THE ANIMAL WORLD.
The presence of bats in a house indicates that it will be soon
deserted. Medicinal virtues are ascribed to the flesh of monkeys. To
look at a slender loris (una hapuluva) brings ill luck and its eyes are
used for a love potion. The lion's fat corrodes any vessel except one
of gold; its roar which makes one deaf is raised three times--first
when it starts from its den, next when it is well on its way, and
last when it springs on its victim. It kills elephants but eats only
their brain. The unicorn (kangavêna) has a horn on its forehead with
which it pierces the rocks that impede its progress.
If a dog howls or scratches away the earth before a house it presages
illness or death; if it walks on the roof, the house will be deserted,
if it sleeps under a bed it is a sign of the occupant's speedy death.
A bear throws sand on the eyes of its victim before pouncing on him,
and it does not attack persons carrying rockbine (Galpahura).
When a person is bitten by a mouse, the wound is burnt with a heated
piece of gold. A mouse after drinking toddy boasts that it can
break up the cat into seven pieces. A kick from a wild rat (valmiyâ)
produces paralysis.
The porcupine (ittêvâ) shoots its quills to keep off its antagonists
and hunts the pengolin (kebellevâ) out of its home and occupies
it himself.
A cheetah likes the warmth of a blaze and comes near the cultivator's
watch fire in the field, calls him by name and devours him; it
frequents where peacocks abound; it does not eat the victim that falls
with the right side uppermost. Small pox patients are carried away by
this animal which is attracted by the offensive smell they emanate;
when the cheetah gets a sore mouth by eating the wild herb mîmanadandu,
it swallows lumps of clay to allay its hunger; its skin and claws
are used as amulets; the female cheetah gives birth only once and has
no subsequent intercourse with her mate owing to the severe travail;
the cheetah was taught by the cat to climb up a tree but not to climb
down; in revenge it always kills its tutor but is reverent enough not
to make a meal of the body which it places on an elevated spot and
worships. One in a thousand cheetahs has the jaya-revula (lucky side
whiskers) which never fails to bring good fortune if worn as an amulet.
The cheetah, the lizard and the crocodile were three brothers,
herdsmen, skilled in necromancy; as the animals they were looking after
refused to yield milk, the eldest transformed himself into a cheetah,
and the evil nature of the beast asserting itself he began to destroy
the flock and attack the brothers; the youngest took refuge on a tree
transforming himself into a lizard and the other who had the magical
books turned himself into a crocodile and jumped into a river; these
three have ever since lived in friendship and a person who escapes
the crocodile is killed if a lizard urinates on him when sleeping;
a crocodile's victim can free himself by tickling its stomach and
trying to take away the books concealed there.
A cat becomes excited by eating the root of the acolypha indica
(kuppamêniya) and its bite makes one lean; its caterwauling is
unlucky. The grey mungoose bites as an antidote a plant not identified
called visakumbha before and after its fight with the cobra; when it
finds difficulty in fighting the cobra, it retires to the jungle and
brings on its back the king of the tribe, a white animal, by whom or
in whose presence the cobra is easily killed.
The hare gives birth to its young on full moon days, one of them has
a crescent on its forehead and dies the first day it sees the moon
or invariably becomes a prey to the rat snake.
When a tooth drops, its owner throws it on to the roof saying squirrel,
dear squirrel, take this tooth and give me a dainty one in return
(lenô lenô me data aran venin datak diyô).
Goblins are afraid of cattle with crumpled horns; a stick of the leea
sambucina (burulla) is not used to drive cattle as it makes them lean;
the saliva from the mouth of a tired bull is rubbed on its body to
relieve its fatigue, and bezoar stones (gôrôchana) found in cattle
are prescribed for small pox. In the olden time the ox had no horns
but had teeth in both its jaws, while the horse had horns but had
no teeth in its upper jaw; each coveted the other's possessions and
effected an exchange; the ox taking the horns and giving the horse
its upper row of teeth; cart bulls are driven with the words 'jah,'
'pita,' 'mak,' 'hov'.--move, to the right, to the left, halt.
Wild buffaloes are susceptible to charms.
Deer's musk prolongs a dying man's life.
An elephant shakes a palm leaf before eating it as bloodsuckers may
be lurking there to creep inside its trunk. A dead elephant is never
found for when death approaches the elephant goes to a secluded spot
and lays itself down to die. Children who are made to pass under an
elephant's body become strong and are free from illness.
When the keeper says 'hari hari,' the elephant moves; 'ho ho' it stops,
'dhana' it kneels; 'hinda', it lies down; 'daha', it gets up; 'bila'
it lifts the fore foot; 'hayi,' it lifts its trunk and trumpets.
