Evil spirits, ghosts, demons, devils, or avatars of Satan—we have all listened to those folk tale horrors. But the amount we have heard of evil spirits in folklore is like a grain of sand on a beach. The stories we never heard of remain as all the grains of sand on the beach.
So, have you ever heard of a demonic spirit of hunger? If you haven’t, you are about to hear about an evil spirit of hunger. Well, if you have, see if this is the same story you have heard. And if you’re looking for ghost stories, folktale horror stories around the world, scary campfire stories, or scary stories for kids, this might help. This demon of hunger is called Saagini.
Who is Saagini Yakshani?
Saagini Yakshani, or Saagini Yakinni, is one of the scariest demons in Sri Lankan folklore culture. This female demon brings you hunger!
The sagini yakshani is a female evil spirit that takes possession of children. When a child is possessed by this devil, their hunger increases. The child starts to eat food more than a child normally does. So, does the child grow bigger or faster? No! Instead, the child starts to show signs—signs of malnutrition!
Real Life Account/s of Saagini Yakshani
One account of this evil spirit I have heard of comes from Sri Lanka. Indeed, it comes from a family that has lived in a very rural village in Sri Lanka. This farming family has lived there since the 1960s and had eight children by 1980. According to their claims, the incident occurred between 1980 and 1985.
The second-youngest, who is also the 7th kid in this family, was a girl. And she was living a normal village life with the love and care of all the members of the family. She was just two or three years old when the evil spirit, Saagini Yakshani, has taken her.
First Indications of Sagini’s Possession
All of a sudden, the kid started to eat a lot and her hunger has risen day by day. As the eldest children in the family say, at first, the parents did not take it into consideration, as they thought the kid just needed more food. Then, the kid began to excrete on the bed while asleep. The ones who were adults in this family at the time said that the faeces were always in the corner of the bed while the kid was clean. That had been alarming for the parents and the elder siblings of this possessed kid.
Sleepless Nights for troubled Parents as the Demon Continues
After they notice the excrement on the bed with no indications that the kid did it, the parents have stayed awake an entire night, taking shifts, to see what happens. But that night they were watching, and nothing had happened. Then, the next day, the parents have also slept and in the morning, they have seen the same thing happen as in the past few days, except for the night they were watching. Then the parents discussed staying awake another night as they found it more suspicious and mysterious.
The second night the parents were watching the kid has been the same as the first night they were watching. Nothing has happened. Hence, the parents stayed awake another night to see if what was happening was random. The elder siblings say that they wanted to make sure that if the kid is just randomly excreting at night when she is sleeping or if the kid does it in sleep, similar to sleepwalking. But, in none of the nights the parents had been awake, what they expected to see happened. Instead, the kid has been sleeping. Meanwhile, the unnatural food consumption of the kid continued.
Exorcism to Ward off the Evil Spirit
When the parents had no idea what was happening, they had spoken about this with a local indigenous medicine practitioner who was also famous for his mystic treatments. That healer had been famous for warding off demons, evil spirits, and ghosts in the region. The healer had informed the parents that what the child has is not a disease that can be healed by medicine. He had informed the parents that what this child has is the influence of an evil spirit and is only to be treated with a ritual.
The parents had taken the word of the infamous healer of the village at the time and prepared for the exorcism to ward off this demon. As the witnesses say, first the healer lit the coconut oil lamps. The lamps had been kept on a small platform made out of banana trunks and coconut leaves. Then the healer had begun chanting. While he was chanting, the kid was given a variety of food to eat.
However, after the exorcism ritual was conducted, the kids unnatural consumption of food had gone back to normal and the faeces on the bed had stopped happening and never come back. That was the end of the harmful effects of this demon on that kid.
Had you heard about this evil spirit before? Have you ever heard of a similar demon? Or similar evil spirits before? Or a similar story?
If you are looking for more scary demons and evil spirits you never heard of before, click here for seven more scary folktale characters and the stories around them.