Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/519

 Collectanea. 485

account of a quarrel which arose over drying rice on the Keza- kenoma stone, which had the property that if a load of rice were placed on it at sunrise, it became two loads by dusk. After the quarrel the double-skinned men fled away. So strong were they that no arrow could liurt them, and they could he shot only in battle. Once two Angamis came into their village and were hospitably entertained. When they set out on their way back, the double-skinned folk gave them a hollow bamboo pipe, and told them not to open it till they reached home. They also offered them their double skin, but their guests feared to take it. When they came home they opened the bamboo, and lo ! the Cholera, which the double-skinned had put inside it, came out, and many people in the village died.

[The tale of the double-skinned folk has not been traced else- where in Indian folklore. For the shutting up of spirits in jars, bottles, and the like, see Folk-Lore, vol. viii., p. 347 sqq.']

V. Nature Myths.

The sun is as large as a field. He is male and the moon is female. The sun comes out only by day because he is afraid to wander at night. When he does come out at night, he is so ashamed of his cowardice that he flashes out like the lightning. Once he failed altogether to come out, and men called him in vain. Then, in succession, the bull, the pig, and the dog called him, but to no- purpose. Even when the fowls called him he would not listen. At last the cock said, " I am coming to look for you, and if any- thing touches me and I have to crow you cannot help coming." So now-a-days the sun always comes when the cock crows. The cock asked him why he did not come in the dark, and the sun told liim he was afraid, and asked him to tell no one. But the cock told the reason, and this is how people came to know it.

In the moon there are nettles and a cotton tree. Like the sun, she moves about while the earth stands still.

In reality the sky is smaller than the earth. In the beginning the sky said to the earth : " You are so big, I cannot see you, wrinkle up your feet." The earth did so, and this is why there are hills and valleys in the earth while the sky is smooth. But