The two having gone and looked, and seen that the watch-hut had been burnt, spoke together concerning it: “Both these men have been burnt and died. Let us go back to the village.” So they returned.
Nagul-Munnā, who sprang into the jungle that night, having come home during the night of the following day, spoke to his wife, who was in the house. The woman, thinking that he had died, was frightened at his speech, and cried out, “Nagul-Munnā has been born as a Yakā, and having come here is doing something to me.” At that cry the men of the village came running; when they looked he was not there, having run off through fear of being seized.
In that manner he came on two days. The woman, being afraid, did not open the door. On the third day he arose, and hid himself at the tank near the village. While he was there, a tom-tom beater having gone to a devil-dance,[1] came bringing a bit of cooked rice, and a box containing his mask and decorations.[2]
As he was coming along bringing them, this Nagul-Munnā having seen him, went and beat the tom-tom beater, and taking the bit of cooked rice and the box of devil-dancer’s things, bounded into the jungle. Having sprung into the jungle, and eaten the bit of rice, he unfastened the box of devil-dancer’s goods, and taking the things in it, dressed himself in them, putting the jingling bracelets[3] on his arms and the jingling anklets[4] on his legs.
There was a large mask in it. Taking it, and tying it on his face, he went to the village when it became night, and having gone to a house there, broke the neck of a calf that was tied near it, and sprang into the rice-field near by. Having made a noise by shaking the jingling bracelets, and given three cries, “Hū, Hū, Hū,” he shouted, “If you do not give a leaf-cup of rice and a young coconut at dawn, and at night a leaf-cup of rice and a young coconut, I will kill all the cattle and men that are in your village, and having drunk their blood, go away.”
The men of the village becoming afraid on account of it, began to give rice every day in the way he said. Having given it for about four or five years in this manner, the men spoke together, “Let us fetch a sooth-sayer to seize that Yakā.” After having said concerning it, “It is good,” they fetched a doctor (Vedā).
When the doctor went to the tank to catch that Yakā, Nagul-Munnā came, and seizing that doctor, cut his bathing cloth, and having taken him to the place where he was staying, killed him, and trampled on his bathing cloth. Through the seizing and killing of the doctor, the men of the village became afraid to a still greater degree.
After that, having talked about bringing another sooth-sayer they fetched one. In the same manner, when he went to the tank the Yakā killed the sooth-sayer. At that deed the men of the village became more afraid still.
Having fetched a Sannyāsi (a Hindu religious mendicant) from Jaffna, they went to him, and told him to seize the Yakā. That man said, “It is good”; and having gone to the aforesaid tank to look for him, the Yakā was in a tree. So the sooth-sayer repeated incantations to cause the Yakā to descend. The Yakā did not descend.
After that, because he did not descend, that person got to know that he was a man, and on his calling “Hū,” to the men of the village the men came. Afterwards, seizing Nagul-Munnā, who was in the tree, they went to the village.