[1] In these stories the Yakās are always evil spirits or demons. [↑]
No. 16
How a Yakā 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 Yakā saw the man separate from those two persons. Having seen it, the Yakā 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 Yakā 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 Yakā 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 Vedarāla[2] to restore the man to consciousness, when he arrived they showed him this man. Then the Yaksa Vedarāla 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 Vedarāla had tied protective written spells and diagrams[3] on him the man became conscious.