That youth said, “Father sent me into this chena jungle.”
The Rākshasa says, “Didst thou come alone?”[7]
The youth says, “I came with my elder brother.” Then the Rākshasa ate him.
After that, that youth who is on the top of the rock says to his younger brother, “Younger brother, hold out your hands; I will jump.”
Having said, “Hā, jump,” this Rākshasa opened his mouth. Then the youth jumped into his mouth. He having jumped into his mouth the Rākshasa ate him.
Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.
This rambling story was related by a boy who supplied me with several other better ones. I have inserted it because it is the only one which mentions the deity of the Rākshasas, Mīdum Ammā, the Mist Mother. The rest of the story gives a fair representation of some of the notions of the villagers regarding the Rākshasas.
Their own statements to me regarding them are that the Rākshasas were found chiefly or only in the jungle called himālē, the wild and little-frequented mixture of high forest and undergrowth. There are none in Ceylon now, they say; but in former times they are believed to have lived in the forest about some hills near this village of Tom-tom Beaters, at the north-western end of the Doḷukanda hills, in the Kuruna͞egala district.
Those at each place have a boundary (kaḍa-ima), beyond which they cannot pass without invitation; this is referred to in the story No. 135. Ordinarily, they can only seize people who go within their boundary, unless they have been invited to enter houses or persons have been specially placed in their power.