Afterwards, asking for the sickles from each one of the men, and having
broken them, and thrown them down, and drawn out the betel-cutter that
was in Hitihami's betel wallet (bulat-payiya), taking it he began to
cut the paddy plants. Only the paddy plants of two amunas of paddy
(about four and a half acres) were ripe; there were no more.
He finished the two amunas of paddy plants, and because there were no
[more] ripe paddy plants, cutting the fence of the upper field and
having gone [there], he began to cut the green paddy plants.
Then the men who owned the field said and said, "Don't cut [those]." He
does not stop. Afterwards the men tied a ball. [134]
Afterwards, the giant having come to the high ground [outside the
field], when he came to the place where the men were near the tree,
the men said, "Let us go to eat the kayiya."
Then Hitihami said, "You go and eat the kayiya; I am going to my
village."
As he was coming on and on, having met with a wild buffalo it began
to gore him. So Hitihami seized the two horns of the buffalo, and
loosening the two horns, went to his village [with them].
Having gone [there], and given into his mother's hand the two horns,
he said, "Mother, having conquered in the Mallawa wrestling, at the
time when I was coming back about sixty men had come together to cut
the paddy plants in a rice field. At the hand of the men I asked,
'What are you many men joined together there for?' Then the men said,
'We are [here] to cut a paddy kayiya.'
"Afterwards, asking for the men's sickles, I broke them and threw them
down, and taking the betel-cutter [135] that was in my betel wallet,
descended to the field, and having cut the paddy plants, there also
I got the victory.
"As I was coming away, a wild buffalo came to gore me. Afterwards,
loosening the buffalo's two horns [I brought them away]. These indeed
are the two horns." He told her all the matters.
Then his mother said, "Son, except that you have said that word to
me, do not say it for anyone else to hear;" and having cooked several
kinds of cakes, and milk-rice, gave them to Hitihami the Giant to eat.
North-western Province.
This story differs from nearly all the others in being almost
certainly based on a considerable statum of fact. Apparently, it
is the exaggerated tradition about a very strong man who defeated a
celebrated Indian wrestler at Kandy. The story also gives more details
concerning the village cultivations than any others I have met with.
Perhaps it is not the only record of this Hitihami. Among the names
of the deified chiefs of ancient times, termed Bandara, there is one
called Hiti Bandara, who is said to have lived at a village called
Gokaraella, twelve miles north-east of Kurunaegala. It is possible
that he is the hero of this story; but as the names of the villages
are different there is considerable doubt regarding it. There was a
village called Andara-waewa (in the Wanni Hat-pattu district of the
North-western Province) which was abandoned some centuries ago, the
field and village tank having become overgrown with jungle and forest.
As Kandy was founded early in the fourteenth century, according to
the manuscript Pradhana nuwarawal, the story may record events of
the fourteenth, fifteenth, or possibly the sixteenth century, A.D.