OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTRIES.
In the olden time, people were occupied according to their caste,
but now they pursue any vocation they choose, carefully avoiding the
inauspicious hours.
One man works at his field or goes hunting and honey gathering; a
second fishes at the village stream with a rod made of the midrib of
the kitul leaf; a third slings his basket of garden produce at the ends
of a kitul shaft and carries them on his shoulders to towns or village
fairs; a fourth climbs the palm trees with his ankles encircled by
a ring of cocoanut leaf and picks the fruit with his hand; a fifth
taps for toddy the blossoms of several cocoanut trees by coupling
their crowns with stout ropes to walk upon and the straight boughs
with smaller ropes to support himself; a sixth brings for sale from
the county straw and firewood in single or double bullock carts and
a seventh transports cocoanuts, salt, and dried fish to centres of
trade by pack bullocks or in flat bottomed boats.
The women either make molasses from the unfermented toddy; or plait
mats of dyed rushes in mazy patterns; or earn a pittance by selling
on a small stand by the roadside the requisites for a chew of betel;
or hawk about fruits and vegetables in baskets carried on their heads;
or keep for sale, on a platform in the verandah, sweetmeats and other
eatables protected from the crows which infest the place by a net;
or make coir by beating out the fibre from soaked cocoanut husks;
or attend to their domestic duties with a child astride their hips;
or seated lull their infant child to sleep on their outstretched legs.
Various ceremonies are performed in the sylvan occupations of hunting
and honey gathering.
"Hunting parties of the Kandian Sinhalese of the North Central Province
perform a ceremony which is very similar to that of the Wanniyas [7]
and Veddahs [8] when about to leave their village on one of their
expeditions in the forest. Under a large shady tree they prepare a
maessa, or small covered shrine, which is raised about three feet
off the ground, and is open only in front; it is supported on four
sticks set in the ground. In this they offer the following articles if
available, or as many as possible of them:--one hundred betel leaves,
one hundred arekanuts, limes, oranges, pine apples, sugar cane, a head
of plantains, a cocoanut, two quarts of rice boiled specially at the
site of the offering, and silver and gold. Also the flowers of the
arekanut tree, the cocoanut, and ratmal tree. All are purified by
lustration and incense, as usual, and dedicated. They then light a
small lamp at the front of the offering, and remain there watching
it until it expires, differing in this respect from the practice
of the Wanniyas, who must never see the light go out. Before the
light expires they perform obeisance towards the offering, and
utter aloud the following prayer for the favour and protection of
the forest deities, which must also be repeated every morning during
the expedition, after their millet cake, gini-pûva, has been eaten,
before starting for the day's hunting:--
This is for the favour of the God Ayiyanâr; for the favour of the Kiri
Amma, for the favour of the Kataragama God (Skanda) for the favour
of Kalu Dêvatâ; for the favour of Kambili Unnæhæ; for the favour of
Ilandâri Dêvatâ Unnæhæ; for the favour of Kadavara Dêvatâ Unnæhæ; for
the favour of Galê Bandâra; for the favour of the Hat Rajjuruvô. We
are going to your jungle (uyana); we do not want to meet with even
a single kind of [dangerous] wild animals. We do not want to meet
with the tall one (elephant), the jungle watcher (bear), the animal
with the head causing fear (snake), the leopard. You must blunt the
thorns. We must meet with the horn bearer (sambar deer), the deer
(axis), the ore full of oil (pig), the noosed one (iguâna), the
storehouse (beehive). We must meet about three pingo (carrying-stick)
loads of honey. By the favour of the Gods. We ask only for the sake
of our bodily livelihood [9]".
The jungle attached to a village was the game preserve of its
inhabitants; game laws were concerned with the boundaries of the
village jungle, and with rights of ownership of the game itself. One
half of the game killed by a stranger belonged to the village, and
the headman of the village was entitled to a leg and four or five
pounds of flesh of every wild animal killed by the villagers.
For regulating the time and manner of fishing in sea, old communal
rules have been legalised and are now in force. Fishing with large nets
(mâdel) begins about 1st October and ends by May 31st in each year;
the number of boats and nets to be used in each inlet is limited;
the boats and nets are registered and every registered boat and net
is used in the warâya (inlets) by rotation in order of register;
the turn of each net and boat begins at sunrise and ends at sunrise
of the next day; the headman who supervises these is called the
mannandirâle. Whenever koralebabbu, bôllo, ehelamuruvo and such other
fish come into the warâya, so long as these swarm in the inlet they
should be caught by rod and line and nothing else; when they are
leaving the inlet, the headman in consultation with at least six
fishermen appoint a date from which boru del or visi del may be used;
on no account are mahadel allowed to be used [10].
Each of the boats with its nets belongs to several co-owners and "on a
day's fishing the produce is drawn ashore, is divided in a sufficient
number of lots, each estimated to be worth the same assigned value,
and these lots are so distributed that 1-50 goes to the owner of the
land on which the fish are brought to shore, 1\4 to those engaged
in the labour, 1-5 for the assistance of extra nets etc., rendered
by third parties in the process of landing and securing the fish,
which together equal 47-100 and the remaining 53-100 go to the owners
of the boat and net according to their shares therein" [11].
Owners of cattle have brand marks to distinguish the cattle of their
caste and class from those of others; individual ownership is indicated
by branding in addition the initial letters of the owner's name.
Herdsmen who tend cattle for others are entitled in the case of the
bulls and the he buffaloes they tend to their labour, in the case of
cows and she buffaloes to every second third and fifth calf born,
and in the case of calves to a half share interest in the young
animals themselves.
