Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/449

Rh "Some time after Tlandrok-pah's marriage, all the country became on fire, and God's daughter told us to come down to the sea-coast, where it is cool; that was how we first came into this country. At that time mankind and the birds and the beasts all spoke one language. Then God's daughter complained to her father that her tribe were unable to kill the animals for food, as they talked and begged for life with pitiful words, making the hearts of men soft, so that they could not slay them. On this, God took from the beasts and birds the power of speech, and food became plentiful among us. We eat every living thing that cannot speak. At that time, also, when the great fire broke from the earth, the world became all dark, and men broke up and scattered into clans and tribes."

There is another story told to account for the loris not being able to look at the sun. Tlandrokpa gave a great feast, and all the animals came. They wanted the loris to be their leader in the dance, and asked the sun not to shine lest they should get too hot; but the sun, hearing the sounds of merriment, could not restrain his curiosity, and shone out; the loris got angry, and to this day will not look at the sun.

The great darkness was due to a mythical animal, (apparently a kind of flying dragon), called an awk, swallowing the sun. According to a version common through the northern hills, the population of the world died off, and the world was repeopled from the hole I have described.

This idea that mankind emerged from the earth is very widely spread. In Manipur we find many clans which are closely allied to the Lushais and have evidently migrated from a more southern abode, and these all bring their ancestors from holes in the ground. The Anal tell the following tale:—

"Once the whole earth was flooded, and the entire human race, except one man and one woman, were