How Men were turned into Gibbons.
Once upon a time a man called Kimongthang called his sisters’ husbands’ relations together and gave them rice beer to drink and said to them, “I have cut a chentung tree ready for a sacrificial post.[16] Go and drag it in for me, but do not let a single leaf fall to the ground.” So they went and began to drag the tree, but the leaves were half withered and they kept letting them fall. Then, determined not to [[185]]let the leaves fall, they tied them onto the twigs and set to work to drag the tree again. In spite of this all the leaves fell off. Then they were ashamed to go back to the village and meet Kimongthang. So they fled away into the jungle, and the men became mynas and called “Kyon, kyon.”[17] But the women ground up rice flour to make rice beer and smeared it on their foreheads and called out, “Woka, woka,” and became gibbons. That is why the gibbon now has a white forehead.[18]
Another type of story is that which purports to give an account of some historical episode. Many of them tell of the origin of some particular clan. That relating to the Kithang clan will serve as an illustration. The episode of the hair being swallowed by the fish occurs in Assamese folk-lore,[19] and curiously enough this is the only Lhota story known to the writer in which the Assamese are mentioned, though the Lhotas must have been in contact with them for a long period.
The Story of the Kithang Clan.
One day a man of the Kikung clan named Yanzo took his nine dogs with him and went to hunt deer. But they would do nothing but jump and give tongue round a tree with a hole in it. Then Yanzo, knowing that his dogs would not give tongue for nothing, cut down the tree to see what was inside it, and found in it a jungle man. This man he took home and brought up and called Kithamo. Kithamo had a son called Mering, for whom Yanzo arranged a wife called [[186]]Khamdrio. Now Khamdrio had wonderful long hair—once and a half as long as a man could span with outstretched arms. One day when she was washing her head at the river one of her hairs fell in and was swallowed by a little fish, which went down the stream and was caught by an Assamese. The fisherman was amazed when he split open the fish and saw the hair, and took and showed it to the king. Then the king gave orders that the woman to whom the hair belonged was to be brought to him,[20] and sent one of his councillors with his soldiers to Mering’s village. But Mering had fenced his village with a hedge of stinging leaves,[21] which the king’s soldiers could not penetrate. Then the councillor ordered his soldiers to pick one of the leaves and take it back with them. And he came to the king and said, “The village is fenced with a hedge of this, so that we could by no means force it.” And the king took and put the leaf on his stomach under his clothes to see how it would sting, and he understood how terrible the pain was. Then he sent the councillor to inquire of Mering whether there was anything of which he was afraid. And Mering made answer, “There is nothing in the whole world of which I am afraid. You can only make me afraid by sending up to my village nine elephants with cotton piled on their backs. That will make me afraid.” So the king sent up nine elephants to break down the nine hedges of stinging leaves. Then Mering heated his spear red hot, and waiting till the elephants had reached the fence, threw it at the first one. The cotton on its back caught alight, and when the flames reached its body it ran in among the other elephants and set them alight one after the other. Then the elephants fled and trampled many of the men to death. Then the king announced that he would cease to fight with Mering and would trade with him instead. And he called [[187]]an Assamese and said to him, “Take a pot of cornelian beads with you and go up to Mering’s village. If anyone wishes to buy from you, do not sell, but go on hawking your wares right through the village, and as you go scatter beads in the hedge of stinging leaves. Having done this come down to me again.” And he went and did as he was bade, and the men of Mering’s village cut down and destroyed all their hedge in their search for the beads which had been scattered there. Then the king sent men into the hills with dogs to hunt down Mering, and Mering fled to Yanzo’s village to take refuge with him. It so happened that Yanzo was building his house. He therefore made Mering hide under a heap of thatching grass which was lying ready to hand, and then went and eased himself on the top of the pile. When the Assamese came up with their dogs they began to toss the thatching grass to this side and that in their search for Mering. Then Yanzo said to them, “Your dogs are very clever. Perhaps they are looking for this filth here.” At these words all the Assamese were filled with shame and whipped off their dogs and departed.[22] Because of this Mering and Yanzo broke an iron staff and swore[23] on it that they would become one clan and would never intermarry. Afterwards a son was born to Mering whose name was Rapvu. He lived at Nungkamchung, where a bastard son was born to him of a woman of the Kikung clan. This son’s name was Lobemo and his descendants still live at Tsingaki. But the legitimate children of Rapvu are the ancestors of the Kithang clan.
Tales valued for their intrinsic merit as good stories of adventure are very numerous, some of them being of considerable length. Examples are the following.