Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/512

 47 S Collectavea.

These tales were collected by Mr. J. H. Hutton. On the methods of collection and record he writes : " It is quite true that the trans- lations are not exactly made. The Angami and other Naga languages are so excessively difficult that even persons of many years' residence would, perhaps, be able to record very little by translating directly from the vernacular, which varies in a high degree from village to village. My own researches have been conducted by a lingua franca, a sort of bastard Assamese, which is used by Government interpreters, and is fairly well known in those parts of the Hills that are in touch with the plains. My own knowledge of the Angami and Sema languages is limited to ordinary affairs that come daily to my attention. My attention was first drawn to the folklore of the people by some fragmentary stories in very broken English which Dr. Rivenbufgh of Kohima had saved from some essays by his pupils. On these as a basis I have collected these tales from various narratives in many villages, on the march or round the camp-fire. I find that the ordinary adult does not know the tales, and that the children have imperfect versions picked up from old men or from their mothers. The old men know the stories, but are unwilling to tell them on account of the belief that a teller of many tales dies before his time. I was fortunate in having two interpreters, one of quite unusual intelligence, and one a man of many exploits and con- siderable position. The latter, in particular, had the reputation of knowing more of the past history and customs of the Angamis of his own particular group than any one else, and several tales have come straight from him. My translations are a free rendering ot the recorded Assamese version, without additions or insertions of any kind. Many tales were told in an archaic dialect, and more especially in singing, and not by any means universally understood. I have never heard any story given me twice in precisely the same form, and though, of course, the songs are handed down verbatim, I do not think the stories are. In fact, I am sure they are not, and any new story is readily assimilated, and its source is probably soon forgotten. I have no doubt that some future investigator will find perverted versions of "Uncle Remus" in existence, first heard from me in my attempts to induce others to tell their own stories."