.
The children are allowed to ran in complete nudity till about five years and are completely shaved when young; a little of the hair first cut is carefully preserved. From an early age a boy is sent every morning to the pansala, where the village priest keeps his little school, till a certain course of reading is completed and he is old enough to assist the father in the fields. The first day he is taught the alphabet a rite is celebrated (at pot tiyanava), when a platform is erected, and on it are placed sandal-wood, a light, resin, kiribat, kevum, and other forms of rice-cakes as an offering to Ganesa, the God of Wisdom, and the remover of all obstacles and difficulties. At a lucky hour the pupil washes the feet of his future guru, offers him betel, worships him and receives the book, which he has to learn, at his hands. And, as the first letters of the alphabet are repeated by him after his master, a husked cocoanut is cut in two as an invocation to Ganêés. A girl is less favoared and has to depend for her literary education on her mother or an elder sister; more attention, however, is paid to teach her the domestic requirements of cooking, weaving, knitting, etc., which will make her a good wife.
