leyak
English
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Balinese leyak (“black magic; sorcerer”).
Noun
leyak (plural leyaks or leyak)
- A Balinese witch or practitioner of black magic.
- 1941, Philip Hanson Hiss, Bali, p. 45:
- Meanwhile the leyak has become invisible and the servant is very much relieved, but just then the patih sees it as it is disappearing behind a group of children, who squirm about uneasily.
- 1990, Fred B. Eiseman, Jr., Bali: Sekala and Niskala, Tuttle Publishing, p. 128:
- A leyak can transform himself, or rather, his spirit, into another form – a monkey, a bird, a ghostly light, a body without a head – the variety is endless.
- 2000, Tobias Schneebaum, Secret Places, p. 146:
- She was like a Balinese leyak, one of the spirits of humans most often seen in the form of a blue flame that darts from coconut tree to coconut tree, at night.
- 1941, Philip Hanson Hiss, Bali, p. 45: