• Autobiography of a spoon
• May we drop a happy tear!
• Friends
• Dangers of smoking
• King of the Chessboard
• All about myself
• The grand pageant in Kandy - Stamp News 26
• Through the eyes of a child
• Spiders and Scorpions - Nature Watch

Autobiography of a spoon

My name is Spoon. I am made of steel. And I was born in a spoon factory. I was packed with my neighbour, and they put us in the lorry and took us to Galle.

They put us on the table and the shopkeeper bought us, he put us in a box.

One day a girl called Farvin came to this shop. She bought me and presented me to her friend. Her friend's name is Ifaza. She took me into the kitchen, and put me on the rack. There were new friends there.

They were not as new as me. Their names were spoon, table knife, plate, saucer, cup and fork. I shone like a star among them.

So they were jealous of me. One day they had some visitors and Ifaza came and took me in her hand. She took some milk and sugar and put them into a cup of water and stirred them with me. She forgot about me and left me on the table. Her little brother wanted to steal some sugar. He tried to open the tin with my head and I broke into two pieces. That was the end of me.

Musfira Abdullah,
Weligama.

May we drop a happy tear!

How many years will we suffer by this war,
How many years will we drop tears to each other for their dying;
How many years must we suffer from the poverty of each other and,
be slaves to other countries;
And how many times can we see other's deep sufferings;
On which day can we gather with happy tears.
Can we drop a happy tear for each other's joy?

E.A. Tharanga Niroshinie,
Matara.

Friends

People who know
How to brighten a day,
With heart-warming smiles
And with kind words they say,
People who know
How to gently impart
the comfort it takes
To cheer somebody's heart.
People who know
how to always come through
When there's anything
they can possibly do
People who know
how to willingly share
And know how to give
And know how to care
Who know how to let
All their warm feeling show....
Are people that others
Feel lucky to know.

M. Shabir Shaideen,
Colombo 6.

Dangers of smoking

Smoking today has become a widespread habit among both the young and the old. It is difficult to understand how one gets used to this dangerous habit. First most people believe it is bad company that makes youngsters try smoking. If one gets in to the habit it is very very difficult to get rid of it.

Then we know that there are some professionals, who smoke excessively regardless of their own health. Nobody should advise or encourage another to smoke. We know even passive smoking is dangerous to our health. Diseases like lung cancer are caused due to excessive smoking. Some smokers find it difficult to control or even give up this bad habit altogether. One should at least try to limit it. But even giving up this habit is not very difficult, if he has a strong will. Just imagine if everybody decides to give up smoking this world would be a better place to live in. "PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE"

L.A. Thusara Dilrukshi,
Bandarawela.

King of the Chessboard

War has begun, between the whites and the blacks
Pawns in front, moving in steps
Knights on the horses, gallop on forward
Chased off the board, out goes one

Rooks on the danger side, Bishop under pressure
Out comes the Queen, her witch eyes watching
Here comes the bravest, and the most powerful
Feared by her enemies, big and small

The Knights surrender, Bishops move out
Rooks get away, hidden to the pawns
King's chance, enters, careful in his move
Fearing the worst, he hides behind the pawns

War goes on, on the chessboard field
When the Queen checkmates the King
A shill cry goest 'Checkmate Checkmate'
White flags in hand on all the King's men

Then the winning King raises his hands
Fellows of him cheer, happy and gay
He at last has won this battle
The king of the chessboard

Dineshi Nanayakara, Kandy.

All about myself

My name is Darshika Prasadi Rajapakse. I am seven years old. I live in Anuradhapura. I attend Swarnapali Balika Maha Vidyalaya, Anuradhapura. I am in year 2F. My father's name is Dayaratne. My mother's name is Malini Chandralatha.

My parents are teachers. I am the only child in the family. My favourite subject is English, and I love to eat fruits. My hobbies are reading books and playing with my friends.

When I grow up I hope to be a lawyer.

Darshika Prasadi Rajapakse,
Anuradhapura.

STAMP NEWS 26

The grand pageant in Kandy

By Uncle D.C.R

The Kandy Esala Perahera, the grand- est cultural pageant in Sri Lanka begins this week.

After the harvest, it was customary for ancient people to perform rituals to their tutelary gods in many a shrine throughout the country. Most of these rituals climaxed in a procession carrying the insignia of their god from his shrine and back to it. The grandest of these processions naturally took p1ace in the capital city patronized by the king. This traditional pageant continues to this day in Kandy, the 1ast capital of the Buddhist kings.