"At the first milking of a cow there is a ceremony called kiri
ettirima. The cow is milked 3 different mornings successively,
when the milk is boiled, and poured into three different vessels,
till the whole is coagulated. On the fourth day, butter from each
vessel is preserved in a clean basin, to form the principal part
of the ceremony at a convenient time. From that day the milk may be
used, but with particular care never to throw the least milk, or any
water that might have washed the milk basons, out of doors. When
the convenient time has arrived a bunch of plantains is prepared,
cakes are baked, three pots of rice are boiled, a vegetable curry,
and a condiment are prepared by an individual who must manifest all
cleanness on the occasion, even to the putting a handkerchief before
his mouth to present the saliva from falling into the ingredients. All
these preparations are brought to an apartment swept and garnished
for the purpose where the kapuva cleanly clothed enters and burns
sandarac powder, muttering incantations with the intent of removing
all evil supposed to rest upon the family, and of bringing down a
blessing upon them and their cattle.
Next the kapuva takes 7 leaves of the plantain tree and lays 5 of
them in order on the table, canopied, and spread with white cloth, in
honour of the gods Wiramunda deviyo, Kosgama deviyo, Pasgama deviyo,
Combihamy, and Weddihamy; and the other 2 are put on piece of mat on
the ground in honour of the washer and the tom tom beater supposed
to have attended these supernatural beings. Over all these leaves the
boiled rice from one of the pots is divided, then from the second and
third. He afterwards does the same with the curry, and the condiment,
cakes, plantains etc., prepared for the performance. He then pretends
to repeat the same process by way of deception making a motion, and
sounding the ladle on the brim of the pots, as if rice and other
ingredients were apportioned the second time etc., to satisfy the
gods and the two attendants.
The kapuva next takes a little of every ingredient from all the leaves,
both on the table and on the ground, into a cup (made of leaves),
and supporting it over his head marches out from the apartment,
closing its door; and he conveys it either to the fold of the cattle,
or to some elevated place where he dedicates and offers it to the
many thousands of the demons and their attendants who are supposed
to have accompanied the above particular gods, praying them, by
means of incantations, to accept the offering he has brought before
them. From hence he returns to the door of the apartment he had closed,
and knocking at it, as if to announce his entrance, he opens it and
mutters a few more incantations, praying the gods to allow them,
(including himself and the members of the family) to partake of the
remnants that have been offered in their honour. After these ceremonies
are performed, the kapuva, with all the rest, partakes of everything
that was prepared, and the owner of the cow may from this day dispose
of the milk according to his own pleasure." [12].
Rural rites differing in details in different localities are observed
by the Singhalese peasantry in their agricultural pursuits. [13]
In all places a lucky day for ploughing is fixed in consultation with
an astrologer. It is considered unfortunate to begin work on the 1st or
2nd day of the month, and after the work is begun it must be desisted
from on unlucky days such as the 7th, 8th, 9th, 13th, 14th and 21st.
Sowing is also commenced at a lucky day and hour pronounced by the
astrologer to be the most favourable. In a corner of the field,
on a mound of mud where are placed a ginger or a habarala plant
(arum maculatum), a cocoanut or an areka flower and some saffron,
is sown a handful of the first seed and dedicated to the gods; and
after that the entire field is sown.
To drive away insects from the growing rice, charm-lamps are lighted
at the four corners of the field or a worm is enclosed in a charmed
orange and buried there or a fly or grub is fumigated with charmed
resin smoke and bidden to depart or a cultivator sounds a charmed
bell metal plate with a kaduru stick crying to the flies "yan yanta"
(please go).
When the reaping time comes the portion of rice dedicated to the gods
is first reaped by some person who is not a member of the proprietor's
family. It is kept apart on an elevated place till the reaping of the
rest of the field is done when it is cooked and ceremonially offered
to the kapurâla.
The threshing is done on a floor specially prepared; when the crop
is ripe a small pit is made in the centre of the threshing floor
in which are placed a margosa plant, and a conch shell containing a
piece of the tolabu plant (crinum asiaticum) and of the hiressa (vitis
cissus quadrangularis), a piece of metal, charcoal and a small grain
sheaf. Besting on these is an ellipsoidal luck stone (arakgala), round
which are traced with ashes three concentric circles bisected by lines
and in the segments are drawn representations of a broom, a scraper,
a flail, a measure, agricultural implements and Buddha's foot print.
At the lucky hour the cultivator walks three times round the inner
circles of the threshing floor with a sheaf on his head, bowing to the
centre stone at east, north, west and south and casts down the sheaf
on the centre stone prostrating himself. The rest of the sheaves are
then brought in and the threshing begins.
The harvest is brought down on a full moon day and some of the new
paddy is husked, pounded, boiled with milk and offered to the gods
in a dêvala or on a temporary altar under a tree by the field, and
followed by a general feasting.
Persons cultivating their fields with their own cattle, implements,
seed paddy and the like receive the whole produce less the payments
of the watchers (waravêri) and the perquisites of the headman.
When the fields are given out to be cultivated for a share of the
produce, if the field owner supplies the cultivator with the cattle,
implements of labour, and seed paddy the produce is divided equally
by the owner and the cultivator; if the field owner supplies nothing
he only gets 1\4 of the produce.
When an allotment of field is owned by several co-owners, it is
cultivated alternately on a complicated system called tattumâru [14].
There is a jargon used in Ceylon by hunters and pilgrims travelling
in forests [15], by the outcaste rodiyas who go about begging and
thieving [16]; and by cultivators while working in their fields
[17]. This jargon has many words used by the Veddahs [18].