Chapter I · THE EARTH AND THE SKY.

Various beliefs are held by the peasantry about the hills, rocks, boulders and crags scattered about the island.

Samanala Kanda (Adam’s Peak) which contains the sacred foot print of the Buddha was in prehistoric times sacred to the god Saman who still presides over the mountain. Pilgrims to the Peak invoke his aid in song for a safe journey; and when they reach the top, cover the foot print with four yards of white cloth, pay obeisance to it, recite the articles of the Buddhist Faith, and make a silver offering at the shrine of the Saman Deviyo, which is close by. When worship is over the pilgrims greet each other and sound a bell ringing as many peals as they have visited the Peak.

No lizard is heard chirping within the shadow of Hunasgiriya Peak in Pata Dumbara for when the Buddha, on his aerial visit to Ceylon, wished to alight on this mountain a lizard chirped and he passed on to Adam’s Peak.

Ritigal Kanda (Sanskrit Arishta) in the Nuvara Kalâviya district, S.E. of Anuradhapura and Rummas Kanda (modern Buona Vista) in the Galle district are associated with the Hanuman tradition. It was from Ritigal Kanda that Hanuman jumped across to India to carry the joyful message that he had discovered Sita in Ceylon, and when Lakshman was wounded and a medicinal herb was required for his cure, Hanuman was sent to the Himalayas to fetch it; on the way the name and nature of the plant dropped from his memory; whereupon he snapped a portion of the Himalayas and brought it twisted in his tail and asked Rama to seek for the herb himself. Buona Vista is that portion of the mountain and valuable medicinal herbs are still to be found there.

Râvanâ Kotte,—the stronghold of Râvanâ (king of the Rakshas)—was off Kirinda in the Hambantota District and is now submerged. The Great Basses are what is left of this city; the golden twilight seen there of an evening is the reflection of the brazen roofs of the submerged city.

Dehi Kanda opposite the Dambulla rock caves in the Matale district is the petrified husk of the rice eaten by the giants who made the caves.

Near Sinigama in Wellaboda pattu of the Galle district is shewn a crag as the petrified craft in which Wêragoda Deviyo came to Ceylon from South India.

When a severe drought visited the island, an elephant, a tortoise, a beetle, an eel, a goat and a she elephant went in search of water to the tank Wenêru Veva near Kurunegala. A woman who saw this kept a lump of salt before the foremost of them, the elephant; while he was licking it she raised a screen of leaves to conceal the tank from the intruders’ view and began to pray; and the gods answered by petrifying the animals, the screen and the lump of salt, all of which are still visible round Kurunegala.

Rocks with mystic marks indicate the spot where treasures are concealed and lights are seen at night in such places.

When the owner of a treasure wanted to keep it safe, it is said that he dug two holes in some lonely jungle and at night proceeded to the spot with a servant carrying the treasure; after the treasure was deposited in one hole, the master cut his servant’s throat and buried him in the other to make him a guardian of his treasure in the form of a snake or demon.

The earth goddess (Mihi Ket) supports the world on one of her thumbs and when weary shifts it on to the other causing an earthquake.

The four cardinal points are presided over by four guardian deities (Hataravaran Deviyô).

Sea waves are three in number which follow each other in regular succession. The first and the largest is the brother who fell in love with his sister and who, to conquer his unholy passion, committed suicide by jumping into the sea. The next is his mother who jumped after her son, and the last and the smallest is the daughter herself.

The sky in the olden times was very close to the earth, and the stars served as lamps to the people; a woman who was sweeping her compound was so much troubled by the clouds touching her back when she stooped to sweep that she gave the sky a blow with her ikle broom saying ‘get away’ (pala). The sky in shame immediately flew out of the reach of man.

The rainbow is the god Sakra’s bow (Devidunne) and portends fair weather; when any calamity is approaching Budures (Buddha’s rays) appear in the sky—“a luminous phenomenon consisting of horizontal bands of light which cross the sky while the sun is in the ascendant.” The twilight seen on hill tops is the sunshine in which the female Rakshis dry their paddy.

Lightning strikes the graves of cruel men; thunder induces conception in female crocodiles and bursts open the peahen’s eggs.

Children sing out to the moon “Handahamy apatat bat kande ran tetiyak diyo.”—(Mr. Moon do give us a golden plate in which to eat our rice).

When the new moon is first observed it is lucky to immediately after look on rice, milk or kiss a kind and well to do relative.

The spots in the moon represent a hare to signify to the world the self-sacrifice of Buddha in a previous existence.

In each year the twelve days (Sankranti) on which the sun moves from one sign of the zodiac to another, are considered unlucky. There are twenty seven constellations (neket) which reach the zenith at midnight on particular days in particular months; and their position is ascertained from an astrologer before any work of importance is begun.

The sun, moon, and Rahu were three sons of a widowed mother whom they left at home one day to attend a wedding. When they returned she inquired what they had brought with them; the eldest angrily replied that he had brought nothing, the second threw at her the torch which had lighted them on the way, but the third asked for his mother’s rice pot and put into it a few grains of rice, which he had brought concealed under his nails and which miraculously filled the vessel. The mother’s blessing made the youngest son the pleasant and cool moon, while her curses made the second the burning sun and the eldest the demon Rahu who tries to destroy his brothers by swallowing them and causing an Eclipse.