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       “DEVIL-DANCING” – By Des Kelly   This was what it was called in the Ceylon I remember. If someone got very ill, especially mentally, the Devil Dancers would be called on to perform their rituals in order to rid the devils out of the patient.This devil dancing would be carried out overnight, normally featuring two or three people, and it was a “Buddy Rich, eat your heart out” situation, when these drummers from Lanka started to do their thing. This, together with the dancing & chanting would, under normal conditions, make any devil want to get the hell out of there (pardon the pun), and, even for total disbelievers like myself, I once watched one of these rituals, and, at the given time of midnight, noticed the branches of a nearby coconut tree shudder and shake violently, as the devil made his exit, hopefully to drink a thambili ...