Apfuho and the Old Woman.
One day an old woman set her rice on the fire to boil and went into her outer room to pound oil seed. Apfuho came along carrying another man’s dog which he had killed, and called out to the old woman, “Your rice is boiling over.” When the old woman went back into the inner room to look at her rice, Apfuho put the dog which he was carrying on her pounding table and called out, “A dog is eating your oil seed, old woman.” Then the old woman came running out to see, and hit the dead dog which Apfuho had put on the pounding table. At this Apfuho cried out, “Oh dear, oh dear, you have killed another man’s dog. If you do not give me your pig I will tell the owner.” So the old woman said, “I will give you my pig. Do not tell the owner.” At dusk when Apfuho came to fetch the pig he fixed lighted torches all along the path, and said to the old woman, “Give me your pig. Look how many men are coming with the owner of the dog, carrying lighted torches in their hands.” To this the old woman replied, “I will give you my pig. Go and tell them not to come.” So he went and put out the torches and threw them away, and came back and took the pig. But as he was taking the pig away he murmured, “What a fool of an old woman.” Her daughter heard this and said, “He called you an old fool, mother.” But Apfuho heard her say this and replied. “I only said ‘oo,’ girl,”[7] and the mother said, “Yes, yes, Apfuho only said ‘oo’.” So Apfuho went off with the pig.[8]
Apfuho and the Tiger.
This is a tale of the olden days when men could understand the talk of animals. Apfuho and the tiger went across a river to hollow out vats from a log on the other side. When they had finished their vats and the time came to return, the [[178]]tiger asked Apfuho the best way to carry his vat across the river. Apfuho told him to carry it rim upwards,[9] and the tiger did as Apfuho told him. But Apfuho carried his own vat upside down and was able to cross the river, while the tiger, try as he would, could not cross the river with his vat rim upwards. Apfuho called out, “I will pull you out,” but instead of doing so he threw stones into the tiger’s vat and pushed him away from land with a forked stick so that he was washed right downstream. Then Apfuho went along to see if the tiger was drowned or not, and found him lower down by the water’s edge. When the tiger saw Apfuho he cried, “Here is my enemy,” and tried to devour him. But Apfuho espied a hornets’ nest by the water and said, “The men of the ‘morung’ have set me to watch the ‘morung’ drum, father tiger, and see that no stranger beats it.” Then the tiger said, “May I beat it and see what it is like?” and Apfuho replied, “I will ask the men of the ‘morung.’ You stay here, and if they say you may beat it, I will shout and tell you.” So he went a long way off and shouted back, “They say you may beat it.” Then when the tiger hit the hornets’ nest all the hornets attacked and stung him,[10] and he ran and ran until he fell down a cliff and was killed.
How the Villagers tried in vain to put an end to Apfuho.
The villagers, meaning to put an end to Apfuho, took him with them down to a big pond. Then when they got to [[179]]the water they all began swinging out over the pool on a creeper swing. They made Apfuho use the swing last and went away and left him, thinking he would fall off into the middle of the pond and be drowned. Apfuho kept swinging and swinging and could hardly hold on any longer, when he espied a man and a woman wearing fine ornaments and leading a mithan by a rope. He saw that they were an eloping couple and called out to them, “Who are you? There is a beautiful breeze here which makes swinging very pleasant. Take off your ornaments and put them on the ground and tie up the mithan. Then pull me in with a hooked stick and come and have a swing yourselves.” So they did as Apfuho told them, and took their ornaments off and put them down and pulled Apfuho in with a forked stick, and both began to swing.
But when they asked Apfuho to pull them in, instead of doing so he let them fall into the water and drown. Then Apfuho put on their ornaments and took their mithan and went up to the village. And the villagers were astonished and said, “Where have you come from with those ornaments and that mithan, Apfuho?” And he said to them, “In the middle of the pond there are many ornaments and many mithan too. I only brought away these. If you too want to get some you should go and dive into the pond.” Then all the villagers said to him in chorus, “Take me, Apfuho; take me, Apfuho.” So a few days later Apfuho led the villagers in a body down to the water. There he picked them up one by one and threw them in. Of the men who sank quietly he said, “The ornaments and mithan he gets won’t be very good.” But when people struggled hard, with the water pouring from their mouth and nose, he said, “The ornaments and mithan he gets will be splendid.” So he let all the people of the village whom he had thrown into the water drown.[11]