If one has warts on his body, stones equal in number to them are tied to a piece of rag and thrown where three roads meet; the person who picks up the packet and unties it gets the warts and the other becomes free of them.
When a person gets a hiccough, he gets rid of it by holding up his breath and repeating seven times “ikkayi mâyi Gâlugiya, ikka, hitalâ man âvâ” (Hiccough and I went to Galle; he stayed back and I returned).
Extreme exhaustion will ensue if the perspiration from one’s body is scraped off; the cure is to swallow the collected sweat.
CHAPTER XI.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.
A village community occupy a well defined settlement (wasama) within which are the hamlets (gan), and in each hamlet live a few families who have their separate homesteads (mulgedera) with proprietary interests in the arable land and communal rights in the forest, waste and pasture land. A group of such settlements comprise a country district (rata, kôrale, pattu).
There are two types of village settlements, in one there are the free peasant proprietors cultivating their private holdings without any interference, and in the other the people occupy the lands subject to an overlord, and paying him rent in service, food or money or in all three.
All communities whether free or servile had, in ancient times to perform râjakariya for 15 to 30 days a year; in time of war to guard the passes and serve as soldiers, and ordinarily to construct or repair canals, tanks, bridges and roads. These public duties were exacted from all males who could throw a stone over their huts; the military services were, in later times, claimed only from a special class of the king’s tenants.
The people had also to contribute to the Revenue three times a year, at the New Year festival, (April) at the alutsâl festival (January) and the maha or kâtti festival (November) in arrack, oil, paddy, honey, wax, cloth, iron, elephant’s tusks, tobacco, and money collected by the headmen from the various country districts. The quantity of paddy (kathhâl) supplied by each family depended on the size of the private holding; but no contribution was levied on the lands of persons slain in war or on lands dedicated to priests. When a man of property died, 5 measures of paddy, a bull, a cow with calf, and a male and female buffalo were collected as death dues (marral.)