A shower during sunshine denotes the jackal's wedding day; a jackal
always joins the cry of its friends, otherwise its hair will drop off
one by one; a jackal's horn (narianga) is very rare and it gives the
possessor everything he wishes for and when buried in a threshing
floor increases the crop, a hundred fold. The jackals assisted
by the denizens of the woods once waged war against the wild fowls
(welikukulô) who called to their aid a party of men one of whom seized
the king of the jackals and dashed him on a rock and broke his jaw;
as the king received the blow he raised the cry, apoi mage hakka (Oh my
jaw), which could still be heard in the jackal's howl. The wild fowls
are still the enemies of the jackals. The jackals and the crabs have
also a feud between them; a jackal once deceived a crocodile on the
promise of getting the latter a wife and got himself ferried across
the river for several days till he had consumed the carcase of the
elephant on the other bank. A crab undertook to assist the crocodile
to take revenge, invited the jackal to a feast and suggested to him
to go to the riverside for a drink of water. The jackal consented but
on seeing his enemy lying in wait killed the crab for his treachery.
Dark plumaged birds like the owl, the magpie robin and the black bird
bring ill luck and are chased away from the vicinity of houses. The
cry of the night heron (kana-koka) as it flies over a house presages
illness and that of the devil bird (ulamâ) death. The devil bird was
in a previous birth a wife whose fidelity her husband suspected and
in revenge killed their child, made a curry of its flesh and gave it
to the mother; as she was eating she found the finger of the infant
and in grief she fled into the forest, killed herself, and was born
the devil bird.
Crows are divided into two castes which do not mate, the hooded
crows and the jungle crows; they faint three times at night through
hunger and their insatiate appetite can only be temporarily appeased
by making them swallow rags dipped in ghee; they hatch their eggs in
time to take their young to the Ehela festival held in honour of the
godlings during July and August. A crow seldom dies a natural death,
and once in a hundred years a feather drops. As no one eats its flesh
it sorrowfully cries kâtka (I eat every body). The king crow was once
a barber and it now pecks its dishonest debtor, the crow.
The presence of sparrows in a house indicates that a male child will
be born and when they play in the sand that there will be rain. Once
upon a time a house, where a pair of sparrows had built their nest
caught fire; the hen sparrow flew away but the male bird tried to save
their young and scorched his throat; this scar can still be seen on
the cock sparrow.
A house will be temporarily abandoned if a spotted dove (alukobeyiyâ)
flies through it; this bird was once a woman who put out to dry some
mî flowers (bassia longifolia) and asked her little son to watch them;
when they were parched they got stuck to the ground and could not
be seen; the mother thought the child had been negligent and killed
him in anger; a shower of rain which fell just then showed to her the
lost herbs and in remorse she killed herself and was born the spotted
dove, who still laments. "I got back my mî flowers but not my son,
Oh my child, my child" (mimal latin daru no latin pubbaru putê pû pû).
Parrots are proverbially ungrateful; sunbirds boast after a copious
draught of toddy that they can overthrow Maha Meru with their tiny
beaks.
The great difficulty of the horn-bill (kendetta) to drink water is
due to its refusal to give water to a thirsty person in a previous
existence. The common babbler hops as he was once a fettered
prisoner. The red tailed fly catcher was a fire thief, and the white
tailed one a cloth thief.
A white cock brings luck and prevents a garden from being destroyed
by black beetles. When a hen has hatched the shells are not thrown
away but threaded together and kept in a loft over the fireplace till
the chickens can look after of themselves. Ceylon jungle fowls become
blind by eating strobilanthes seed when they may be knocked down with
a stick.
The cuckoo searches for its young, ejected from the crow's nest,
crying koho (where) and its cry at night portends dry weather.
The plover (kiralâ) sleeps with her legs in the air to prevent
the sky falling down and crushing her young; her eggs, when eaten,
induce watchfulness.
Peacocks dance in the morning to pay obeisance to the Sun God,
and they are not kept as pets in houses as the girls will not find
suitors. Peahens conceive at the noise of thunder and hence their love
for rain. Some say that the peacock once fell in love with the swan
king's daughter and when going to solicit her hand borrowed the pitta's
beautiful tail which he refused to return after winning his bride; the
peahen pecks at the male bird's train during the mating season, angry
at the deception practised on her while the pittâ goes about crying
"avichchi" (I shall complain when the Maitri Buddun comes.) Others
say that the peacock stole the garments while pittâ was bathing.
The cry of the pittâ (avichchya) presages rain; and it is thought to
be a sorrow stricken prince mourning for his beautiful bride Ayittâ
and hence his cry.
Leeches are engaged in measuring the ground. Snails were persons who
in a previous birth used to spit at others; their slime when rubbed
on one's body makes one strong. Worms attack flowers in November and
are influenced by charms.
Retribution visits one who ruthlessly destroys the clay nest of the
mason wasp (kumbalâ); a ran kumbalâ builds a nest with lime when a
boy is to be born in the house and a metikumbalâ with clay when a girl.
