SUPERNATURAL
The residents of Inuvil and the neighbouring townships and villages in north Sri Lanka have been plagued by two strange ghosts in recent times. Although they have their unique habits with one emitting strange rustling noises and other a kind of sweeping strong wind impacting on a large tree often quite frightful, they sometimes appear at a distance like a monster shooting out of the ground and towering into the clouds.
There are times when sounds like a constant monotonous wail are heard as coming from a chekku, the traditional oil extractor used in our villages from time immemorial with the pulley on the main body turned round and round pressing the oil seeds like sesame by a pair of oxen merry-go-round style. On other occasions the sounds are like the creaks and croaks of heavy doors. People traveling late night on the Jaffna-KKS Road and also on the Manipay-Inuvil Road via Uduvil have heard these sounds particularly on New Moon and Full Moon days. The rustler is more active on New Moon days and the croaker dominates the two hours past midnight on Full Moon days.
Some people in Vaddukoddai, six miles from Inuvil, reported hearing similar noises in the compound of a house along College Lane that was demolished a few years ago. Some expensive Burma Teak rafters and other fittings had disappeared overnight under extremely mysterious circumstances.
Inuvil residents have consulted local priests, Hindu and Christians both Catholic and Protestant but have had no answers or even any explanation. Finally, they approached a well recommended magician and exorcist from the Eastern Province who prided his training in India and his Guru as someone who could command orders to the nastiest of spirits and ghosts. Called the Ahala Antha-Intha Appuchamy Manthravathi of Vantharamoolai, he arrived in Inuvil one New Moon day and set up his hut assisted by his two sishyas near the Maruthanamadam-Inuvil junction.
The same night he started his pooja having commanded a supply of three white cockerels, a black he-goat, five dozen white eggs and a whole supply of vegetables, red rice, thirty husked and twelve young coconuts, a bunch of kappal bananas, two gallons of coconut oil, camphor and two cartloads of neem (vembu) twigs with leaves all green and fresh. Sharp at 12 00 midnight, the Ahala Antha-Intha Appuchamy Manthravathi beating his udukku drum went into a trance and violently danced for two hours screaming defiance at the devil when suddenly a gunny bag of tamarind fruits appeared from nowhere.
This was supposed to be a clue and for the next fifteen days, the magician pursued it with all kinds of inquiries in the area. When the Full Moon day approached he demanded the same supply of pooja material but this time he wanted two black he-goats saying both ghosts may try to attack him. Once again at the appointed hour he went into a trance to the udukku beat and the dance of the devil in which his two sishyas too joined. But nothing happened until 3 00 AM when a whole heap of twigs from a Mahogany tree was piled up in front of the hut from nowhere and suddenly it caught fire with frightening shrieks coming out of it.
The magician collapsed on the ground with sweat flowing out of his body. When he finally recovered, he told the people who had assembled around him that the two ghosts plaguing them are no ordinary ones. They are the spirits of two that have lived very long lives, have been of immense service to the community and were likely to live for many more years but a greedy man had brought about their ends.
This explanation puzzled the people who had invited the magician to exorcise the place of the ghosts. When the magician had rested a bit, they heaped a lot of questions on him. Having had a good breakfast on pittu and mutton curry along with other choice variety of food all freshly made for the pooja, he asked the group to follow him.
He walked along the Chunnakam-Jaffna Road and as he got near the Inuvil McCleod Hospital, he turned into the yard, walked a little distance away from the main gate and pointed at two spots in different places. Again the people could not understand what he was trying to convey. He sat on the ground under the shade of a Mahogany Tree that was planted by American missionaries some 150 years ago and said that on the two spots stood two beautiful full-grown trees, one a Mahogany and the other a Tamarind.
Both were adored by the hospital people, one for the shade and the other for the tamarind fruit. Unfortunately, both were cut down by a greedy man who had access to the trees and made virtually thousands of rupees by selling them illicitly. Out of the wood of one, rafters, doors and windows have been made and that accounts for the creaking noise of a sad ghost as well as the windy roar and the other was used to make a chekku.
The spirits of the ghosts are obviously seeking revenge and until this is achieved, the people of the area cannot propitiate them. Inuvil may have to live with these ghosts, now known as Mahogany and Tamarind, for some years.
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