ascetic who was his abettor, in the same manner as in the Sinhalese story.

Although the Roḍiyās are not often present at the services at the Buddhist temples, they go to them occasionally, not, however, being permitted to enter the temple enclosure, but standing outside it. There they can hear the reading of the sacred books (baṇa), and perhaps in this manner they have learnt the story of the Boars. I have not met with it as a folk-tale elsewhere. The reference to the tunnel connecting the two pits shows that it has independent features. This tunnel alone explains the excavation of the two pits, one to jump into and the other to escape by.

No. 72

The Grateful Jackal

N a certain village there was a boy who looked after

cattle. One day, in the morning having taken the cattle [to graze], as they were going to water, that boy, when a python seizing a Jackal was going to eat it, went and beat the python, saying, "Ane! This python is going to eat the Jackal, isn't it?"

Then the python having let the Jackal go seized the boy. So the boy cried out, “Anḍā! Anḍā! O my father! The python has seized me!" he cried.

Then the Jackal having come running, when he looked [saw that] the python had caught the boy, and thinking "Aḍā! Because of me this one seized the boy," the Jackal looking and looking backwards, ran off [to fetch assistance]. After he had looked [to see] if there was any one, there was no one. The Jackal heard several people in the distance. The Jackal went running there. When he was going near the men, the men said, "A mad Jackal has come," they said.

Then again the Jackal came running to the place where the python was. Again he came running to the place where the men were. Having come [there], after the Jackal looked [he saw that] the clothes of men who were bathing were under a tree. The Jackal having gone to the place where the clothes were, taking a waist cloth in his mouth ran off. Having run off, and having put down the cloth at the place where the python, holding the boy, was staying, the Jackal ran into the jungle.

Then those men having seen that the Jackal which had taken the cloth in its mouth was running away, saying,

'Aḍā! The mad Jackal taking our cloth in its mouth is running away," followed the Jackal. When they looked, having seen that the python had seized the boy, they said, Aḍā! The python has caught such and such a one's boy and encircled him."

Then those men who were ploughing and ploughing having all come running, and having beaten and thrown down the python, saved the boy. [Afterwards] those men asked at the hand of the boy, "What did the python seize thee for ? "

Then the boy said, "As I was coming the python had seized the Jackal, and I was sorry. At that time I tried to save the Jackal, and that one having let the Jackal go, seized me."

Rodiya. North-western Province.

A

STORIES OF THE KINNARĀS

No. 73

Concerning a Monk and a Yakā

MONK, tying a Yakā [by magical spells] gets work from him. For seven years he got work. Then the time having come for the Yakā to go, the Yakā every day having gone near the monk says, "Monk, tell me a work [to do]."

The monk said one day, “In Galgamuwa tank there will be seven islands. Having gone there and planed them down, come back." After that, the Yakā having gone and planed the tank, and having very quickly come, said at the hand of the monk, "Monk, tell me a work."

Then the monk said, " Having cut a well of seven fathoms, and having cut a Damunu 1 tree, and removed the splinters, and put it down to the bottom of a well, and tied a creeper noose to the Damunu stick, you are to draw it up [from inside the well] to the ground."

Afterwards the Yakā having cut a well of seven fathoms, and cut a Damunu tree, and removed the bark from it, and tied a creeper noose to it, and put the Damunu stick to the bottom of the well, the Yaka sitting on the ground holding the creeper noose tried to draw it out. He could not draw there was slime on

it. When he was drawing it, because
the Damunu stick he was unable to draw it out.

On account of the time during which the Yakā had been delayed near the well, the monk being afraid of the Yakā, the monk went backwards and backwards for three gawwas (twelve miles). The Yaka having pushed against the monk for 1 Grewia tiliaefolia (?).

so much time, and having got a bill-hook also, on the road he drove him (the monk) away. Having gone there [afterwards] to kill the monk, he met with the monk. After that, the Yakā threw the bill-hook, so that having cut the monk with it he would die. After he had thrown it, the bill-hook was behind,1 and the monk was in front [of it]. On account of that, the name [of the place] there became Kaettāēpahuwa [a village twenty-one miles from Kurunāēgala, on the road to Anuradhapura].

Kinnarā. North-western Province.

This story is known throughout the district to the north of Kurunāēgala. The explanation of the Damunu tiee incident which was given to me is that the monk, being unable to find enough work for the Yakā, gave him this task as one that would provide occupation for him for a long time. When the bark is freshly removed, the Damunu sticks are extremely slippery. The creeper was tied at one end in a ring which was passed over the smooth stem of the tree. When the Yaka endeavoured to raise the tree by pulling at the creeper, the ring slipped up the stem instead of raising the tree.

Elsewhere in the same district I heard of another man, a villager, who had mastered a Yaksanī (female Yakā), and who made her perform work for him. In appearance she was an ordinary female, and the man's wife was unaware of her true character, as he had not informed her of it, being afraid of alarming her. The man kept the Yaksani under control by means of a magic iron nail, which he had driven in the crown of her head. One day during his absence she went to her mistress, and told her that a thorn had run into her head while she was carrying firewood on it, and that she was unable to draw it out. The woman extracted the nail for her, and the Yaksani, being then free, killed the family, and escaped.

In Folk-Lore of Southern India (Naṭēša Sāstri), p. 272-Tales of the Sun, p. 285-there is a story of a landowner who learnt an incantation by means of which he summoned a Brahma-Rākshasa, who became his servant, at the same time informing him that if he failed to provide work the Rākshasa would kill him. Everything

1 Kaetta pahuwunā.