Old sayings are still heard around the country. One insists that 'Burgher buggers became beggars buying brandy bottles' while a Sinhalese doggeral goes :
Kaapalla, beepalla, jollikarapalla,
Heta marunoth hithata sapai
Ada jollikaralla
Which, in homespun Sinhala means:'Eat,drink and be merry and even if we must die tomorrow, don't let it worry because you're having a good time today.'(Who said Shakespeare had no Sinhalese blood in him ?)
Carl Muller, "The Jam Fruit Tree", Penguin 1993