Collectanea. 277
Mr. W. G. Aston, whom I have consulted upon this custom, kindly refers me to a quotation by him, in a note to his transla- tion oi \h.& Nihongi (London, Japan Society, 1896), vol. ii., p. 150, of the description of the practice in Yamada's ya/aw^i'i? Dictionary. The practice is called Nagare-Ka?ijd {Katijo meaning baptism, or head-sprinkHng), and is thus described : " Four posts are set up near water, on which white cloth is hung. To this are attached leaves of lign-aloes, &c., as offerings for the benefit of the souls of the friendless dead, of drowned persons, or of women who have died in childbirth." Mr. Aston informs me that the expression here given as " women who have died in childbirth " is ambiguous in the original, and may mean " still-born children " ; and by an accident he so rendered it in the Nihojigi. He is satisfied, how- ever, that " women who have died in childbirth " is intended. He also informs me that another Japanese authority states that the four pillars on which the cloth rests are, or represent, sotoba, i.e., the commemorative laths or posts, inscribed with Sanskrit characters, which are set up at graves. The practice, he adds, has been described in Our Neigiibourhood, by T. A. P. (the late Dr. Purcell, of Tokio), a work subsequently republished in London under the title of A Suburb of Yedo.
E. S. Hartland.
Rice Harvest in Ceylon.
(Communicated by Mr. J. G. Frazer.)
{Siipra, p. 77.)
On an estate in Ceylon near here, in February, the Tamil coolies (Hindus) drowned the god Madu Sami in the river. For three days he was drowned, and during that time Mooniandi the devil reigned supreme. The men got sticks and beat the women, calling out, " You have the devil in you ! " and chasing them all over the estate. Then they fixed on one old woman, beat her, made her carry a large stone on her head, and made her run three times round the coolie-houses. Then they threw stones and chased her to the Mooniandi Sami stone, and there they had incantations ; and pushing her to a tree, near the Mooniandi
