Reading Notes: Khasi Folktales (Part A)

1. The Tiger and the Monkeys

• Synopsis:
• A tiger king goes for a walk
• It's hot, so he lays down to take a nap
• When the tiger wakes up, he hears a bug singing
• The tiger is so ignorant about the ways of people that he assumes the voice is coming from a group of monkeys
• The youngest monkey decides to play a trick on the tiger and tells him that it's his younger sister singing
• The tiger then demands that he marry the young monkey (Who doesn't actually exist)
• To save themselves from the wrath of the tiger king, the monkeys make a fake bride out of clay
• When the lion comes to collect his bride, they trick the tiger into decapitating his "bride" and attack him
• The tiger nearly dies and has been afraid of the monkeys ever since
• Possibilities
• Alternate Ending
• The tiger discovers the trick
• There actually is a sister and she swallows the bug in order to be able to sing for the king

A Tiger King Lounging in the Grass
Source: Flickr

2. The Legend of the Iei Tree

• Synopsis:
• There is a very large tree on a mountainside
• Its leaves are so thick it blocks out all sunlight, making the area beneath it barren
• The tree continued outward, making the entire area barren
• Everyone thought the tree was the home of a god, so no one dared to cut it down
• Eventually, the tree got so big that it threatened mankind's existence
• Finally, a group of the world's best woodcutters decided to chop the tree down
• Each morning, the woodcutters would discover that their work from the day before had been healed
• A wren stopped and offered to help the woodcutters
• They laughed at her
• After they apologized for laughing at the wren, she told them that a tiger came by every night and licked the wounds on the tree to heal it
• That night, the woodcutters set up their axes around the tree with the sharp sides out
• When the tiger came by, he cut his tongue on the axes and never came back
• Now that the tree wasn't being healed each night, the woodcutters were able to fell the tree and save mankind
• Possibilities:
• What if they just trimmed the tree to keep it contained and had an endless supply of lumber?
• What if the tree HAD been the home of a god/demon?

3. Hunting the Stag Lapalang

• Synopsis:
• Lapalang was the most beautiful deer in the Khasi hills
• His mother protected him with everything she had, but he insisted on venturing out into the open
• When a human spotted him, he gave out a hunting cry and alerted all of the villages on the mountain side to Lapalang's presence
• The humans hunted and killed Lapalang
• When his mother heard of his death, she began running over the hillside crying so mournfully that the villagers decided to rethink their funeral practices to reflect the emotion in the mother's grieving
• Possibilities:
• There could be an alternate ending where Lapalang survives, but in a way that puts his ego and vanity in check

4. The Goddesses Ka Ngot and Ka Iam

• Synopsis:
• Two Twin Goddesses decided to race each other down a mountain
• Ka Iam was overly confident about her victory
• Ka Ngot took her time finding the easier path, while her sister tried to brute force her way through obstacles, and ended up winning the race
• Possibilities:
• I'm not feeling very inspired by this story, but it does remind me of the Tale of the Tortoise and the Hare

5. U Biskurom

• Synopsis:
• The Great God sent U Biskurom down to teach mankind about tools
• Mankind, rather than listening and learning, imprisoned him
• Mankind asked him to create life, but he didn't know how
• He convinced his captors to let him return to the heavens to learn how to create life
• They agree (idiots)
• The Great God does not allow him to return to earth, so he write the instructions on a kite and sends it down to the humans
• They can't read the language the instructions are written in
• Upset, the humans decide to send up a great shout loud enough to kill U Biskurom
• This does not work
• He lets some blood drip down to earth to make the humans think they had killed him
• Why?
• Possibilities:
• Yeah... I've got nothing

6. How the Dog came to Live with Man

• Synopsis:
• A dog needed to find a product that he could sell at the fair
• He followed a strange smell into a human village
• The family that was there took pity on him and fed him
• The dog bought some of the food from the humans to sell as his own
• When he arrived at the fair and opened the jar to sell its contents, an awful smell came out
• The animals made fun of him for the awful smell and crushed his jar
• The dog appealed to the governor of the fair for those who attacked him to be punished
• The governor did not oblige him
• The dog ran away from the fair and back to the human family who had given him the food
• In retribution, the dog helped mankind hunt the animals in the forest
• The humans domesticated pigs and began insisting that the dog and the pig help in the field
• The dog didn't help and let the pig do all the work, then ran all over the field leaving his foot prints
• When the pig complained to the humans about the dogs laziness, all the farmer saw was the dogs footprints everywhere
• The farmer then punished the pig for his "false claim"
• This is why pigs stay outside while dogs stay in the house
• Possibilities:
• Alternate ending where the farmer spies on the animals the next day and sees the dog doing nothing?

7. The Stag and the Snail

• Synopsis
• On their way to the market, many animals stopped to rest and catch up with their friends
• A stag was bragging about his speed and gets challenged to a race by a snail
• After the market they line up to race, but the snails family/tribe has stretched out along the entire path to the top of the mountain
• The race begins and the snail's voice never falls behind the stag
• The stag ultimately loses the race and is so exhausted he coughs up his gallbladder
• Possibilities:
• The fair is mentioned many times in this unit, could one cohesive story be made of all these tales?
• How the snail won is never clearly stated
• More detail on the strategy and its execution would be nice

Story Source: Folktales of the Khasi