The youth says, "I came with my elder brother." Then the Rakshasa
ate him.
After that, that youth who is on the top of the rock says to his
younger brother, "Younger brother, hold out your hands; I will jump."
Having said, "Ha, jump," this Rakshasa opened his mouth. Then the
youth jumped into his mouth. He having jumped into his mouth the
Rakshasa ate him.
Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.
This rambling story was related by a boy who supplied me with several
other better ones. I have inserted it because it is the only one which
mentions the deity of the Rakshasas, Midum Amma, the Mist Mother. The
rest of the story gives a fair representation of some of the notions
of the villagers regarding the Rakshasas.
Their own statements to me regarding them are that the Rakshasas
were found chiefly or only in the jungle called himale, the wild and
little-frequented mixture of high forest and undergrowth. There are
none in Ceylon now, they say; but in former times they are believed
to have lived in the forest about some hills near this village of
Tom-tom Beaters, at the north-western end of the Dolukanda hills,
in the Kurunaegala district.
Those at each place have a boundary (kada-ima), beyond which they
cannot pass without invitation; this is referred to in the story
No. 135. Ordinarily, they can only seize people who go within their
boundary, unless they have been invited to enter houses or persons
have been specially placed in their power.
They are much larger than men, but can take any shape. Their teeth
are very long, and are curved like bangles; they are as thick as a
boy's arm. Their tangled hair hangs down over their bodies.
They build good houses, and have an abundance of things in them,
as well as silver and gold. They commonly rear only horses and
parrots. They live on the men and animals they catch. Men are very
much afraid when they see them; they seize anyone they can catch,
and eat him,--or any animals whatever.
Yakas (Yaksayo) do not usually eat men; they only frighten
them. Rakshasas are much worse and more powerful than Yakas.
Other notions of the villagers regarding these two classes of
supernatural beings may be gathered from their folk-tales.
In Tales of the Punjab (Mrs. F. A. Steel), p. 135, a Rakshasa is
represented as living partly on goats. In the notes, p. 310, Sir
R. Temple remarked that this was curious. It is in accordance with
Sinhalese belief.
In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 602, a Rakshasa
who had seized a man and was about to eat him, allowed him to go
on his taking an oath that he would return, after doing a service
for a Brahmana that he had promised. He got married in the place of
the Brahmana's son, stole off in the night to redeem his promise,
and was followed by his wife, who offered herself to the Rakshasa in
his place. When the Rakshasa said that she could live by alms, and
stated that if anyone refused her alms his head should split into a
hundred pieces, the woman asked him for her husband by way of alms,
and on his refusing to give him the Rakshasa's head split up, and he
died. See also vol. i, p. 141, of these Sinhalese stories.
In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. i, p. 405,
a demon released a King on his promising to return to be eaten.