Part 1 — The Prince and the Yakā

At that time it became necessary for the King of the city to go to war. After he had gone off to the war, when the King’s son one day had opened the door of the house in which was the man-eating Yakā, and was looking at him, the Yakā fell down, and made obeisance to him, and signifying his misery to the Prince, began to weep. So the Prince, pitying him, told the Yakā to go away. Then the Yakā, saying to the Prince, “It is good. I will assist you, too,” went away.

After he had left, when the Prince had gone home the King who had gone to the war returned, having conquered. When he looked at the room in which the Yakā had been, the door was open. The King asked who had opened the door. The Queen replied that the Prince opened it. Then the King said, “To-morrow I must behead that wicked Prince.”

The Queen, being sorry at this, having tied up a packet of cooked rice, and given it and money to the Prince, and having given him a horse and sword, said, “The King has settled to behead you to-morrow for letting the Yakā escape. Go away at night to any country you like.”

So the Prince, taking the money and the bundle of cooked rice, and the sword, mounted the horse, and set off to go to another country. There was a travellers’ shed at the road along which he was going. As he was unable to go further on account of weariness, he went that night to the travellers’ shed; and having fastened the horse to one of the posts of the shed, he lay down, placing the bundle of rice at his side.

Then seeing a youth running along the road, he called him, and asked, “Boy, where art thou going?”

The boy said, “I am going to a place where they give to eat and to wear.”

Then the Prince said, “I will give you pay. Stop and look after my horse.”

The youth said, “It is good. I will stay.”

The Prince said, “I do not know the fords in this country; therefore tell me of a path by which we can go to another country.”

The youth replied, “There is a river here. On the other side of it there is a city, to go to which there is not a short road from here. However, there is another road further on. By it we must pass over a bridge.”

“If so,” said the Prince, “having bathed here let us go.”

Having seen that three Princesses who were at the city on the other side were bathing, he also was pleased at bathing there. After he had gone to bathe, the three Princesses of the King of the country on the other side, when they looked saw the good figure of this Prince.

After that, as the Prince wished to go after bathing, the youth who was to look after the horse having mounted it, began to ride away, wearing the Prince’s clothes, and taking the sword.

When the Prince, having bathed, and seen the Princesses on the other bank putting on their clothes, came ashore to put on his clothes, on his looking for them there were no clothes, no sword, no horse. The youngest Princess of the three who had bathed on the other side well knew what had happened.

This Prince, having on only his bathing cloth, bounded off, and while running along overtook the horse and youth. When he was still far away, the youth said, “Do not come near me; should you come I will cut you with the sword. If you are willing to look after this horse, take hold of its tail and come.”

Then because that one in any case must go to the city, he said, “It is good,” and having taken hold of the horse’s tail went with him. Going thus from there, they arrived at the city.

It was a custom of the King of that country that, having sent a guard, when any one of the men of another country arrived, he was to write the names of those persons, and come to the King. When these persons arrived, a guard being there asked their names. The youth who came on the horse said, “My name is Mānikka Seṭṭiyā; except the youth who looks after my horse, there is no one else with me.”

The guard having gone, said to the King, “Lord, a person called Mānikka Seṭṭiyārē has come and is there, together with a horse-keeper.”

Then the King thought, “Because the man called Mānikka Seṭṭiyārē has this name, Mānikka, he will be able to value my gem” (mānikya). A gem of the King’s having been taken through the whole country, no one had been able to value it.

So having summoned that Mānikka Seṭṭiyārē, the King, after giving him food and drink, showed him it, and said, “Mānikka Seṭṭiyārē, there is my gem. Can you value it?”

That Mānikka Seṭṭiyārē replied, “My horse-keeper will tell you the value.”

The King became angry because he said, “My horse-keeper will tell you it,” and indignantly caused the horse-keeper to be brought speedily, and asked, “Can you value this?” The horse-keeper Prince said, “If I try hard I can.” Then the King gave it into his hands.

Taking it and weighing it, and learning when he looked at it that there was sand inside the gem, he said, “As it now appears to me, the value of this gem is four sallis” (half-farthings).

The King becoming angry asked, “How do you know?”

The Prince replied, “There is sand inside this gem.”

Then the King asked, “Can you cut it, and show me it?”

The horse-keeper said, “If you will ask for the sword belonging to that Mānikka Seṭṭiyārē, I will cut it and show you it.”

