OR YAKSEYO. 



27 



& horse. He lias six different apparitions; in the first he is called 

 Cala Oddisey, or demon of incurable diseases; in the second 

 Naga Oddisey, or demon of serpents; in the third Cumara 

 Oddisey, or demon prince; in the fourth Demala Oddisey, or 

 Tamil demon; in the fifth Gopolu Oddisey, or demon of Cattle; 

 and in the sixth Raja Oddisey, or Royal demon* He is the 

 principal demon that has much to do in that department of sorcery 

 called Hooniyan.* 



V. Caltt Yakseya, or the Black Demon, is so named on ac- 

 count of the extremely black colour of his skin. He appears in 

 four different apparitions; in the first he is called Calu Curumhera, 

 or the blackest one; in the second, Rata Calu Yakseya, or the 

 joreign black demon; in the third, Dewol Bagey Calu Yakseya, 

 or the Black demon of the Dewol gods; and in the fourth Siddhi 

 Calu Yakseya, or the Illustrious black demon. He was generated 

 from the ashes of the burnt corpse of Basma, an Asura.f Another 

 account makes him a son of king Wijeyo by Cuveni. A third 

 account says that he is the spirit of a famous giant named Neela 

 Maha Yodaya, who formed one of the bodyguard of king Gaja 

 Baku (113 A. D.) He once accompanied the king on a visit to a 

 country called Istreepura, which was inhabited only by females (a 

 race of Amazons), all of whom on seeing him fell in love with him. 

 Hundreds of them seizing him at once, each claiming him as her 

 own, and pulling him this way and that way, he was torn to 

 pieces in their grasp. His spirit having assumed the form of a 



* It is not now easy to identify the Sagcdpura mentioned in the text. Many 

 believe it to be the Sagal of King Milinda, who is celebrated for his controversies 

 with Nagesena; but this opinion is hardly tenable, when we consider that the 

 capital of Milinda must have been somewhere in or near Cashmere, and that 

 Messrs. Wilson, Bird, and Masson, consider it to have been situated between 

 the rivers Kavi and Pipasa in the Punjab; while the Sagal of the text is ex- 

 pressly mentioned as being in Maduratta, which is on the opposite side of India. 



f Asuras are a race of beings of enormous size, supposed to reside under the , 

 mythical rock Maha Meru. They are the Titans of Singhalese mythology. 



