CHAPTER XV.
GAMES, SPORTS AND PASTIMES.
On festive days itinerant songmen amuse the village folk at open places and greens; they keep time to a dance by skilfully whirling metal-plates or small tambourines on their fingers or pointed stakes, by striking together sticks, by tossing earthen pots up in the air and catching them and they eulogize the hamlet and its people in extempore couplets with the refrain, “tana tanamda tânênâ, tanâ, tamda, tânênâ, tana tanamda, tana tanamda, tana tanamda, tânênâ.”
The people also enjoy themselves on the merry-go-round (katuru onchillâva)—a large revolving wheel on a tall wooden superstructure with seats attached; at theatrical representations called kôlan nẹtum, rûkada nẹtum, and nâdagam; at games of skill and at divers forms of outdoor games.
Kôlan nẹtuma is a series of mimetic dances of a ludicrous character by actors dressed like animals and demons, wearing masks and sometimes perched on high stilts.
The rûkada nẹtuma is a marionette show of the ordinary incidents of village life—usually of the adventures of a married couple, a hevârala (a militia guard) and his wife Kadiragoda lamayâ; the former goes to the wars and returns with his eyes and ears off only to be beaten by his wife who soon after falls ill with labour pains, and devil dancers are requisitioned to relieve her; Pinnagoda râla is the clown of the show.
The nâdagama is a dramatic play and for its performance a circular stage is erected with an umbrella-shaped tent over it; round it sits the audience, who, though admitted free, willingly contribute something into the collection-box brought by the clown (kônangiya) at the end of the play. Before the drama begins, each of the actors, in tinselled costume, walks round the stage singing a song appropriate to his character. The piece represented is based on a popular tale or an historical event.
Games of skill and chance are played on boards made for that purpose.[1]
In Olinda Keliya a board having seven holes a side is used; only two can take part in the game, and each in turn places olinda seeds (abrus precatorius) in the holes and the object of the opponent is to capture the other’s seeds according to certain rules.[2]
In Pancha Keliya dice and six cowries are used; the latter are taken into the player’s hand and dropped, and the shells which fall on the reverse side are counted and the dice moved an equal number of places on the board and the game continues till all the dice reach the other end of the board.