The Rakshasa having become afraid, and having jumped up, when he
was saying, "What, Bola, is this one? I am going to eat this one,"
Three-cubits says, "Come here, thou! To eat thee is insufficient for
me!" he said.
Then the Rakshasa, having been frightened, said, "Who art thou,
Clever One, to eat me?"
"I am the Rakshasa [216]-eating Prakshasa," he said.
The Rakshasa, becoming thoroughly frightened, called out, "Get down,
and come here."
"Thou come here," Three-cubits called out.
"Who art thou?" he asked again.
"It is I indeed, the Rakshasa-eating Prakshasa," he said.
"If so, throw down thy two Jak trees," [217] he said. Then he lifted
up and threw down the two bundles of creepers.
"Throw down thy two tusks," he said. He lifted up and threw down the
two [elephant's] tusks.
"Throw down thy two ears," he said. He lifted up and threw down the
two winnowing trays.
"Show me one eye," he said. Then having put down the tom-tom at the
corner of a plank on which there was plaster he showed him it.
He told him to tap on his belly, and show him it. Then, pressing
one hand on one side (end) of the tom-tom, at the other side (end)
he made a noise, "Bahak, bahak."
Then the Rakshasa having become [more] frightened, standing up holding
the Rakshasi's hand, and looking for the road so as to run off,
told him to cry out.
Then Three-cubits thinks, "When he is running away now, he will run
off taking with him younger sister." Having become afraid of it,
taking a red ants' nest softly to the end of the boards, he broke
and threw down the red ants' nest on the Rakshasa's head. Then the
Rakshasa having let go the hand of the Rakshasi, began to scratch
his head and body in all places.
At that very time having put the other red ants' nest into the two ears
of the ass, the three persons began to prick it with the porcupine
quills. Then when it began to give hundreds of brays (buruwe beri),
the Rakshasa having become thoroughly frightened, said, "I don't want
you below"; and having abandoned even the Rakshasi, crying "Hu,"
and breaking through the fence also and upsetting the village, on
account of the noise of the ass and the cunning of the three persons
and the power of the red ants, he ran away.
Then the elder brother, and the younger brothers, the three persons,
taking their younger sister, went to their village.
Kumbukkan, Eastern Province.
In a variant (a) of the North-western Province the persons were a youth
termed One-span (Ek-wiyata), his two elder brothers, and his elder
and younger sisters. A quarrel having arisen among them, One-span and
his younger sister went off alone. While they were in the midst of a
forest a Rakshasi carried off the girl during her brother's temporary
absence, so he returned home, informed the others, and he and his two
brothers set off in search of her. The elder sister having been angry
with him, gave One-span some cold boiled rice to take with him, and
to the others warm rice. When the two opened their bag of warm rice
they heard worms or grubs (panuwo) that were in it making a sound,
"Mini, mini," as they gnawed at it, so they begged their brother to
share his cold rice with them. He did so, and afterwards when they
objected to take and carry along with them a coconut tree, a palmira
tree, an elephant calf (aet-wassek), and two or three large black
ants (kadiyo), on each occasion he demanded the return of the rice
and curry they had eaten. They found their younger sister at "a very
large tiled house," and she hid them and the young elephant and the
other things in the loft. The Rakshasi returned, said, "There is a
smell of fresh human flesh," and afterwards was frightened as in the
story given above, and ran away.
If the names in this tale and variant indicate the heights of the
persons, as appears probable, this is the only instance in which
dwarfs are mentioned in the Sinhalese folk-tales that I have collected.
In the Saddharma Pundarika (Kern, S.B.E., vol. xxi, p. 83), mention
is made of a form of dwarf demons, "malign urchins, some of them
measuring one span, others one cubit or two cubits, all nimble in
their movements."
In Tales of the Punjab (Mrs. Steel), p. 3 (Wide-Awake Stories, p. 7),
there is an account of a dwarf who was only one cubit high; he had
magical powers. In Sagas from the Far East, p. 39, a demoness in the
form of a woman one span high is mentioned (see p. 171). In Folklore
of the Santal Parganas (Rev. Dr. Bodding), p. 189, there is an account
of a man who was only a span high.
In the last mentioned work, p. 81, two men who were in a tree
frightened a Raja and his attendants by dropping a tiger's paunch
and beating a drum out of which flew a number of bees that they
had placed in it. These attacked and drove away the people below,
and the men got their goods.
In The Indian Antiquary, vol. xiv, p. 135 (Folklore in Southern India,
p. 116), in a Tamil story by Pandit Natesa Sastri, a tiger which knew
magic took the form of a youth, married a girl who went off with
him, and had a son who was a tiger. The girl sent a message to her
three brothers, and they went to rescue her, taking an ass, an ant,
a palmira tree, and a washerman's iron tub that they found. They were
put in the loft by her. When the tiger told them to speak, one put
the ant in the ear of the ass, to make it bray. He then told them to
show him their legs and bellies; they held out the palmira tree and
the tub, on seeing which he ran off, and they escaped with her.
In Old Deccan Days (M. Frere), p. 229, a blind man and a deaf man
when going for a walk found and took with them a washerman's ass,
and the large pot in which he boiled clothes, and also put some
large black ants into a snuff-box. They took shelter from a storm in
the house of a Rakshasa, and fastened the door. When the ogre tried
to enter, saying "I'm a Rakshas," the blind man replied, "Well, if
you're Rakshas I'm Bakshas, and Bakshas is as good as Rakshas." The
Rakshasa asked to see his face and was shown the donkey's; he asked
to see his head and was shown the pot; he told him to scream, and the
ants were put in the ears of the ass, the braying of which frightened
the Rakshasa away. When they went off next day with his treasure,
he came with six friends to kill them. They climbed up a tree (as
in the next variant), the ogres stood on each other's shoulders to
reach them, the blind man lost his balance, fell on the uppermost one,
and all tumbled down together. When the deaf man shouted, "Well done;
hold on tight, I'm coming to help you," all the Rakshasas ran away.