RITES OF INDIVIDUAL LIFE.
When a mother is pregnant she avoids looking at deformed persons, or
ugly images and pictures, fearing the impression she gets from them
may influence the appearance of her offspring; during this delicate
period she generally pounds rice with a pestle, as the exertion is
supposed to assist delivery, and for the same purpose a few hours
before the birth of the child all the cupboards in the house are
unlocked. For her to cling to, when the pains of child-birth are
unbearable, a rope tied to the roof hangs by the mat or bedside.
The water that the child is washed in after birth is poured on to the
foot of a young tree, and the latter is remembered and pointed out
to commemorate the event; a little while after the infant is ushered
into the world a rite takes place, when a drop of human milk obtained
from some one other than the mother mixed with a little gold is given
to the babe (rankiri kata gânavâ), and the little child's ability to
learn and pronounce well is assured.
When the sex of the child is known, if it be a boy a pestle is thrown
from one side of the house to the other; if a girl, an ikle broom;
those who are not in the room pretend to find out whether it is a
she or a he by its first cry, believing it is louder in the case of
the former than of the latter. The cries of the babe are drowned by
those of the nurse, lest the spirits of the forest become aware of
its presence and inflict injury on it.
At the birth of the first born cocoanut shells are pounded in a mortar.
The mother is never kept alone in the room, a light is kept burning in
it night and day, and the oil of the margosa is much used in the room
for protection; care is taken that the navel cord is not buried and
a little of it is given to the mother with betel if she fall severely
ill. Visitors to the lying-in-room give presents to the midwife when
the child is handed to them, especially if it is the first-born one.
A month after birth, the babe, nicely dressed and with tiny garlands
of acorus calamus (wadakaha) and allium sativum (sudu lûnu) tied
round its wrists and lamp-black applied under the eye-brows, is for
the first time brought out to see the light of day (dottavadanavâ);
and it is made to look at a lamp placed in the centre of a mat or
table, with cakes (kevum) made of rice-flour, jaggery, and cocoanut
oil, plantains, rice boiled with cocoanut milk (kiribat), and other
eatables placed around it. The midwife then hands round the little
child to the relatives and gets some presents for herself.
The rite of eating rice (indul katagânavâ or bat kavanavâ) is gone
through when the child is seven months old; the same eatables are
spread on a plantain-leaf with different kinds of coins, and the
child placed among them; what it first touches is carefully observed,
and if it be kiribat it is considered very auspicious. The father or
grandfather places a few grains of rice in the child's mouth, and
the name that is used at home (bat nama) is given on that day. The
astrologer, who has already cast the infant's horoscope and has
informed the parents of its future, is consulted for a lucky day and
hour for the performance of the above observances.
The children are allowed to run in complete nudity till about five
years and their heads are fully shaved when young; a little of the
hair first cut is carefully preserved. From an early age a boy is
sent every morning to the pansala, where the village priest keeps his
little school, till a certain course of reading is completed and he
is old enough to assist the father in the fields. The first day he
is taught the alphabet a rite is celebrated (at pot tiyanava), when
a platform is erected, and on it are placed sandal-wood, a light,
resin, kiribat, kevum, and other forms of rice cakes as an offering
to Ganêsâ, the god of wisdom, and the remover of all obstacles and
difficulties. At a lucky hour the pupil washes the feet of his future
guru, offers him betel, worships him, and receives the book, which he
has to learn, at his hands, and, as the first letters of the alphabet
are repeated by him after his master, a husked cocoanut is cut in
two as an invocation to Ganêsâ. A girl is less favoured and has to
depend for her literary education on her mother or an elder sister;
more attention, however, is paid to teach her the domestic requirements
of cooking, weaving and knitting, which will make her a good wife.
On the attainment of the years of puberty by a girl she is confined to
a room, no male being allowed to see her or be seen by her. After two
weeks she is taken out with her face covered and bathed at the back of
the house by the female inmates, except little girls and widows, with
the assistance of the family laundress, who takes all the jewellry on
the maiden's person. Near the bathing-place are kept branches of any
milk-bearing tree, usually of the jak tree. On her return from her
purification, her head and face, still covered, she goes three times
round a mat having on it kiribat, plantains, seven kinds of curries,
rice, cocoanuts, and, in the centre, a lamp With seven lighted wicks;
and as she does she pounds with a pestle some paddy scattered round the
provisions. Next, she removes the covering, throws it on to the dhôbî
(washerwoman) and, after making obeisance to the lamp and, putting
out its wicks by clapping her hands, presents the laundress with money
placed on a betel leaf. She is then greeted by her relatives, who are
usually invited to a feast, and is presented by them with valuable
trinkets. Everything that was made use of for the ceremony is given
to the washerwoman. In some cases, till the period of purification is
over, the maiden is kept in a separate hut which is afterwards burnt
down. Girls who have arrived at the age of puberty are not allowed to
remain alone, as devils may possess them and drive them mad; and till
three months have elapsed no fried food of any sort is given to them.
The 'shaving of the beard' is the rite the young man has to go
through, it is performed at a lucky hour and usually takes place a
few days before marriage; the barber here plays the important part the
laundress did in the other. The shavings are put into a cup, and the
person operated on, as well as his relatives who have been invited,
put money into it; this is taken by the barber; and the former are
thrown on to a roof that they may not be trampled upon.
Marriages are arranged between two families by a relative or a trusted
servant of one of them, who, if successful, is handsomely rewarded
by both parties. The chances of success depend on the state of the
horoscopes of the two intended partners, their respectability which
forms a very important factor in the match, the dowry which used
to consist of agricultural implements, a few head of cattle, and
domestic requisites, together with a small sum of money to set the
couple going, and, if connected, the distance of relationship. Two
sisters' or brothers' children are rarely allowed to marry, but the
solicitation of a mother's brother's or father's sister's son is
always preferred to that of any other.
