Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/445

Rh These tales come from many other tribes besides the Lushais, but all are closely connected, and the same tale, in slightly different forms, is found in places very far apart. For instance, the following tale, with variations, has been recorded at Demagri, by Colonel Lewin, about 1865; in the south-east of Manipur, 150 miles in an air line from Demagri, during the Linguistic Survey in 1892; and again, 150 miles further north, among the Mikirs, by the late Mr. E. Stack, of the Indian Civil Service, about 1886. The version I give is that of the Aimol:—

"Once upon a time there was a man called Chemchong-saipa. He was sharpening his dao by the river when a prawn bit him on the leg; he became angry, and cut a tree; the tree became angry, and dropped a fruit as big as a melon on the back of a cock; the cock became angry, and scratched up an ants' nest; the ants became angry, and bit a snake in the tail; the snake became angry, and bit a boar on the leg; the boar became angry, and rooted up a plantain tree, in which a bat lived; the bat became angry, and flew into the ear of an elephant; the elephant became angry, and knocked a mortar for pounding rice down the hill; and the mortar rolled on an old woman's house, and knocked it down. "Mortar, pay a fine," said she. " Shan't," said the mortar, "the elephant set me rolling"; and so on, till they came to the prawn, who had no answer to give; so they said,—"Will you die in hot or cold water?" "In cold," said he, and he dived to the bottom, saying,—"Ha! ha! I am too clever for you!" But the animals made the elephant suck the pool dry, and caught the prawn, and gave him to the toad to cook. When he called them, saying,—"It is ready," there was nothing but hot water, and the toad explained that, in tasting to see if the flavour was good, he had by accident