The margosa tree is sacred to Pattini and the telambu tree to Navaratna Wâlli. Each lunar asterism is associated with a particular tree.
Homage is paid to an overlord by presenting him with a roll of 40 betel leaves with the stalk ends towards the receiver. Before the betel is chewed, its apex and a piece of the petiole of the base are broken off as a cobra brought the leaf from the lower world holding both ends in its mouth. It is also considered beneath one’s dignity to eat the base of the petiole.
The flowering of a tala tree (corypha umbraculifera) is inauspicious to the village. A cocoanut only falls on a person who has incurred divine displeasure; it is lucky to own a cocoanut tree with a double stem.
A king cocoanut tree near the house brings bad luck to the owner’s sons. When a person dies or a child is born a cocoanut blossom is hung over him.
The person who plants an arekanut tree becomes subject to nervousness. The woman who chews the scarred slice of an arekanut becomes a widow. If a married woman eats a plantain which is attached to another, she gets twins.
An astrologer once told a king that a particular day and hour were so auspicious that anything planted then would become a useful tree. The king directed the astrologer’s head to be severed and planted and this grew into the crooked cocoanut tree. Pleased with the result he got his own head severed and planted and it grew into the straight areka tree.
Red flowers (rat mal) are sacred to malignant spirits and white flowers (sudu mal) to beneficient spirits. Turmeric water is used for charming and sticks from bitter plants are used as magic wands. The Nâga darana root (martynia diandra) protects a man from snake bite.
It is auspicious to have growing near houses the following:—nâ (ironwood), palu (mimusops hexandra), mûnamal (mimusops elengi), sapu (champak), delum (pomegranate), kohomba (margosa), areka, cocoanut, palmyra, jak, shoeflower, idda (wrightia zeylanica), sadikka (nutmeg) and midi (vitis vinifera) while the following are inauspicious:—imbul (cotton), ruk (myristica tursfieldia), mango, beli (aegle marmelos), ehela (cassia fistula), tamarind, satinwood, ratkihiri (accacia catechu), etteriya (murraya exotica) and penala (soap berry plant).
Persons taken for execution were formerly made to wear wadamal (hibiscus).
The dumella (Trichosanthes cucumerina) and the kekiri (zhenaria umbellata) are rendered bitter, if named before eating. Alocasia yams (habarale) cause a rasping sensation in the throat when they are named within the eater’s hearing.