14 



THE DEMONS 



throat, driving sharp nails into the crown of the head, and a variety 

 of other punishments, numbering 32 in all, distinguish his penal 

 I code. He has viceroys, ministers, and other officers necessary for 

 the proper administration of his government. Between His Ma- 

 jesty and the mass of his subjects, there is a series of chiefs in regular 

 gradation to each other, each of whom within his own allotted 

 sphere of action exercises almost an unlimited amount of power. 

 He exacts from all his subjects a degree of servile obedience to his 

 will, which not the most despotic of earthly sovereigns ever pre- 

 tended to claim ; and the mere mention of his name is sufficient 

 to make any of his subjects tremble with fear. His subjects spend 

 their time almost always in amusing diversions of various kinds. 

 Many of them at one time were so little under his rule that they 

 openly attacked men, and either devoured them alive bones and all, 

 or sucked their blood. Every Saturday and Wednesday, all the 

 respectable demons attend a sort of pandemonium called Yaksa 

 Sabawa, where each chieftain gives an account of the conduct of 

 those under him to the principal chiefs; after which, they all engage 

 in dancing, singing, playing on musical instruments, and in the 

 display of exploits of skill and dexterity. 



Demons are of two classes, those approaching to the nature of gods, 

 wise, powerful, and not merciless, living in the upper regions of 

 the sky, in magnificent palaces decorated with gold, silver, and 

 precious stones, enjoying an amount of happiness little inferior to 

 that of the gods themselves, and sometimes called dewatawas; and 

 those, who with wild, savage, gross, beastly natures, pass their time 

 near the surface of the earth, revelling in scenes of blood and misery, 

 bringing disease and death on men, and receiving offerings of rice, 

 meat, and blood, in return. The former class of demons are those 

 mentioned in the Pali works, and do not belong to Demon-worship, 

 hut the latter, being those who are supposed to afflict men, are the 

 objects of dread and of worship among the Singhalese.* These 



* That none of the demons mentioned in the Buddhistical wrings should 

 be found to be objects of worship among the Singhalese, and that Demonism 



