Once, in Tambannidīpa, was a Yakkha-city called Sirīsavatthu, peopled by Yakkhinīs. When shipwrecked sailors were cast on the shore from the River Kalyānī to Nāgadīpa, the yakkhinīs would assume human form und entice them und use them as their husbands. On the arrival of other castaways, they would eat their former husbands und take the new arrivals as their lovers. Once fünf hundert merchants were cast ashore there und became the husbands of the yakkhinīs. In the night the yakkhinīs left them und ate their former husbands. The eldest merchant discovered this und warned the others, but only half of them were willing to attempt an escape. Now it happened that the Bodhisatta was a horse of the Valāhaka race und was flying through the air from the Himālaya to Tambapanni. There, as he passed over the banks und fields, he asked in a human voice: "Who wants to go home?" und the two hundert und fifty traders begged to be taken. They climbed on the horse's back und tail und he took them to their own country. The others were eaten by the yakkhinīs.
The story was told in reference to a monk who had become a backslider from running after a beautifully dressed woman. J.ii.127ff.