OR YAKSETO. 



23 



since been known as Maha Sohona in reference to his habits of 

 haunting graveyards;"* In those demon ceremonies, which are 

 performed to obtain the release of a sick man from the influence of 

 I'.Iaha Sohona, a certain spell or charm called Gota Imbra Dcehcenay 

 is made use of by the Cattadiya. In this charm the particulars of 

 this event are narrated at length, and the demon is threatened with 

 further vengeance from his late conqueror, if he does not afford 

 immediate relief to th e sufferer. Maha Sohona is the chief of 30,000 

 demons. He also shews himself to men in various disguises or 

 apparitions when he moves about, and on each occasion rides on a 

 particular animal. In one of these apparitions he rides on a goat, 

 and is called Lay Soltona or Blood Demon of the graveyard; 

 in another he rides on a deer, and is named Amu Sohona or the 

 graveyard Demon of fresh corpses ; in a third he rides on a horse, 

 and is called Jaya Sohona, or the Victorious demon of the grave- 

 yard; in a fourth he rides on a sheep, and is called Marti Sohona 

 or the graveyard ' demon of death ; in a fifth he rides on an ele- 

 phant, and is called Golu Schono or the Dumb demon of the 

 graveyard ; In his own proper person as Maha Sohona he rides 

 on a gigantic hog. 



* The graveyards of ancient times in Southern Asia, and especially in 

 Ceylon, were not what we commonly understand by that term now. Excepting 

 the Buddhist priests and the aristocrats of the land, whose bodies were burnt 

 in regular funeral piles after death, the corpses of the rest of the people were 

 neither burned nor buried, but thrown into a place called Fohova, which was 

 an open piece of ground in the jungle, generally a hollow among the hills, at the 

 distance of 3 or 4 miles from any inhabited place, where the corpses were left 

 in the open air to be decomposed, or devoured by dogs and wild beasts. This 

 practice appears to have prevailed in the Island to a comparatively recent period, 

 and in the most secluded and least civilized of the inland districts till about the 

 beginning of this century. Although regular cemeteries are mentioned in the 

 Maha Wanso in connection with Anuradhapura, especially during the reign of 

 the Wijeyan dynasty, they do not appear to have been very general either at 

 that time or at any subsequent period. Maha Sohona and other demons not 

 having now these (Saltan) congenial places for demoniac conviviality, are obliged 

 to be content with the ordinary graves and graveyards of these days. 