After that, the King gave him the sword that was in the hand of the Seṭṭiyārē. Then the horse-keeper, taking the sword, and remembering the name of his father the King, and thinking, “By the favour of the Gods, if it be appointed that it will happen to me to exercise sovereignty over this city, I must cut this gem like cutting a Kaekiri fruit,” put the gem on the table, and cut it with the sword. Then the sand that was in the gem fell out, making a sound, “Sara sara.”

Afterwards the King, thinking, “When this horse-keeper knows so much, how much doesn’t this Seṭṭirāla know!” having given food and drink to the horse-keeper, and also to the Seṭṭiyārē, and having greatly assisted them, made them stay there a little time.

The youngest Princess well knew the wicked things that this Seṭṭiyārē was saying about the horse-keeper youth. On account of her great sorrow concerning this horse-keeper, the Princess instructed the butler who gave the food at the royal house: “Give the horse-keeper who accompanied that Mānikka Seṭṭiyārē, food like that you prepare for me, and a bed for sleeping on, and assist him a little.”

After that, the butler and the rest helped him. The Prince was unwilling to enjoy that pleasure. “Anē! I am a horse-keeper. Do not you assist me in that way,” he said.

The King replied, “Having asked the Seṭṭiyārē we can do it.”

The King having asked the Seṭṭiyārē the thing she told him, “You can do it,” he said; and after he had thus spoken to the Seṭṭiyārē it was done. So the horse-keeper went to look after the sheep. Having gone there, while he was looking after them for a long time, the sheep increased in number by hundreds of thousands.

One day, when the King had gone for hunting sport into the midst of the forest, he was seized there by a Yakā. After being seized, he undertook to give the Yakā the King’s three Princesses, and having escaped by undertaking this charge he came back.

Next day he made a proclamation through the whole city by beat of tom-toms. What was it? “Having been seized yesterday in the forest by a Yakā, I only escaped by promising to give him my three Princesses. To-morrow a Princess, on the day after to-morrow a Princess, on the day after that a Princess; in this manner in three days I am giving the three Princesses. If a person who is able to do it should deliver them, having married that person to them, I will appoint him to the kingdom.”

Then Mānikka Seṭṭiyārē said, “I can do it.”

On that day, that Prince who was looking after the sheep went to look after them. While he was there, a man, taking a sheep, ran off into the chena jungle. While bounding after him in order to recover it, having gone very far, the Prince saw him go down the hole of a polangā snake.

After going near the polangā’s hole, and looking down it, and seeing that the hole descended into the earth, the Prince went along that tunnel. Having gone on from there it became dark, and going on in the darkness he saw a very great light. Having gone to the light, when he looked about there was a man asleep, wearing very many clothes.

Then it was in the mind of this shepherd to go away, and in his mind not to go. If you should say, “Who was sleeping there?” it was the Yakā who had formerly been in that iron house, and had left it. That Yakā at that very time saw in a dream that the Prince who had sent him out of that house had come to him, and was there. While seeing him in the dream, the sleeping Yakā awoke, and when he looked up the Prince was beside him.

The Yakā, getting up from there, went to the Prince, and while he was embracing him the Prince became afraid. Then the Yakā said, “Lord, let not Your Majesty be afraid. The Yakā whom you sent away from that house is I indeed.”

After that, the Prince sat down. Then the Yakā asked, “Where are you going?”

The Prince replied, “That I sent you away, our father the King decreed as a fault in me, and appointed that I should be beheaded. Then our mother, having tied up and given me a bundle of cooked rice, told me to go anywhere I wanted.” Having said this he told him all the matter.

After that, the Yakā brought the lost sheep, and having given it to the Prince, asked, “What more do you want?”

The Prince said, “I want another assistance.”

“What is the assistance?” he asked.

The Prince replied, “After I had remained in this way, the King, the father of the Princess who looks after the sheep, and of two more Princesses, having gone hunting and been caught by a Yakā, is giving the three Princesses to him as demon offerings. If there should be a person who can deliver them, he has made proclamation by beat of tom-toms that having given to him the three Princesses in marriage, he will also give him a part of the kingdom.”

The Yakā said, “It is good. I will bring and give you victory in it. Be good enough to do the thing I tell you. After you have eaten rice in the evening, be good enough to come to this palace.” He then allowed the Prince to return home.

The Prince having eaten his rice in good time, went to the Yakā. After he had gone there, the Yakā having given him a good suit of clothes, and a horse, and a sword, instructed him: “As you go from here there will be a path. Having gone along that path, there will be a great rough tree. Go aside at it, and while you are waiting there the Yakā from afar will make a cry, ‘Hū.’ Having come to the middle of the chena jungle he will say again, ‘Hū, Hū, Hū.’ At the next step, having bounded to the place where the Princess is stopping, he will again say, ‘Hū.’ After he has said this, as he comes close to the Princess you will be good enough to step in front. Then the Yakā, becoming afraid, will look in the direction of your face; then be good enough to cut him down with the sword.”

