FOLSOM, May 14 — One-time cult leader Charles Manson was attacked in an exercise yard of Folsom Prison Tuesday by two fellow inmates, one of them a former follower, a prison spokesman said.

A guard broke up the fight by shooting inmate Kenneth Como in the back with a pellet-filled canvas bag fired from a shotgun, said Associate Warden Huel Morphis.

He said he believed the fight stemmed from a rivalry between Como and Manson, 40, over some female members of the Manson clan.

Como, 35, once a member of Manson’s so-called family, was taken to the prison hospital for treatment of a bad bruise, Morphis said.

He said Manson, serving a life term for the 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others, was assaulted in the concrete yard by Como and Bobby Davis, a convicted slayer of four California Highway Patrolmen.

The two knocked Manson to the ground and were pummeling him when a fourth inmate tried to pull them off, but failed, Morphis said. He said the unidentified guard then fired two shots, one of which hit Como.

Manson was not badly hurt and was returned to his cell in the lockup unit, Morphis said. He said Como and Davis will face prison disciplinary action.

Morphis said Manson was using the exercise yard for only the third time in the 2 1/2 years since he was transferred to Folsom from San Quentin’s Death Row. The transfer resulted from a court ruling that California’s death penalty was unconstitutional.

“He’s a recluse,” Morphis said. “He doesn’t associate with people and he doesn’t say anything to the staff. He just sits quietly in his cell most of the time, just sits and stares.”

Como is serving a minimum 20-year term on a series of burglary and robbery convictions.

Authorities said he was not involved in the Tate killings. But he was once convicted of trying to steal guns allegedly meant to help Manson break out of jail.

Davis, 34, was convicted of murder in 1970 after the four patrolmen were killed in a shootout near Newhall.