Story 16 - How A Yaka And A Man Fought

IN a certain country three men went shooting,^[1] it is said. At the time when the three persons were going, one man was obliged to go aside for a certain purpose. The man went aside without telling those two men.

A Yaka saw the man separate from those two persons. Having seen it, the Yaka seized the man, and began to push against him. At that time those two men were very distant.

The men having said,

“What has happened to this man ?”

came to look for him. When they came [they saw that] there was a black one near the man. The two persons spoke together,

“Let us shoot this black one.”

So they shot^[1] him. Then the black one went out of the way.

Afterwards the men went to look near at hand. When they went the man had fallen. After that, having taken hold of the man and raised him, when they looked at him the man’s body having gone quite slimy he was unconscious also.

Afterwards, while the two men, raising [and carrying] that man, were [endeavouring] to come away, the Yaka did not allow them to come. He shakes the bushes; he breaks the trees ; he blocked up the path all along. One man of the two men looked upward. Then the Yaka spit into the man’s eye, and the man’s eye became blind.

Well then, the two men having uttered and uttered spells, with pain lifting up [and carrying] that man, came to the village. Having come there, and summoned a Yaksa Vedarala^[2] to restore the man to consciousness, when he arrived they showed him this man. Then the Yaksa Vedarala told them to warm a large pot of water. So they warmed the water. After that, having bathed the man, and having uttered spells, after the Vedarala had tied protective written spells and diagrams ^[3] on him the man became conscious.

After that, the Yaksa Vedarala and those two men asked about the circumstances that had occurred. The man said,

“A Yaka having come, seizing me pressed against me for me to roll over on to the ground. What of that ? I did not fall [on account of it]. After you two fired, indeed, I fell. Then the Yaka bounded off, and went away. Well, I don’t know anything after that. Whether you came and lifted me up, or what, I do not know.”

The man having recovered from that, again the Yaka came, and having possessed the man he began to have the powers conferred by “possession.”^[4] Afterwards that Yaksa Vedarala having come again, and given the Yaka many offerings placed on frames (dola pideni), the Yaka went out of the way. The man remained very well [afterwards].

North-western Province.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The word used indicates the use of guns, and not bows and arrows.

[2]:

A Vedarala (medical practitioner) or another man who knows the spells and magical practices which have power over demons.

[3]:

Araksha baendala.

[4]:

E minihuta waehila, rnayan wenda patangatta.