The Prince having gone in that manner to the tree, when he looked about, Mānikka Seṭṭiyārē having climbed aloft was in a fork of the trunk, lamenting, having turned his back. While he was lamenting he saw this Prince coming, and [thinking it was the Yakā], trembled and lost his senses.

Then, in the very manner foretold, the Yakā came, crying and crying out. As he came near the Princess, the Prince cut him down, and having drawn out and cut off his tongue, and also asked for a ring off the hand of the Princess, came away to the palace of the friendly Yakā. Having arrived there, and placed there the clothes, the horse, and the tongue, all of them, he returned to his house before any one arose.

Mānikka Seṭṭiyārē, having descended in the morning, chopped the Yakā’s body into bits, and smeared the blood on his sword. While he was there, the King went in the morning to see if the Princess was dead or alive. Having arrived there, he saw Mānikka Seṭṭiyārē there looking on, and he returned to the city, taking Mānikka Seṭṭiyārē and the Princess.

On the next night, also, they went and tied another Princess. The Prince that night also having gone there, killed a Yakā who came, and cut off the Yakā’s tongue, and after asking for a jewelled ring came away. That time, also, Mānikka Seṭṭiyārē went there, and after smearing blood on his sword remained there. The King went there in the morning, and calling the two persons came away.

On the following day he did the very same to the other Princess. This Prince, having taken away the three jewelled rings that were on the hands of the three Princesses, and the three tongues of the three Yakās that he had cut off, remained silent.

As Mānikka Seṭṭiyā had come falsely smearing blood on his sword each morning, as though he had killed the Yakās, the King sent letters to all royal personages: “Mānikka Seṭṭiyā has cut down three such powerful Yakās, and has delivered the three Princesses who had been devoted to be given as a demon offering to the Yakā who seized me when I went hunting. Because of that, I am giving the three Princesses to him in marriage. You must come to the festival, and look at the Yakās who have been killed.” After that, the royal persons came from those countries.

While they were there, that Prince went to the palace of the friendly Yakā. The Yakā having given that Prince golden clothes, and a golden crown and necklace, and a golden sword, told him to go, taking those rings and tongues, and mounted on a white horse. The Prince putting on those things, and mounting the white horse, went.

When he went to the palace where the royal persons were who had come to fulfil the object of the occasion, those royal persons became afraid, and having made obeisance to him, asked, “Lord, where is Your Majesty going?”

“ ‘I have cut down a very powerful sort of Yakā.’ Letters went through foreign countries to this effect, and that there is a marriage festival for the person who killed the Yakā. On account of the news I also have come to look,” he said.

After that, those royal persons said, “It is good, Lord,” and with pleasure showed him the heads of the Yakās.

Then this Prince asked, “Is there or is there not a tongue to every living being whatever?”

Every one said, “Yes, there is one.”

The Prince having looked for the tongues in the mouths of the Yakās, asked, “What is this, that there are not tongues for these Yakās?”

After that, every one asked it of Mānikka Seṭṭiyā. Mānikka Seṭṭiyā being afraid, remained without speaking.

Then he asked it of the two eldest Princesses. The two Princesses said, “We do not know.”

At the time when he was asking it of the youngest Princess, she replied, seizing the hand of the Prince who split off the tongues and took the jewelled rings, “This one went away after taking in his hand the ring, and cutting off the tongue of the Yakā.” After that, the Prince brought to light the three rings and the three tongues, and showed them.

Speedily having beheaded and cast out Mānikka Seṭṭiyā, they carried out the wedding festival of the marriage of the three Princesses to the Prince. After that, those royal personages went to their own kingdoms, and the kingdom having been bestowed on this Prince he remained there ruling it.

North-western Province.

In the Jātaka story No. 510 (vol. iv, p. 305), an iron house was built, in which a King’s son was confined for sixteen years in order to preserve him from a female Yakā who had carried off two children born previously. The demon was unable to break into it.

In the Jātaka story No. 513 (vol. v, p. 13), there is an account of a King who was seized by an Ogre while hunting. The latter allowed the King to go home on a promise to come back next day to be eaten. His heroic son returned in his place, but was spared by the Ogre. The Prince said of these beings, “The eyes of Ogres are red, and do not wink. They cast no shadow, and are free from all fear.”