Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1901-02-08
DEVIL DANCERS OF cEYLoN.
Earn Good Living by Exercising Dee
mods from the Sick.

Earn Good Living by Exercising De.
mons from the Sick.
-.E1e real Singhalese devil dancers In
Geylen are most ferocious and savage
fellows. Their dances are revolving
and horrible. But2thelr profession is
popular and affords a royal living for
the men who 60 into 1t.
There Is a superstition among the
Singhalese that when a man falls sick
he Is supposed to be afflicted with
devil. In order to rid him of the
disease the devil dancers are called in
to propitiate the demon.
Two or more Of them go by night to
the sick mans house, in front of which
small, square inclosure, about six
feet high, has been made of grasses
and palm leaves. This answers the
purpose of the green room at thea
ter. The men appear at first without
masks and with long yellow grass
streamers hanging from their heads
and waists. The only light cast on
the scene is by torches made of sticks,
around which pieces of cloth are wrap
ped, dipped In oil. To the music of
a tom-tom, kept up on one note, the
dancers sing a peculiar, wild. funeral
dirge. in which the spectators often
Join.
The dancers begin by slowly moving
about, stretching the right foot and
bringing the left up to it, and appear
as If they were searching for some
thing, during which the singing sounds
like crying. They are then asking the
devil to appear. There are twenty-four
different sorts Of devils, and after the
first part. the dancers are constantly
changing their clothes to represent the
entire species; some wear masks, some
don jaws and terrible teeth reaching
to the ears; the jaws open and close
in very realistic manner
A dance lasts over two nights. as the
whole..twenty-four devils have all to be
personated before the particular de-
mon who is affecting the sick man is
pitched on. When he gives signs of
his presence the dancers go into sort
Of frenzy which increases as he takes
possession of them; the tom-tom beats
faster and faster, the chanting grows
into yells. the men whirl and stamp,
the bells fastened-by bracelets on to
their ankles Jingle and clash.
At this stage the dancers appear to
be looking for some object to give the
devil In sacrifice, and into which he
may pass. A chicken is usually offered
10 Of fhn oh nd
unfortunate bird is seized upon, twist -
ed and tormented and bitten between
the false teeth, until the dancers, worn
out, move slower and slower, and the
chicken sinks into sort of trance,
which Is sign that the devil has ac
pass from the man into the bird. Now
and then the bird is revived by some
charmed water being thrown on it's
head, and then the torture of it begins
again. After this the men don sheep
skin petticoats and capes, and in the
torchlight look more and more diabol-
lcal and frenzied in their thanks to
the devil for consenting to leave the
sick man.
When the bird dies it is a sign that
the devil has left the man, and he will
be cured. The bird is then thrown into
the river, to be carried to the sea. 1t is
never killed, and never eaten after dy-
ing. About an hour of this sort of
thing is quite enough; it is really hor-
rible and revolving, and one is thank
full when the men leave off to go to
drink the toddy prepared for them,
and make night of it.-New York
Journal.