When a person is hurt by a nettle, cassia leaves are rubbed on the injured place with the words “tôra kola visa netâ kahambaliyâ visa eta.” (Cassia leaves are stingless but prickly is the nettle). Cassia indicates the fertility of the soil; where diyataliya (mexitixia tetrandra) and kumbuk (terminalia tomentosa) flourish a copious supply of water can be obtained.
The bark of the bo tree and of the Bômbu (symplocos spicata) prevent the contagion of sore eyes when tied on the arms.
In the beginning the only food used by man was an edible fungus like boiled milk which grew spontaneously upon the earth. As man fell from his primitive simplicity this substance disappeared and rice without the husk took its place. But when man became depraved the rice developed a covering and ceased to grow spontaneously forcing men to work.
A poor widow had a daughter who married a rich man. One day she went to her daughter’s and asked for a little rice to eat. Though the pot of rice was on the fire, the daughter said she had none to give and the mother went away. The daughter found the rice in the pot had turned into blood and she threw it away. The god Sakraya in revenge reduced the daughter to beggary and the mother and daughter on the god’s advice dug where the pot of rice had been emptied and found the batala yam (bata rice and lê-blood). Thereafter the batala (Edulis batatas) became the food of the poor.
That the jak fruit may be eaten by the people, the god Sakrayâ came to earth as a Brahmin, plucked a fruit and asked a woman to cook it without tasting. The smell was so tempting that she stealthily ate a little of it and was called a thievish woman (hera, thief; and liya woman.) The fruit is consequently called heraliya.
A king once directed a jeweller to work in gold a design similar to the club moss; the goldsmith found this so hard that he went mad and the moss is called the jeweller’s curse (badal vanassa).
The butterfly orchid inflames one’s passion and is called the “yam that killed the younger sister” (nagâ meru ale) as a sister once accidentally tasted it and made amorous gestures to her brother who killed her.
If a person approaches the mythical Damba tree without a charm he will be killed. The celestial Kapruka gives everything one wishes for. The unknown Visakumbha is an antidote for poison and is eaten by the mungoose after its fight with the cobra. Kusa grass (sevendrâ) exists both on earth and in heaven.
The imaginary Kalu nika twig floats against the current, cuts in two the strongest metal; when eaten rejuvenates the old; and to obtain it the young of the etikukulâ (jungle fowl) should be tied by a metal chain when the parents will fetch the twig to release their young.