Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/199

Rh murder in 1879. I have been able to identify the historical works which he mentions as parts of the Ningthaurol or Royal Chronicles of Manipur, and to this day the Meitheis love to hear tales of the great days of their glories when their armies swept to the walls of Ava, or of those later, sadder times when the hated Burmese ravaged their fair land and drove their king Chingtungkomba into exile among the hills.

The literature of the Meitheis shows clearly the influence of both Shans and Hindus. In Assam, as in Manipur, historical documents are still extant. Indeed, the "Assamese word for a 'history' is buranji, which is an Āhom word literally  'a store of instruction for the ignorant. "The remarkable series of historical works which forms the glory of Assamese literature is no doubt due to the influence of the Āhoms."  The progress of Hinduism in Manipur was at first slow, but the Raja Pamheiba or Gharib Nawaz formally adopted Hinduism and made it the State religion about 1720  We may ascribe to Hindu influence the mass of religious literature which, translated into the vernacular, or at least into a vernacular dialect, serves as a vehicle for religious instruction. But of far greater interest for the folklorist is the native literature, of which I have been able to give one or two specimens in an earlier work. The best, because the least contaminated, piece I know is the tale of Nūmit kāppa, the story of the slave who shot the sun. There were in ancient times two suns, so that slaves had no rest, for there was no night. He made a bow and arrows, and after trial of his skill succeeded in shooting one of the suns, but to the horror of all the land the other sun took fright and hid himself, so that all was darkness. Then magical rites were performed by which the sun was persuaded to come back to give light once more to earth. There is much in this tale of interest to students of magical rites and practices. Of another style is