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NOVEMBER, 1903.)
GLIMPSES OF SINGHALESE SOCIAL LIFE.
438
If a person yawns loudly, the crops of sovou of his fields will be destroyed; if he bathes on a Tuesday it is bad for his sons, if on a Friday for himself; if he laughs immoderately he will soon have an occasion to cry; if he allows another's leg to be put over him he will be stunted in his growth; if he passes under another's arm, he will cause the latter to get a boil nnder the armpit which can be averted by his returning the same way; if he eats standing or tramples a jack-fruit with one foot only he will get elephantiasis ; if the second toe of a female be longer than the big one, she will master her husband ; if he gazes at the halo round the inoon and finds its reflexion round his shadow (bambara chaydra), his end is near; if the left eye of a male throbs, it portends grief, the right pleasure of a female it is the reverse ; if the eyebrows of a woman meet, she will outlive her husband, if of a man he will be a widower; if a male eats burnt rice, he will grow his beard on one side only; if the tongue frequently touches where a tooth has fallen, the new one will come at an angle; if an upper tooth be extracted, it will cause blindness; if a child cuts its upper front teeth first, it portends evil to its parents, and if a grave be dug and then closed up to dig a second, or if a coffin be larger than a corpse, there will be another funeral in the family
A sneeze from the right nostril signifies that good is being spoken of the person, from the left ill; when an infant does so, a stander-by says " Ayibban," " long life to you." A child whimpers in its sleep when angels come and tell it that its father is dead, because it has never seen him; bat incredulously smiles when told its mother is dead, as she has given it milk a little while ago; some attribute the cries to Buddha who frightens the babe with the miseries of this world.
Lightning strikes the graves of cruel men. Everyone's future is stamped on his heail. A person who dangles his legs when seated digs his mother's grave. As one with a hairy whorl (suliya) on his back will meet with a watery death, he avoids the sea and rivers. Flowers on the nails signify illness, the itching sensation in one's palm that he will get money, and a child's yawn that it is capable of taking a larger qnantity of food. One does not raise his forefinger when eating, as thereby he chides his handful of rice. It is had to scrape the perspiration from ove's body, as extreme exhaustion will ensue, and the only cure is to drink the collected sweat. A string of corals shows by its decrease of colour that the wearer is ill. To prevent pimples and eruptions a chank is rubbed on the skin when the face is washed. When a person gets a biccough he holds up his breath and repeats soven times, " Ikkayi máyi Galu giyd ikka hitiyá men dvd," " Hiccough and I went to Galle, he stayed back and I returned." If one has moles on his body, stones equal in number to them are tied to a piece of rag and thrown where three roads meet; the person that picks up the packet and upties it gets the moles end the other becomes free.
A cloth is spread on a chair or table in a room of a patient suffering with small-pox or a kindred disease, and a lamp with seven wicks placed on it. Pork is not brought into the house, and the clothes of the patient are not removed by the dhobi till he is well. Cloth dyed in turmeric and margosa leaves are used in the room, and a cocoanut palm leaf is placed before the house as a taboo ; & smallpox patient is sometimes kept only with the attendants (sditukarayo) in a separate hut, and before he is bathed after his recovery an infusion of margosa leaves is rubbed on his head and some protective verses recited; when the disease has gone its round, a thank-offering to the Seven Ammas takes place.
Dreams that prognosticate a good future are kept secret, but bad ones are published far and wide'; when these are dreamt, it is also advisable to go to a lime-tree early in the morning, repeat the dream and ask it to take to itself all the bad effects. If a person dreams of a dead relative, he gives food to a beggar the next morning.
Every person has, in a more or less degree, on certain days the evil mouth and the evil eye. To avoid the evil eye (etwaha) black pots with white chunam marks and hideous figures are placed before houses; children are marked between the eyes with a black streak, chanks are tied round the forehead of cattle, bunches of fruit are concealed with a covering made of palm-leaves aud festive processions are preceded by mummeries. No one ever takes his meal in the presence of a stranger as it will disagree with him, unless the looker-on is given a share of it. The number of children in a