The grandeur of the Perahera was captured in a set of four stamps of Rs 4.60 each designed by R B Mawilmada and issued on 11th August l984. It was unique in that the four stamps were a continuous strip visua1ising the entire Perahera.

The first stamp shows the Peramune Rala riding an e1ephant at the head of the Perahera symbolically carrying the documents of the roya1 instructions for the conduct of the festival. He is followed by the Gajanayake Nilame, the Master of the elephant stables 1eading a 1arge train of caparisoned e1ephants surrounded by traditional dancers and drummers as seen in the second stamp.

The most colourful section of the procession is the Dalada Perahera where the casket of the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha is carried on the back of the royal elephant with all pomp and pageantry as seen in the third stamp.The tusker, proud and majestic in appearance walks on the pawada, the white cloth spread for its feet to tread on unsoiled. He is flanked by two tuskers carrying attendants who bless the casket with showers of fragrant jasmine. Dancers precede the Maligawa tusker.

Then the Diyawadana Nilame, the lay custodian of the Tooth Relic, (the diva nilame - the one who holds on the king's behalf the country's most sacred possession which endows the sovereign with the right to rule) seen in the last stamp, marches dressed in his traditional garb. He is attended by mura-ayudha, guard weapons, sesath, omamental umbrellas and talipot leaves bearers in the company of the chiefs of the ten villages.

In the procession are also carried the insignia of the four guardian gods of the city - Natha, Vishnu, Skanda and Pattini. Each procession of a god is followed by the custodian of the shrine, the Basnayake Nilame.

Through the eyes of a child

By Ayesha R. Rafiq

Half finished paintings were strewn everywhere, and the tables and floors were covered in dabs of paint. There were bright watercolours, black and white pen and inks, and colourful crayon paintings on the walls, the tables, and even on the floor. The shelves were lined with clay figures - it was hard to tell exactly what they were, except the product of some lively imaginations.

"I don't teach children how to paint," would sound paradoxical coming from an art teacher, but that is exactly what Noeline Fernando told me. She likes her students to develop their own style, as she says you can tell a lot about children by the way they paint, and the variety of paintings and colours lying around did seem to be proof of this. 'Although sometimes I tell them what to paint, they usually paint whatever they like."

But her students don't only paint. They do papier-mache, they work with clay, anything that will help them to become more creative. "One day I walked in and the children had smashed some clay into smithereens, and that was their lesson for the day. That's why they like to come here, it's so different from the normal school routine," one of the parents pointed out.

Four of Noeline's 'most outstanding students' will hold 'An Exhibition of Children's Paintings,' at the Art Gallery from July 31 to August 2. The proceeds from the sale of the paintings will go to PEACE, (Protecting Environment And Children Everywhere). The children, Ranga Fernando, Druvinka Moraes, Minna Ahamed and Minusha (Minu) Wickremasinghe, all started painting when they were around four and are now between the six to eleven age group. 'I have invited one other girl, nine-year-old Judith Jayasinghe to contribute as well, because she is so talented," Noeline said.

By what a child draws, you can tell if they have 'an inner desire to learn,' and then nurture them," she said. Ranga, a six-year old student of St. Thomas' College started painting when he was just four years old. "I like drawing crocodiles and dinosaurs," he says, so quietly you can hardly hear him. His favourite dinosaur is the Tyrannosaurus Rex. He loves drawing wild life and gets his ideas by watching movies. "Once I even drew the 'gorilla' in Lion King." About 40 of the paintings in the exhibitions are his, he says. Ranga likes using red, black and white, colours.

Eleven-year-old Minu's favourite colours to paint with are blue and purple. Having started painting at Noeline's art classes when she was around five, she says about 30 of her paintings will be in the exhibition. "I like to paint people," she said shyly. "I like Miss's art classes because I can draw whatever I like. In school they give me dumb things to draw, like children flying kites, and it's boring." Minu also likes to paint T-shirts, "but only my own."

Minna Ahamed's paintings are bright and colourful, seemingly in total contrast with her quiet personality. But, "Minna is a very strong person inside, and nowhere is this more apparent than in her paintings" says Noeline. "My favourite colour is dark blue," she says. Nine-year-old Minna, a student of Gateway International, has a rather unusual style of painting. She decides what to paint as she goes along, she says, not before. She likes badminton and swimming too, but says she would choose painting as her first love any day.

Noeline teaches art at St. Bridget's Convent primary school. She also teaches part time at the Chitra Lane 'School for the Special Child.' "It's truly amazing how talented these children are, if only they had the resources to further this. She started painting seriously at the Melbourne Art School under the guidance of Cora Abraham, who she says was, 'just fantastic,' and ever since she finished studying there, Noeline has been teaching art to children for the past 20 years.

