Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/513

 Collectanea. 479

I. The To'vcr of Babel (i).

There was once a country under a powerful Chief with great armies, and the people thought that they could mount up to heaven by building a ladder of wood. So they builded a stair, and made the stair very higli into heaven. Now the men who were up at the top asked for more wood, and the men who were below answered : " There is no wood, shall we cut a piece from the stair?" So the men at the top, not understanding what they said, gave answer : " Ay, cut it." So they cut it, thinking ihat the top was made fast to the heaven, and the ladder fell and they that builded it were killed.

(2.)

Ukepenopfu "^ was the first human being. Her descendants are very many. Instead of dying she was raised to heaven. Later on her descendants thought to communicate with her by building a tower up to heaven from which they could go and talk to her. She however, knowing their thoughts, said to herself: "They will all expect presents, and I have no presents for so many men. The tower must be stopped before it gets any higher." So she made all the men working at the tower talk different languages so that they could not understand one another, and when one said " Bring a stone," they would fetch water or a stick and so forth, so that all was confusion and the tower was abandoned. Hence arose the different tongues of the various tribes of man.

[With these versions of the Tower of Babel tale, we may com- pare that from the neighbouring State of Sikhim — "There is also a tradition of a tower of Babel built at Dharmdin ; it had nearly reached the moon, when word was sent down to send up a hook to throw over the horn of the moon : this command was

•The termination pfu is a feminine termination, and therefore the word is sometimes translated "Spirit-mother," and Ukepenopfu is spoken of as being of the female sex. This tracmg of all descents to a first Mother is the only trace to be found among the Angamis of any Matriarchal period. At the same time, many Angamis speak of Ukepenopfu as a man, and it is p)erhaps not impossible that the female termination is a class termination used without reference to the particular being designated.