When a person dies everything is done to prevent the disembodied spirit being attracted to its old home or disturbed. Even paddy is not pounded in the house as the sound may attract it.

The day after burial the dead man’s belongings are given away in charity and an almsgiving of kenda (rice gruel) to priests or beggars takes place. A little of the kenda in a gotuwa (leaf cup) is kept on a tree or at a meeting of roads and if a crow or any other bird eats it, it is a sign that the deceased is happy; otherwise it indicates that it has become a perturbed spirit. Seven days after, there is an almsgiving of rice when a gotuwa of rice is similarly made use of for a further sign. Three months after is the last almsgiving which is done on a large scale; relatives are invited for a feast and all signs of sorrow are banished from that day.

The object of this last almsgiving is to make the disembodied spirit cease to long for the things he has left behind and if this be not done the spirit of the dead person approaches the boundary fence of the garden; if the omission be not made good after six months it takes its stand near the well; when nine months have elapsed it comes near the doorway, and after twelve months it enters the house and makes its presence felt by emitting offensive smells and contaminating food as a Peretay or by destroying the pots and plates of the house and pelting stones as a gevalay or by apparitions as an avatÂrÉ or by creating strange sounds as a holmana; it is afraid of iron and lime and when over boisterous a kattadiya rids it from the house by nailing it to a tree, or enclosing it in a small receptacle and throwing it into the sea where it is so confined till some one unwittingly sets it free when it recommences its tricks with double force. A woman who dies in parturition and is buried with the child becomes a bodirima; she is short and fat, rolls like a cask, kills men whenever she can; if a lamp and some betel leaves be kept where she haunts she will be seen heating a leaf and warming her side; the women chase her away with threats of beating her with an ikle broom; if shot at she turns into a chameleon (yak katussÂ). If a person dreams of a dead relative he gives food to a beggar the next morning.