Rimenhoiyi married Zawlthlia. Their house was of iron. They had an eight-fold iron door. They beautified the inside with iron and brass things. They also had a window (i.e., Zawlthlia was Thangchhuah[1]) and a platform to sit on—in fact they wanted for nothing.
Rimenhoiyi planted flowers, but there was one flower she had not, called “nipuipar” (bright sun flower—a creeper with scarlet flowers). When her husband was about to go in search of it he said to her, “Please don’t go outside the house,” and having filled the brass vessels with enough water to last her many days, he went off. However, the supply ran short and the lady went to the stream to wash, and one of her hairs was carried down and swallowed by a fish, which was caught by the cook of the king near the mouth of the river; and from out of the fish the cook pulled this immensely long hair, and it filled a winnowing basket. The king sent for the owner of the hair, and after many episodes she was brought to him. Zawlthlia returning found his wife gone, but with the help of the domestic animals he traced her, and, on arriving at the foreign king’s village he saw slaves fetching water; and, ascertaining that it was for the new queen, he put one of the nipuipar into the vessel, so Rimenhoiyi knew he had arrived. According to one version, they resorted to the same subterfuge that Abraham and Sarah employed when entering Egypt and lived happily till, the king’s suspicion being aroused, Zawlthlia was summarily slain. According to another, Rimenhoiyi married them both, but as she showed a preference for Zawlthlia the king killed him.
With the help of a wise woman learned in charms Zawlthlia was brought to life in a more beautiful form, and the king was so struck by the improvement in his appearance that he asked to be allowed to undergo the same treatment, and was duly killed, but, unfortunately for him, was by some accident restored to life in the shape of a dog; but in this shape he seems to have found more favour in the fickle fair one’s eyes, and a child called Uithovi was born, who, being very poor, begged for some land of Zawlthlia, who had become king of the Tipperahs, and was told to take as much as a buffalo hide measured. By cutting the hide into a very thin strip he was able to measure a considerable area of ground, but, not content with this, he voyaged far till he reached the place where money was to be found, and he became very prosperous. “Nevertheless it was said that to the present day Kumpinu (the Company’s Mother—i.e., the late Queen), who is a descendant of Uithovi’s, cannot get the better of Rengpui (the Rajah of Tipperah). If the Sahibs fight against Rengpui, all their crops fail, and much sickness occurs among them. Pathian once threw down a cannon from the sky, and a great number of Kumpinu’s sepoys tried to move it, but could not, while a few of Rengpui’s men were able to drag it away.”
Chhura is represented as a man of immense strength and stature, of an easy-going disposition, but not much blessed with brains. Thus one story tells of how, being on a visit, he was regaled with a crab stew, which he had not tasted before, and liked greatly. He inquired of what animal it was made. On his way home he forgot the name and commenced searching. Someone seeing him looking about asked what he had lost. “Stupid,” replied Chhura; “if I knew, would I be looking?” The passer-by remarked that he smelt strongly of crab. “That’s it! That’s what I was searching for,” cried Chhura much pleased, and went on his way. His mallet head, a roughly dressed cylinder of stone, about 30 inches long and 18 in diameter, is pointed out to the curious, lying beside the path between Leng and Lingvum, where it is said to have fallen when it flew off the handle while Chhura was flattening the earth in the Vān-lai-phai valley some five miles away. A large spherical stone in the same neighbourhood is pointed out as one of the pellets shot from his pellet bow when he was at Thenzawl, many miles distant.
There are many tales of this hero, who is especially honoured by the Khawtlang.
Mualsavata is another mythical hero of immense stature. The smoke from his pipe was like that of a jhum burning. His whetstone, some 18 inches long, lies beside the road near Chongthleng, where it fell from his haversack, which his wife had neglected to mend.
I have given so many tales in other parts of the monograph that I shall only add one more here.
The Tale of Him who Demanded His Sister’s Price.
He went to the west to demand his sister’s price. The debtor gave him a bamboo stirring rod. If you stirred an empty pot with this rod it was at once filled with rice. He returned towards his village. On the way he stayed the night in the house of a widow, and placed his stirring rod on the shelf over the hearth saying, “Granny, please don’t stir your pot with my stirring rod.” “All right,” said she, but, while he was walking about the village, she stirred her pot just to see what sort of a stirring rod it was, and, behold, her pot was full of rice. “It is a very good stirring rod,” she said; “I will just exchange mine for it”—which she did secretly. And the owner of the magic rod went on to his village, and on arrival there he called to his children, “Set the water boiling to cook the rice.” His children replied, “We have nothing to cook. What is the use of boiling water alone?” “I have got rice, I’ve got rice,” he said. So they boiled the water, and he stirred it hard with his rod, but nothing came. “If we stir more it will come,” he said, but nevertheless nothing came.