Winged termites issue in swarms in the rainy season and prognosticate
a large catch of fish. Spiders were fishermen in a previous existence
and the mantis religiosa (dara kettiyâ) a fire-wood thief.
Bugs infest a house when misfortune is impending and crickets (reheyyô)
stridulate till they burst.
It is lucky to have ants carrying their eggs about a house, but it
is unlucky for the head of the house when large black ants enter it.
When a person is in a bad temper it is sarcastically said that a
large sized red ant has broken wind on him.
The small red myriapod (kanvêyâ) causes death by entering the ear.
Every new born child has a louse on its head which is not killed but
thrown away or put on another's head.
As the finger is taken round the bimûrâ (a burrowing insect,) it dances
to the couplet "bim ûrâ bim ûrâ tôt natâpiya, mât nattanan." (Bimûrâ
bimûrâ, you better dance and I too shall dance.)
Butterflies go on a pilgrimage from November to February to Adam's
Peak against which they dash themselves and die in sacrifice.
Centipedes run away when their name is mentioned; they are as much
affected as the man they bite.
The black beetle is the messenger of death to find out how many
persons there are in a house; if it comes down on three taps from an
ikle broom its intentions are evil; it is seldom killed, but wrapt
in a piece of white cloth and thrown away or kept in a corner.
The presence of fire flies in a house indicate that it will be broken
into or deserted; if one alights on a person, some loss will ensue;
if it is picked up, anything then wished for will be fulfilled;
the fireflies had refused to give light to one in need of it in a
previous existence; their bite requires "the mud of the deep sea and
the stars of the sky for a cure"--a cryptic way of saying "salt from
the sea and gum from the eye."
A crocodile makes lumps of clay to while away the time; it throws
up its prey as it carries it away and catches it with its mouth;
its female becomes pregnant at the sound of thunder without any
cohabitation; at certain times of the year the crocodile's mouth is
shut fast; whenever its mouth opens, its eyes close.
The flesh of the iguana is nutritious and never disagrees. The
kabaragoya is requisitioned to make a deadly and leprosy-begetting
poison which is injected into the veins of a betel leaf and given to
an enemy to chew; three of these reptiles are tied to the three stones
in a fireplace facing each other with a fourth suspended over them;
a pot is placed in the centre into which they pour out their venom
as they get heated.
The blood-sucker indicates by the upward motion of its head that girls
should be unearthed, and by the downward motion that its inveterate
tormentors the boys should be buried. Chameleons embody the spirits
of women who have died in parturition.
The cry of frogs is a sign that rain is impending and the fluid they
eject is poisonous; if frogs that infest a house be removed to any
distance, they always come back; a person becomes lean if a tree-frog
jumps on him.
A python swallows a deer whole and then goes between the trunks of
two trees growing near each other to crush the bones of its prey;
its oil cures any bad cut or wound.
Venomous reptiles are hung up after they are killed or are burnt.
The cobra is held sacred and rarely killed; when caught it is enclosed
in a mat bag with some boiled rice and floated on a river or stream;
a person killing a cobra dies or suffers some misfortune within seven
days. Some cobras have a gem in their throats which they keep out to
entice insects; they kill themselves if this be taken from them which
can be done by getting on to a tree and throwing cowdung over the
gem. Cobras are fond of sandal wood and the sweet smelling flowers
of the screw pine, and are attracted by music. Their bite is fatal
on Sundays. Martynia diandra (nâgadarana) protects a man from the
bite of the cobra.
There are seven varieties of vipers; of these the bite of the nidi
polangâ causes a deep sleep, and of the le polangâ a discharge of
blood. When her skin is distended with offspring, the female viper
expires and the young make their escape out of the decomposing body.
Cobras and vipers keep up an ancient feud; during a certain hot season
a child was playing inside a vessel full of water and a thirsty cobra
drank of it without hurting the child; a thirsty viper met the cobra
and was told where water was to be found on the viper's promise that
it will not injure the child; as the viper was drinking the water,
the child playfully struck it and the viper bit him to death; the
cobra who had followed the viper killed it for breaking its promise.
The green whip snake (ehetullâ) attacks the eyes of those who approach
it and the shadow of the brown whip snake (hena kandaya) makes one
lame or paralytic.
A rat snake seldom bites, but if it does, the wound ends fatally only
if cowdung is trampled on.
The aharakukkâ (tropidonoms stolichus) lives in groups of seven and
when one is killed the others come in search of it.
A mapila (dipsas forstenii) reaches its victim on the floor by several
of them linking together and hanging from the roof.
The legendary kobô snake loses a joint of its tail every time it
expends its poison, till one joint is left, when it assumes wings
and the head of a toad; with the last bite both the victim and the
snake die.