The Jâk and Jâknî.
The really friendly agricultural sprites are the pair known in some places as the Jâk and Jâknî, and in others as Chordeva and Chordevî, the “thief godlings.” With the Jâk we come on another of these curious survivals from the early mythology in a sadly degraded form. As Varuna, the god of the firmament, has been reduced in these later days to Barun, a petty weather godling, so the Jâk is the modern representative of the Yaksha, who in better times was the attendant of Kuvera, the god of wealth, in which duty he was assisted by the Guhyaka. The character of the Yaksha is not very certain. He was called Punya-janas, “the good people,” but he sometimes appears as an imp of evil. In the folk-tales, it must be admitted, the Yakshas have an equivocal reputation. In one story the female, or Yakshinî, bewilders travellers at night, makes horns grow on their foreheads, and finally devours them; in another the Yakshas have, like the Churel, feet turned the wrong way and squinting eyes; in a third they separate the hero from the heroine because he failed to make due offerings to them on his wedding day. On the other hand, in a fourth tale the Yakshinî is described as possessed of heavenly beauty; she appears again when a sacrifice is made in a cemetery to get her into the hero’s power, as a heavenly maiden beautifully adorned, seated in a chariot of gold surrounded by lovely girls; and lastly, a Brâhman meets some Buddhist ascetics, performs the Uposhana vow, and would have become a god, had it not been that a wicked man compelled him by force to take food in the evening, and so he was re-born as a Guhyaka.[222]
In the modern folk-lore of Kashmîr, the Yaksha has turned into the Yech or Yach, a humorous, though powerful, sprite in the shape of a civet cat of a dark colour, with a white cap on his head. This small high cap is one of the marks of the Irish fairies, and the Incubones of Italy wear caps, “the symbols of their hidden, secret natures.” The feet of the Yech are so small as to be almost invisible, and it squeaks in a feline way. It can assume any shape, and if its white cap can be secured, it becomes the servant of the possessor, and the white cap makes him invisible.[223]
In the Vishnu Purâna we read that Vishnu created the Yakshas as beings emaciate with hunger, of hideous aspect, and with big beards, and that from their habit of crying for food they were so named.[224] By the Buddhists they were regarded as benignant spirits. One of them acts as sort of chorus in the Meghadûta or “Cloud Messenger” of Kâlidâsa. Yet we read of the Yaka Alawaka, who, according to the Buddhist legend, used to live in a Banyan tree, and slay any one who approached it; while in Ceylon they are represented as demons whom Buddha destroyed.[225] In later Hinduism they are generally of fair repute, and one of them was appointed by Indra to be the attendant of the Jaina Saint Mahâvîra. It is curious that in Gujarât the term Yaksha is applied to Musalmâns, and in Cutch to a much older race of northern conquerors.[226]
At any rate the modern Jâk and Jâknî, Chordeva and Chordevî, are eminently respectable and kindly sprites. They are, in fact, an obvious survival of the pair of corn spirits which inhabit the standing crop.[227] The Jâk is compelled to live apart from the Jâknî in neighbouring villages, but he is an uxorious husband, and robs his own village to supply the wants of his consort. So, if you see a comparatively barren village, which is next to one more productive, you may be sure that the Jâk lives in the former and the Jâknî in the latter. The same is the character of the Chor or Chordeva and the Chornî or Chordevî of the jungle tribes of Mirzapur.