The Taprobanian (2.1887)

48

THE TAPROBANIAN.

[April, 1887.

or child leave the room. Within a few hours of
birth a drop of milk rubbed over gold, called
“ rankiri,” is rubbed on the child’s mouth by the
midwife. On the fifth day the washer-woman
who is honoured on all such occasions by the
title “ ridi-naenda,” aunt-washer, attends and
receives rice and other provisions—more for a
boy, less for a girl. The midwife also attends
and is entertained with food; the mother and
child come out of the room and receive con-
gratulations of friends. The washer-woman
receives the soiled cloths, having supplied fresh
ones, and the floor is washed with cowdung
before the mother and child leave the room.
No males should go into the room for the five
days. The house is considered unclean after a
birth for a few days; no fixed period is observed;
no ceremony is used for purification.
While the child is being suckled, those classes
who have the breasts bare, ordinarily, cover
them with a strip of rag called “ tana patta” or
“ pap belt,” which covers the top of the breasts
and is tied behind by a string at each end, the
cloth part not extending beyond the breasts.
This is to prevent evil influences affecting the
milk.
After seven months, the astrologer fixes a day
suitable to the child’s horoscope, and the friends
and relations are invited, usually for the noon
meal; milk-rice or rice cooked in milk, in which
is placed a piece of charcoal and some cotton,
is then given to the child served on a leaf, from
which the cat also is enticed to eat first. It is
quite necessary the cat and the child should feed
off the one leaf ; it is supposed that the cat may
receive any evil influences that might lurk in
the rice. It is necessary to guard very carefully
against the child tasting rice before this cere-
monial feeding, as, should he eat even a grain,
most disastrous results might follow. The rela-
tions partake of curries, rice, cakes, and sweet-
meats, but no intoxicants, and each makes a
present to the child of ornaments, money, clothes,
or any such things. No perishable presents are
made. Cattle, however, are given, and if so,
branded in the child’s name. The washer and
his wife and family attend and are received with
special honour and fed. The washer on all
such occasions is called Hena Mama or “ uncle-
washer,” as his wife is aunt-washer, “ ridi-
naenda.”
A few years after attaining puberty the astro-
loger fixes an hour and day for the beard of
the son to be cut. The barber, “ pannikiya,” is

invited, and a cup of cocoanut milk (not the
water, but the milk-like juice expressed from
the grated nut), in which turmeric is mixed, is
prepared with salt, rice, raw cotton; a tuft of
beard is cut off with scissors and thrown into
this, and then the friends and relations, who
attend the ceremony, put money into the cup.
The beard is then shaved with a razor and all
placed in the cup.
The barber then appropriates the money, often
a very considerable collection, and the rest of the
contents of the cup are thrown away on to the
roof, or any place where they will not be trodden
on. They must not be burned, buried, or thrown
into water. A feast in the grandest style cir-
cumstances permit is then provided for the guests,
who present the youth with ornaments, clothes,
money, and such things. The beard-shaving
often takes place on the day of the wedding
itself, and so obviates a second feast. A man
may remain unshaved all his life, but that is
unusual.
In the case of a girl, on her ascertaining she
has arrived at puberty, she is at once secluded in
a room and not allowed to sit down until a
a messenger goes to the astrologer and returns
with information as to the hour for her purifica-
tion. When the messenger returns, he brings
the astrologer’s authority also, as to the hour at
which she may sit down. She then sits down as
appointed by him, and waits for the purification
hour. As after a birth, so now also, she must
never be left alone during this interval. The
friends and relations are then informed, and at
the appointed hour, with her head completely
veiled by a cloth, she is led by her mother or
aunt and the washer-woman to the back of the
house. Here, if there is no tree that yields milk
on being bruised, a branch of one is provided,
and near this she is bathed and washed and
dressed in clean clothes, her head being covered
so that she cannot see around her. The tree
usually selected is the jak, artocarpus integri-
folia, and a fillet of white cotton cloth is tied
round it by the washer-woman. She is now led
to the front of the house, where the friends are
assembled, and being conducted into the house,
the covering is removed and she is so placed
that her eyes first rest on a lighted lamp, and
then on a heap of rice.
She next looks at her relations, one by one, in
order of rank, beginning with her parents. To
the lamp, to the rice, and to the relations she
performs reverence.