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 Wanniyas1 and Veddahs2 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 DÊvat UnnÆhÆ; for the favour of Kadavara DÊvat 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 livelihood3”.

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 used4.

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”5.

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.”6.

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 tattumÂru8.