13 



CHAPTER II. 



The Demons or Yakseyo. 



The Demons or Yakseyo* are a class of beings forming a large 

 community, under a government conducted by a King, and sub- 

 ject to laws enacted by him for their control, any infringement of 

 which is followed by severe punishment. Wessamonny, this dreaded 

 king, whose subjects throng every part of the sky, carries in his 

 hand a sword of gold, of such wondrous power, that, when he is dis- 

 pleased with any of his subjects, it flies out of his hand of its own 

 accord, and, after cutting off the heads of a thousand offenders with 

 the rapidity of lightning, returns to his hand again. His laws are 

 such as become the character of his subjects, — cruel, severe, and 

 merciless, death being the rule, and any lighter penalty the excep- 

 tion in the punishment of any crime — burning, boiling, roasting, 

 broiling, impaling, flaying alive, pouring melted metal down the 



* Sir Emerson Tetment in his Christianity in Ceylon distinguishes Yak- 

 jeyos from Yakkas, and describes the former as a gentle and benevolent race 

 of beings, and the latter as malignant spirits ; whereas, the truth is that both 

 the terms, the former being the Sanscrit, and the latter the Singhalese word, 

 mean the same thing. There are several other names by which these beings 

 are known such as Yakkha ( Pali), and Yaksaya (a Singhalese form of the 

 Sanscrit term). The benevolent and gentle character, attributed by Sir Emer- 

 son, is true only of a portion of those Yakseyo mentioned in the Pali Buddhis- 

 tical Works. But the malignant Yakseyo, who cause disease and suffering 

 among men, are those who are worshipped in Demonism. These latter are not 

 mentioned in the Buddhistical works, and are the indigenous demons of Cey- 

 lon, being creations of the popular fancy, existing in the belief of the Singha- 

 lese from a period perhaps long anterior to the introduction of Buddhism into 

 the Island. 



The Eakseyo are a race of beings, who differ from men only in being canni- 

 bals. They live solely on human flesh, which they obtain, not from graveyards 

 or other places where human carcasses may be had, but by actually seizing and 

 killing living men. They have no supernatural powers whatever like the Yak- 

 seyo. This notion about Rakseyo supports the idea that in the earliest 

 periods of time this Island must have been inhabited by a race of men, who 

 breakfasted on their fellowmen, like the inhabitants of some of the Polynesian 

 Island^. 



