JOHN AND THE FOREST DEMONS

Once upon a time the Headman of Netiagama(sri lanka) had a son named John,who was as handsome as a prince.
All the village maidens were secretly in love with him,but the elders shook their heads,for he was a wild young man and wasted his time and substance on drinking and gambling.

It happened one moonless night that John was coming home through the forest from a gambling party in a neighbouring village.
He had been unlucky and had lost heavily.His head was dizzy with the fumes of arrack he had drunk.It was pitch dark and there was a gale of wind in the trees.
Suddenly he heard a loud rushing noise behind him and the sound of many voices. It must ba a party of his boon companions following him.He stepped from the pathway and climbed into a tree to avoid them.
They came nearer.He saw the dim shapes leave the pathway where he had left it, and come near the tree into which he had climbed.

They squatted round a huge rock at the foot of the tree.An unearthly light shone on their faces. John saw that they were demons of the forest.
The leader had in his hand a small leather bag.He opened it and poured on the smooth top of the rock a stream of precious stonesopals,rubies and sapphires.
The demons shouted as the leader began to share the treasure among them . JOhn was awestruck, but his curiosity overcame his fear and he leaned from the tree to see more clearly.

He leaned too far.He overbalanced and fell with a frightful cry into the very midst of the demons; and he knew no more.


IT WAS early next morning that mr James, the guardian of the village water courses, entering the forest to collect the pots of sweet toddy from the palm trees, found John lying motionless near the rock.Mr James tried to rouse him but to no purpose, and then he saw the jewels scattered over the rock and the ground, with the leather bag close by.He looked round quickly.
There was no one in sight. He gathered the jewels in the bag, and picking up john in his arms, carried him to his house.


THE STORY of John encounter with the demons was soon on everybodys lips and the whole village was proud of his prowess.It was many weeks before he was himself again, and in the meanwhile it has been settled that he should marry Mr James only child, Menika , and live with her in her fathers house.

John was now a changed man ,no longer drinking and gambling but spending hie time caring for the family coconut and rice fields.
IT was in the year of his marriage at the time of the rice harvest that he went one night to the threshing-floor in the rice fields to keep watch against the thieves.
He lay on the bamboo cot in the watch -hut listening to the noises of the night when suddenly he heard a rustling near the rice heap.He rose and crept quietly forward. He saw someone in the darkness and sprang upon him.As soon as he seized the intruder he knew that it was one of the forest demons and he was afraid.But the demon too remembered John and falling at his feet cried for mercy."Let me go and i promiss to bring you every month a pingo load of rice as a reward", he said.John himself could scarcely utter o word, but the demon again and again called on him to have mercy,and at length he repleid,"so be it;get you gone and beware of stealing again from the granaries of Netiagama(a village in sri lanka)" the demon fled in silence, and thereafter each month he brought a pingo load of rice to Johns house.


NOW ONE DAY in the noontide heat the demon was resting on a bridge on his way to netiagama with the rice when a demon from a distant forest came by and spoke with him and heard his story."But why", said the new-comer,"why should you , a demon of the forest,do service to a mortal man? it is he who should fear and serve us.Wait here and i will go to his house and so deal with him that he shall trouble you no more". SO the second demon went to johns house and as he drew near he saw Menika in the compound husking the rice by pounding it with a heavy iron-shod pestle in a great wooden mortar.There was no one else about but Menika looked so fearsome at her task that the demon crept under the cot on the verandah of the house and lay down among a number of coconuts to wait for john to appear.It was not long before he came and called out loudly for hid mid-day meal.
"CAN YOU NOT WAIT?" shouted Menika."IT IS NOT READY!".If you are hungry perhaps you can find something to eat under the cot".At this the demon trembled!"she saw me hiding here",he thought"and now that husband of hers ,more terrible than she,will doubt drang me forth and eat me alive!". So as John stooped beside the cot to reach for a coconut the demon crawled out begging for mercy."spare me, spare me ",he cried, and i promise to bring you everymonth a pingo load of coconuts as a reward". And so it was agreed.


John was now a man of much substance in netiagama, and the demons of the forest feared him greatly.At length they sought the help of the great goddess pattini, she who dispenses the smallpox the sickness of the golden spots. And when she heard their plea she was wroth,and she sent the sickness upon Johns so sorely that he died.And Menika gave all johns gardens and fields to a found a great new temple at netiagama in honour of lord Buddha.
And in the forest hard by our people speak to this day of johns tree and the rock of the Hundred Demons.


THE END