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JULY, 1903.)
GLIMPSES OF SINGHALESE SOCIAL LIFE.
$11
defeating the Asuras. Here he met bis consort Valli Amma, whom he wooed in the guise of & mendicant; when his advances were scornfully rejected, his brother, with the head of a man and the body of an elephant, appeared on the scene, and the terrified maiden rushed into her suitor's arms for safety; the god then revealed himself and she became his bride.
The procession begins with the new moon, and is repeated twice every day at six in the evening and at ten at night till the full-moon day. First walk twelve women called dlattu ammas with their hands joined and the hair done up in a peculiar manner; the insignia of the god, his trident and spear (vel) are next carried on an elephant, the man sitting with these having his mouth bandaged to prevent his breathing on them; and then follow the basndyaka nilame, with his two under-officers, sadalgamuda adikdram and bandyala rala. The procession halts at a distance of half a mile from the dewdla, where Valli Ammâ is said to reside (sinhâsana). Here the weapons are taken down, and after an interval of half an hour they are replaced and carried back to the dêrdla. Some mystic mutterings and the lighting of wicks by the women complete the ceremony.
On the full-moon day, as in the other two festivals, the kapurálas (the temple incumbents) draw a circle over the water of the neighbouring river (diya kapanard) and remove a chatty of it to the dewála. . When the moon is full near Pleiades in 1 (October November) is held the Festival of Lights called Koti or Kartika Mangalya or Senakeliya. the Buddhist temples are illuminated by small oil lamps placed in niches of the walls specially made for them ; in the olden times all the buildings were bathed in a blaze of light, the Royal Palace the best of all, with the oil presented to the king by his grateful subjects. This festival is now confined to Kandy.
The Alut:sal Mangalya, the festival of New Rice, is now celebrated to any appreciable extent only in the Kandian Provinces, the last subdued districts of the island. In the villages the harvest is brought home by pingo-bearers on the full-moon day of January with rural jest and laughter, and portions of it are given to the Buddhist priests, the barber and the dhobi of the village; next the new paddy is husked, and kiribat dressed out of it.
In the capital, in the time of the kingdom, this festival lasted for four days: "on the first evening the officers of the royal stores and of the temples proceeded in state from the square before the palace to the Crown villages from which the first paddy was to be brought. Here the ears of paddy and the new rice were packed up for the temples, the palace and the royal stores by the gabadanilames and their officers. The ears of paddy carefully put into new earthenware pots and the grain into clean bags, ware sttached to pingos. Those for the Maligava (where the Sacred Tooth was kept) were conveyed on an elephant for the temples by men marching under canopies of white cloth; and those for the palace and royal stores by the people of the royal villagos of respectable caste, well dressed ; and with a piece of white muslin over their months to guard against impurity. This procession, starting on the evening of the next day (full-moon day) from the different farms under a salute of jingals and attended by flags, tom-tom beaters, etc., was met on the way by the 2nd Adigar and a large number of chiefs at some distance from the city. From thence all went to the great square to wait for the propitious hour, at the arrival of which, announced by discharge of jingals, the procession entered the MAligava where the distribution for the different temples was made. At the same fortunate hour the chiefs and the people brought home their new rice. On the next morning the king or governor received his portion consisting of the new rloe and a selection of all the various vegetable productions of the country, which were tasted at alacky hour."
(To be continued.) . This is a round of an extjale in Yoning Ceylon (1852), Vol. III, p. 86. • Illustrated Literary Supplement of the Caylon Examiner (1875), VOL. I. p. 8