A few days before the marriage, the two families, in their respective
hamlets, send a messenger from house to house to ask, by presenting
betel, the fellow-villagers of their own caste for a breakfast; and
the guests bring with them presents in money. Only few, however, are
invited to the wedding; and the party of the bridegroom, consisting
of two groomsmen, an attendant carrying a talipot shade over him,
musicians, pingo-bearers, relatives and friends, arrives in the
evening at the bride's village and halts at a distance from her
house. A messenger is then sent in advance with a few pingo-loads of
plantains, and with betel-leaves equal in number to the guests, to
inform of their arrival; and when permission is received to proceed,
generally by the firing of a jingal, they advance, and are received
with all marks of honour; white cloth is spread all the way by the
washerwoman, and at the entrance a younger brother of the bride
washes the bridegroom's feet and receives a ring as a present. A sum
of money is paid to the dhôbi (washerwoman) as a recompense for her
services. They are then entertained with music, food and betel till the
small hours of the morning, when the marriage ceremony commences. The
bride and bridegroom are raised by two of their maternal uncles on to
a dais covered with white cloth, and having on it a heap of raw rice,
cocoanuts, betel leaves and coins. A white jacket and a cloth to wear
are presented by the bridegroom to the bride; betel and balls of boiled
rice are exchanged; their thumbs are tied together by a thread, and,
while water is poured on their hands from a spouted vessel by the
bride's father, certain benedictory verses are recited. Last of all,
a web of white cloth is presented by the bridegroom to the bride's
mother; and it is divided among her relatives.
In connection with this presentation it is said that if the
mother-in-law be dead, the web should be left in a thicket hard by
to appease her spirit.
On the day after the wedding the married couple return to their future
home with great rejoicing, and on their entering the house a husked
cocoanut is cut in two on the threshold.
The tokens of virginity are observed by the bridegroom's mother,
and the visit of the parents and relatives of the bride a few days
after completes the round of ceremonies.
There is a peculiar custom fast disappearing, and almost totally
extinct, called Kula Kanavâ, that is, making one respectable by eating
with him. If a member of a family makes a mésalliance he is cast
out of his clan, and should he want his children and himself to be
recognized and taken back by the relatives, the latter are induced to
attend and partake of a feast given by him at his house. The 'making
up' takes place when very many years have elapsed, and only if the
wife who was the cause of the breach is dead. The difference due to
marriage with another caste or nationality is never healed up.
Even in the presence of death, ceremonies are not wanting; if the
dying patient is known to have been fond of his earthly belongings,
and seems to delay in quitting this life, a few pieces of his furniture
are washed and a little drop of the water given to him. A lamp is
kept burning near the corpse, the body is washed before burial and a
piece of cotton or a betel-leaf is put into its mouth. All the time
the body is in the house nothing is cooked, and the inmates eat the
food supplied by their neighbours (adukku).
No one of the same village is told of the death, but all are expected
to attend the funeral; the outlying villages, however, are informed
by a relative who goes from house to house conveying the sad news.
The visitors are given seats covered with white cloth; and the betel
for them to chew are offered with the backs of the leaves upwards as
an indication of sorrow. Some times only the relatives come, while
friends leave betel at a distance from the house and go away fearing
pollution. It may be observed that, according to the Sinhalese belief,
pollution is caused by the attaining of puberty by a maiden which
lasts fourteen days; by the monthly flow of a woman which lasts till
she bathes; by child-birth which lasts one month; and by death which
lasts three months.
Friends and relatives salute the body with their hands clasped in
the attitude of prayer, and only the members of the family kiss
it. The route along which the funeral proceeds is previously strewn
with white sand, and the coffin is carried by the closest relatives,
with the cloth to be given to the priests for celebrating the service
thrown on it, over white foot-cloth spread by the dhôbi, and preceded
by the tom-tom beaters with muffled drums. Lights are carried by the
coffin and a shade is held over the head of it.
The service commences with the intoning of the three Refugees of
Buddhism and the Five Vows of abstinence by one of the priests,
and they are repeated after by those present, all squatting on the
ground. The cloth, referred to, is then given to be touched by the
bystanders in order to partake of the merits of the almsgiving;
one end of it is placed on the coffin, and the other is held by the
priests. They recite three times the Pali verse that all organic and
inorganic matter are impermanent, that their nature is to be born and
die, and that cessation of existence is happiness; and while water
is poured from a spouted vessel into a cup or basin, they chant the
lines that the fruits of charity reach the departed even as swollen
rivers fill the ocean and the rain-water that falls on hill-tops
descends to the plain. A short ex tempore speech by a priest on the
virtues of the deceased completes the service.
If it be a burial, the grave is by the roadside of the garden with
a thatched covering over it. Two lights are lit at the head and the
foot of the mound, the bier in which the coffin was carried is placed
over it, and a young tree planted to mark its site.
In a cremation, the coffin is first carried with music three times
round the pyre, and the latter is set fire to by the sons or nephews
with their faces turned away from it. Those assembled leave when the
pyre is half burnt; and, on the following day, or a few days after,
the ashes are collected and buried in the garden of the deceased, over
which a column is erected, or they are thrown into the nearest stream.
The party bathe before returning to the house, and are supplied by the
dhôbi with newly-washed clothes; during their absence the house is well
cleansed and purified by the sprinkling of water mixed with cow-dung;
and the visitors before leaving partake of a meal either brought from
some neighbour's or cooked after the body had been removed.