OR YAKSEYO. 



25 



wishing to ruin her, told the king that she was unfaithful to his bed. 

 On this, the injured king ordered her to be put to death. Her 

 body was to be cut into two pieces, of which one was to be hung 

 upon an Ukberiya tree, and the other to be thrown at its foot to 

 be devoured by dogs. When the queen heard of this, she was 

 enraged beyond measure, because she knew that she was wholly 

 innocent. So she said, 4 if this charge be false, may the child in 

 my womb be born this instant a demon, and may that demon de- 

 stroy the whole of this city with its unjust king.' jN'o t oner had 

 the king's executioners done as they were ordered, than the half of 

 the corpse, which was suspended on the tree, falling down on the 

 ground, united itself to the other half which was at the foot of the 

 tree; and the same instant the corpse gave birth to a demon, who 

 first sucked his mother's breasts, then sucked her blood, and lastly 

 devoured her, flesh and bones. He then went to the Sohon grave- 

 yards in the vicinity, and there lived upon the carcasses. After- 

 wards repairing to the city and inflicting a mortal disease on the 

 king, he began with several other demons, who now formed his 

 retinue, to devour the citizens, and in a short time nearly depopu- 

 lated the city. The gods Iswara and Sekkra, seeing the ferocity 

 of this new demon, came down to the city, disguised as mendicants, 

 and after some little resistance on the part of the demon, they sub- 

 dued him; on which occasion they ordered him to abstain from 

 eating men, but gave him Wurrun or permission to inflict disease on 

 mankind, and to obtain offerings from them. According to some 



is often an irresistible one. Sometimes it happens to be a very unreasonable 

 one too. We know a woman still living, who, when in this interesting condition 

 about 15 or 20 years ago, expressed a strong wish to eat the head of a little child , 

 and her husband was able to moderate her cannibal propensity, only by substi- 

 tuting the heads of fishes and other animals for that of a child. The husband 

 and all her relatives and neighbours suspected that such a desire could not but 

 be a prelude to the birth of a demon, and accordingly awaited the event with 

 much anxiety and curiosity. Happily, however, the child did not happen to have 

 long teeth or long hair, and so had the good fortune to escape the fate which it 

 would have otherwise met with. 



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