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first innings is settled by mutual consent, or by tossing. For a wicket, two cocoanut shells with the husks on are placed on end, three or four inches apart, with a stick laid across them. The ball is formed of an unripe Pumelo fruit, rendered soft and elastic by being placed under hot ashes, and protected by a closely plaited envelope of strips of bark.

One party or team station themselves behind the wicket as fielders, and the captain of the other side opens the game. by bowling at the wicket, which is not defended by any one. If he knock it down one of the opposing team goes out of play. If the ball pass the wicket those behind endeavour to catch it while rebounding, above the height of the knee, and on their doing so the bowler is out. The ball, whether caught or not, having passed into the ground of the second team, one of them becomes the bowler, and the game goes on alternating between the two sides, until one team has all gone out,' leaving the others the winners.

'The victim of defeat has to sit on the bridge of cocoanut shells, his head bowed on his knees, and submit with patience and resignation to the sneers and jibes of the victors,' which apparently are sometimes of a rather coarse character. This resembles the jeering and coarse language used at the An-keliya or Horn-pulling game, described below, and in its origin it may have been intended to have a similar effect-the protection of the village from evil influences.

KALLI KELIYA.

This is a form of Tip-cat played by boys, which Ludovisi stated (op. cit., p. 28)—he does not say on what evidence-to have been known long before our occupation of Ceylon. The 'Cat,' a stick three or four inches long, and pointed at both ends like that used in England, is 'pitched' or tossed at a small hole, three inches long by one inch wide, which slopes downward at one end, from a distance equal to the height of the tallest player, measured to the tips of the up-stretched fingers. An opponent who stands at the side of the hole endeavours to strike the cat' before it reaches the ground, with a stick eighteen inches long. Should it fall in the hole, or within

eighteen inches of it, or be caught when struck, the striker goes out, and the boy who pitched the cat' succeeds him. If, however, the striker hit it on its way to the hole, the distance at which it falls is measured in lengths of the striker's stick, and if it reach a number of lengths, ten or fifteen or more, that had been previously agreed upon, a player of the opposite party goes out of the game.

There is a penalty for the losing players which is not very clearly explained by Mr. Ludovisi. In it the stick for hitting the cat is struck by the cat,' and followed up until the player who is doing this fails to hit it, or to send it more than the length of the loser, measured to the end of his up-stretched fingers. The loser must then run back to the hole while holding his breath, crying "Gūdo, gūdo, gūdo." I have not seen this game played in the villages of the interior, and I should expect that it is of European origin.

ETTAN KALLI.

This is a nearly similar game played in Colombo, and described by Mr. Ludovisi (op. cit., p. 29) as being quite like the English Tip-cat. The cat' is struck as it springs forward on being 'tipped' by the striker's stick. The same penalty as above is paid by the losers. This game is also not played in the interior, but is common in Colombo.

FOOTBALL.

An Eastern kind of football is played in Colombo, especially by Malays, with a skeleton ball, called Rāgama bōla, ‘ the Rāgama ball,' which is made of interwoven strips of bamboo. The game consists in two parties kicking it backwards and forwards, apparently without any special rules, and there are no goals or ' scrimmages.'

The POPGUN, Unaliya, Bamboo-stick,' is, as its name implies, made from a short section of bamboo about seven inches long. The small globular unripe seeds of the Pāvaṭṭā (Pavetta indica) and Tarana (Webera corymbosa) are used as pellets.

STILTS, Borupaya, 'False-foot,' are sometimes used by youths as in England. I have seen one Sinhalese man, a professional

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stilt-walker, perform extraordinary feats on a single high stilt, on which he progressed rapidly in kangaroo-like jumps. His feet were raised three or four feet from the ground on it.

RELIGIOUS GAMES

There are four religious games, all intimately connected with the worship of Pattini, the Goddess of Chastity and Controller of Epidemics, in her aspect as a deity who possesses powers over certain infectious diseases such as small-pox, measles, and, as Ludovisi says, an outbreak of murrain among the cattle, the injury of crops by insects and grubs, or the occurrence of a serious drought. These games are (1) An Keliya, 'the Horns (pulling) Game'; (2) Dodan Keliya, 'the Orange (striking) Game'; (3) Pol Keliya, 'the Coconut (breaking) Game'; and (4) Mal Keliya,' the Flower Game.'

Pattini is a South Indian Goddess whose cult was introduced into Ceylon at an early date. In the tradition which is current regarding her in Ceylon and Southern India, she was Kannaki, the wife of a person called in India Kovilan or Kovālan, and in Ceylon Pālā Gurunnānsē, or Palanga, who was unjustly charged by a goldsmith with the theft of the Queen's hollow jingling gem-set bracelet or anklet, termed a Salamba (Tamil Silampu) at Pāṇḍi Nuwara, that is, Madura. Without proper inquiry into the truth of the accusation, he was executed by the orders of the King of Madura. In revenge, Kannaki cursed the royal family and the city, and as the result the king and his family and all the inhabitants were destroyed by fire. The illustration (Fig. 272) shows two wooden statues which are said to be those of Pattini and Pālanga; they are in one of the caves at the early monastery at Nikawaewa, to which reference has been made in the chapter on the dāgabas, and they may date from the eleventh century A.D. In this statue, which is probably the earliest existing representation of Pattini in Ceylon, she has plain anklets, but ornamental jewelled bracelets.

According to the Chilappatikaran, a Tamil poem which claims to be written by Ilanko-Adikal, the younger brother of

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