INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
The Sinhalese beliefs, customs and stories in the present collection were contributed by the writer to the Indian Antiquary fourteen years ago in a series of articles under the title of “Glimpses of Sinhalese Social Life”; they are now offered, amplified and rearranged, to the student of folklore in Ceylon, as a basis for further research. The writer has adopted the scheme of classification in the Folklore Society’s Hand Book of Folklore.
ARTHUR A. PERERA.
Westwood, Kandy,
10th February, 1917.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Belief and Practice.
| Chapter. | PAGES | |||||||
| 1. | [The Earth and the Sky] | 1 | ||||||
| 2. | [The Vegetable World] | 4 | ||||||
| 3. | [The Animal World] | 6 | ||||||
| 4. | [Human Beings] | 11 | ||||||
| 5. | [Things made by man] | 13 | ||||||
| 6. | [The Soul and another Life] | 14 | ||||||
| 7. | [Superhuman Beings] | 15 | ||||||
| 8. | [Omens and Divination] | 21 | ||||||
| 9. | [The Magic Art] | 23 | ||||||
| 10. | [Disease and Leech-craft] | 25 | ||||||
Customs.