She also used to teach at the SOS Children's Village in Piliyandala. In fact, one of the girls who now works with her is an orphan who used to live there and whom she used to teach art to. Once she had to leave the Village, 18-year-old Nishanthi Ranawaka had said she didn't want to work anywhere else but with " Miss Noeline."

She likes the children to start off with crayons, but says they don't listen to her and prefer mostly to use acrylic as it is so bright. But once they are around seven years old, and become a little more serious I encourage them to use watercolours and other mediums, as these give the painting a better quality," Noeline said.

Druvinka Moraes is seven years old and a student of St. Bridget's Convent. Noeline fondly refers to her as 'an independent devil,' and says her painting reflects her personality perfectly. Hearing this she immediately started dipping her brush in different coloured paints, and shaking it over a piece of paper, some of which she managed to splatter on her white T-shirt. She uses bright colours, and her favourite colours are pink and blue. "I like to paint people, because they're easy," she volunteered. She says she prefers to "look at pictures and draw," and usually brings pictures to her art classes so that she can try and reproduce them.

Most of the children like to paint people. This is because people are what they see around them all the time, and because they are so young, they are influenced by this and try to show it in their paintings, Noeline explained.

The names of the paintings range from anything like 'Fashionable Ladies' to 'Fish.' The children, parents and Noeline herself, chip in to name them. 'Here, everyone participates in everything, and everyone helps everyone else.' That is the only reason why, Noeline says, they have been able to put together the forthcoming exhibition, which is a tribute to the children's efforts and their vivid imaginations.

Spiders and Scorpions

Spiders and Scorpions are probably the best-known members of the class Arachnida. There are about 30,000 species of spiders and 700 species of scorpions.

One of the most interesting habits of spiders is their ability to trap their prey with webs. The silk they produce to construct their webs is extremely fine and has been used to mark lines on optical equipment. The large cobwebs that we find in buildings have been produced by the long-legged house spiders of the genus Tegenaria, whilst the beautiful orb-webs that glisten with dew or frost in the autumn sunshine are made by members of the family Araneidae, of which the common garden spider Araneus diadematus is the most familiar in the British Isles. The spiders that spin silk primarily for lining their retreats, like the trap-door spiders, or for weaving their egg cocoons, like the wolfspiders, are considered to be more primitive than the orb-weavers. Spider silk helps to disperse the young of some species. The young spider (or spiderling) will climb onto a suitable exposed point, such as a fence-post or a branch, and release its silk from its spinnerets which are situated at the posterior of the abdomen. When the line of silk is long enough the spider will release its hold and float off to a new area.

Predators

Spiders are preyed upon by other animals, including other spiders. The pirate spiders of the family Mimetidae attack orb-weavers in their webs and, after biting them, suck them dry. Several families of wasps hunt spiders. Social wasps and digger wasps often kill spiders to feed to their larvae, or grubs, whilst some ichneumon wasps lay their eggs on the back of a spider after paralyzing the victim with their sting. Insectivorous mammals eat a large number of spiders and many of the smaller birds feed spiders to their nestlings.

Water spiders

At least one spider, Argyroneta aquatica, the water spider, has adapted itself to live in water. It constructs a silken dome-shaped home amongst submerged water plants. The spider captures a bubble of air at the surface and holds it close to the abdomen by the last pair of legs whilst it swims down to its home. The bubble is released and floats up into the dome, displacing some of the water.

The fisher spider of North America is covered with tiny hairs which trap enough air to allow the spider to stay submerged for 45 minutes.

Scorpions

Scorpions are far less abundant than spiders and live mainly in hot tropical countries, although several small species are found in southern Europe. Scorpions feed at night on insects and spiders which are themselves nocturnal.

Their prey is caught with the strong pincers and is then stung. Scorpions sting in self-defence, but most stings are not serious to man. However, dangerous species do occur in North Africa, South America and Mexico, and the stings of a number of other species cause considerable pain.

Habitat

Some scorpions live in damp places and are found in tropical forests, whilst others are inhabitants of dry desert areas. Apart from man, who has since ancient times maligned scorpions on account of their poison, they have many other enemies. In the tropical rain forests of Africa and America they have been one of the many kinds of animals overrun by columns of marauding driver ants. Several centipedes, spiders, lizards, snakes and birds are recorded as predators, and African baboons have been observed catching large scorpions and tearing off their tails before greedily devouring the rest of the body.

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