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ALPHABETICAL GUIDE TO SINHALESE FOLKLORE
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bangle was very like, and he was arrested. The queen protested that the bangle found on Palanga was not hers; but the goldsmith declared that Pâlanga was her lover and she was trying to shelter him. He was therefore condemned to death. Elephants and hounds successively were loosed at him, but they would not harm him. The executioner was commanded to slay him; but his wife, warned by a dream, entreated him to refrain. At length, after unseen powers had vainly held back the executioner's sword, he was put to death. The P.-vilâpaya relates how the dancing-woman Mâ-devi seduced Pâlanga and made him waste all his substance upon her. At last nothing remained but Pattini's gembangle. She and he went together to sell it. While he went into the city of Madura to sell it, P. remained outside in a village of herdsmen. When he did not return, she went in search of him, asking her way from Kâlakodi. She had dreamed an ominous dream, and augured evil. On the way she met a girl from the city, who told her of his execution. She hastened on, questioning men and animals. She met the king's little sons returning from school, and questioned them, bribing them with cakes to lead her to the place of execution. She found Pâlaiga's body under a kohomba tree (margosa, or Azidarachta indica), and lamented for him. The Hat-p.-kathava (also called Lak-hat-p.-k., perhaps in allusion to the sanctuary of Hat P. at Vattâpola, near Mullaittivu) addresses P. as Alut (new), Gini (fire); Parasidu (famous), Teda (majesty), Rilâ-vêsa-lat (assuming a monkey's form), Bak-na-gahades-kivu (adjuring the bak-nú tree), and Gala (water) P. It relates that while she was waiting for Pâlanga outside Madura under a bak-nú tree, people passing by imputed improper motives to her, and she therefore called upon the tree to testify to her innocence. As to the legend of Parasidu P., it relates that when a harlot threw a child into a well, it rose up (and cast the babe back upon the earth?). As to Teda P., it narrates that while she was drawing up a pitcher from a well she heard her husband's voice and at once went to him; on returning she found that in her absence the rope had become stiff and remained exactly where she had left it, The P.-yâdinna relates that when Pâlaiga was condemned Pattini entreated a ferryman to row her over the river Kâvêri, but in vain, for the Pânciyan king had commanded that none should cross for seven days. She then threw her ring into the river; it divided, and she walked over its dry bed, while the ferryman was turned into stone. On reaching the other bank she met the Pândiyan's sons, who told her that Palanga was dead. After lamenting for him, she went to the king told him that it was she who had blinded his third eye, and then plucked off her breasts and threw them into the city, which was burned down. For the legend of P. parting the waters of the Kâvêri, For the legend of crossing it, and overcoming the demon Gini-kanda, see Gini-kandu Kumara Ban lâra, the little son of the Pandiyan king, whom P. rescued from Madura and transported to Ridigama, see Kumara Banlara. The Vitti-hata gives 7 fables narrated by P. in her chiding of the Pândiyan king for slaying Palanga; after this discourse she burned down the palace and part of Madura, but on the king's entreaty spared the remainder. She then went to Velli-ambala, and thence to the Väḍi-rata, where the Vädi king of Ceylon sacrificed to her, and at his roquest she gave Dala Kumâra leave to receive offerings in Ceylon. The Kovila-pêvima, after invoking the Three Refugees, Kataragama Deva, and Pattini, and briefly narrating Pâlaiga's amour with Mâ-devi, his execution, the burning of Madura by Pattini, and her restoring him to life, mentions her births in a torrent; a flame, a lotus, the womb of Yasavatî, and a mango, and narrates that she upbraided the Pândiyan king, and that when he had obtained her forgiveness she restored to life a cow from the hide used in the parchment of a drum made by the king in her honour, let it suckle ita
