Kyong Lotha Folk Tales
The Old Man and his Dogs |
When the dogs had left, they quite forget what the old man has said to them. Now the youngest dog was angry with the old man because he did not get his share of rice, so when the other dogs asked him what the old man had said he replied, "The old man said that we kill a deer, we should leave dung for him at the cross roads.”
That is why to this day wild dogs leave their dropping at the cross roads.How Man became a Catfish
A man went with a group of children to work in his fields. After working all morning, it was soon time for the mid day meal, and the children asked him to give them their rice.
But the owner of the field felt that it was not time yet, so he refused to give them any rice.
The children then said that they were going to have a bath, and they went off to the river. On the way they said, "We were not given rice in time, so we will become catfish”, and with those words they turned into catfish then and there, crying out "we are catfish! We are catfish!”
The owner of the field called out "come along now, I will give you rice”, but the children replied, "You would not give it to us before and now we have forgotten about man’s food and we are not coming”, and in the form of catfish, they swam away.
It is said that because the children were wearing dao holders when they were transformed into catfish, the fish have a band on their backs that resembles a dao holder. The Trickster (Apvüho) and the Tiger (Mhorü)It was a hot summer day, and a certain person called Apvüho was busy trying to trick a couple of boys who were fishing down by the pond. Apvüho was a man in his late 30s and he was never satisfied unless he tricked at least half the people of his village everyday and this is how he became known as "The Trickster”. His cleverness and his cunning ways were famous, not only in his village, but also in the neighbouring villages as well.While Apvüho was talking with the boys, Mhorü (Tiger), his rival came along. Mhorü was not at all glad to see him as he had been tricked by Apvuo just the day before. When Apvüho saw Mhorü, he became scared, knowing that he would be in great trouble as Mhorü was very strong. As he was standing there in a panic, he suddenly spotted a beehive on a tree, and he got an idea. Just as Mhorü was about to strike, Apvüho begged him to spare his life, telling him that he would let him play the sacred drum of the village. Mhorü was a simpleton and he easily fell for the trick and began asking eagerly for the drum, forgetting all about revenge. Apvüho pointed towards the beehive and told Mhorü that it was the sacred drum of the village and that he was in charge of guarding it. He also told Mhorü that he could only start playing once permission had been taken from the villagers. Apvüho then pretended to go to the village but he was actually planning his escape. Once he was a safe distance, he shouted back to say that the villagers had granted permission to play the drum. Mhorü gladly started beating the beehive and he was soon attacked by a swarm of bees. Apvüho laughed as he ran away from the village, and no one ever saw him again.
The Story of Ranphan |  Shanjo Tsopoe |
Once upon a time, in a small village called Longkhum Chung, there lived a brave man called Ranphan. During those days there was also a ferocious tiger that had killed many people in that particular village, and everyone was afraid to go out, in case they too were attacked.
One day the wife of brave Ranphan went to the forest to collect firewood. When she did not return, Ranphan went out to look for her in the jungle. To his great astonishment he found nine women lying dead in a pool of blood, including his pregnant wife. With tears rolling down his cheeks, he inspected all the bodies to discover that they were all from his village and that they had all most certainly been killed by the tiger.
He then lay down between the corpses and pretended to be dead, but he kept his sword hidden in his hand. He had also collected ten small pipe-like pieces of bamboo which he fitted onto his ten fingers.
As lay there, the tiger returned with yet another victim, which he placed with the rest in the row. The tiger then counted all his victims one by one: He remembered killing the first woman when she was returning from the paddy field; the second had met her end while collecting firewood and the third while fetching water; the forth had been killed while she was harvesting vegetables. Others had been killed while they were fishing and one had even been killed in her own home. But when he came to brave Ranphan, he could not remember him, and so he kept him to one side.
The tiger then ate his fill of the victims and tired, he lay down to sleep.
Now Ranphan had been waiting for an opportunity to get revenge on the tiger, but he needed to know that the tiger really was asleep. He broke one of the small bamboo pieces that he had put on his fingers and the tiger’s ears twitched, a clear indication that the tiger was not really asleep at all.
He continued to break all the bamboo pipes one by one but it was only when he reached the tenth that the tiger did not twitch, confirming that he was fast asleep at last. Ranphan silently got up and taking up his sword, he beheaded the tiger with a shout of victory. Ranphan carried the tiger’s head home and placed it on a big banyan tree called "monkiton” where enemies heads were hung as a sign of victory.
The villagers praised Ranphan for killing the most ferocious tiger, and everyone lived happily ever after.
Once upon a time in a little village called Pakti in Nagaland, there lived two orphan sisters, Apeni and Wonchibeni. Their parents had died while protecting them from a bear, and at the time Apeni was only ten years old and Wonchibeni just a nine month old toddler.
The years passed and they grew older. One day they went out in the forest to collect flowers. As they were picking flowers, Wonchibeni spotted some really beautiful ones,
the most beautiful she had ever seen. They were high in the top most branch of a very big tree. Wonchibeni asked her sister to get some for her and as she could not refuse her younger sister, Apeni climbed up to get the flowers. After picking some she was ready to climb down, but that was when she suddenly realised that her feet had been swallowed by the tree, and she could not free herself.
As it was getting dark, Wonchibeni began to feel scared, and asked her sister to come down, but she did not. Wonchibeni started singing a very sad and beautiful song.
A prince was hunting in that forest and he heard her song. He came up to her and asked her what had inspired her to sing, and she explained everything to him. The prince climbed up immediately and saw that the tree had already swallowed Apeni upto her chest. The prince used all his strength to pull her out and thus he managed to saved her. The prince noticed her elegant beauty and brought her to his palace. They decided to marry and an auspicious day was chosen for the wedding. After that they lived happily ever after.
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