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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JULY, 1903.
29
GOITHE.
Was da ererbt von deinen Vätern hast, Erwirb es, um es za besitzen. पित्र्यं ते यद्भवेद्वित्तं पारंपर्यक्रमागतम् ।
ततत्त्वेन यथा ते स्यादर्जयस्व पुरार्जितम् ।। pitryaṁ tê yad bhavêd vittań pâramparyakramågatami tat tattvêna yathê tê syâd arjayasva purârjitam II
(To be continued.)
GLIMPSES OF SINGHALESE SOCIAL LIFE.
BY ARTHUR A. PERERA. (Continued from Vol. XXXI. p. 382.)
(2) Festivals. THE Singhalese, in common with their Aryan brethren, celebrate their New Year, the entering of the Sun into Aries, with much enthusiasm ; the festivities of the occasion are heralded in every hamlet by the strains of the tambourine-shaped rabana; women and girls sit round and play on it with their hands, and every home vies with the other in friendly rivalry.
The ephemeris of the year is drawn up by the village astrologer, and the necessary information for the observance of the festive rites is obtained by presenting him with sweetmeats and a palmfal of 40 betel-leaves (bulat hurulla).
The New Year generally falls on the 12th of April; there is an intervening unlucky space of time (nónagate) between the end of the old and the commencement of the new. Before the interval commences all bathe in an infusion of the margosa-leaf, and cease from work; during it they only visit temples, starting with their left leg foremost.
With the advent of the New Year special food is cooked and eaten, all facing a particular direction, cloth of a specified colour is worn, calls are exchanged, the head of the village is visited with pingo-loads of vegetables, kevum and plantains, and journeys are started with the right leg foremost.
For a couple of days there are no observances, the people make merry, and indulge in their national games till the auspicious day and moment comes for every one to begin his usual work looking for a bright and prosperous future: the labourer clears some underwood with his jangle hook (wal-dę ketta) and axe (porova) or digs the ground and banks it up with his hoe (udella); the toddy drawer, girt with a pointed stick (ukunilla) and knife (mannd), climbs a palm-tree and lets down a chatty full of toddy; the goldsmith, with his bamboo blow-pipe, his clay crucibles (kova), and his earthen pot full of saw-dust, begins an article of jewellery ; the smith beats an iron in his primitive furnace that has a pair of bellows attached (minghama); the potter shapes & vessel with the help of a wooden wheel (sak pôruva), a smooth stone (mitiwana gala) and a spatula (metialla); the servant asks from his master a small sum of money and carefully lays it by till the next year; the women pound rice in the mortar (wangediya), scrape cocoanats, and collect firewood; and the fisherman puts his boat to sea equipped with nets (del), hook and line (yol).
