Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/464

400, who worked in her father's jhum, i.e. hill cultivation. At the bottom of the jhum in a hollow tree a snake had its nest, and the snake loved Chhawng-chili very much. Whenever they went to the jhum, she used to send her younger sister to call the snake, who used to come and coil itself up in Chhawng-chili's lap. The little sister was very much afraid of the snake, but did not dare tell her father. When the girls were starting for the jhum their parents wrapped up some rice and vegetables for them to take with them. On account of her fear of the snake the little sister could eat nothing. Then her sister and the snake ate up all the rice and vegetables, and the little sister stayed in the jhum house all the day and got very thin, so that her parents said to her,—"Oh! little one, why are you getting so thin?", but she always said,—"Oh father, I can't tell you," but they pressed her, and at last she said,—"My sister and the snake make love always. As soon as we get to the jhum, she says to me,—"Call him," and I call him, and he comes and coils himself up in her lap, and I am so frightened that I can eat nothing, and that is why I am so thin." So they kept Chhawng-chili at home, and her father and the little sister went to the jhum. The father dressed himself to resemble Chhawng-chili, but kept his dao by his side; then the little sister called the snake, and it came and coiled itself up in the father's lap, and he with one stroke of his dao cut it in half; then they returned to the village. On the next day Chhawng-chili and her sister went to the jhum, and the little sister called the snake, but her father had killed it. So they came back to their house, and they found their father lying on the floor just inside the doorsill. Chhawng-chili said,—"Get up, father, I want to wipe the mud off my feet on the doorsill," but he would not move, so she scraped the mud off, and stepped in over him; but he struck up with his dao and killed her, and inside her were about 100 little snakes. They killed them, and they killed them, but one escaped, and hid under a piece of dirt, and