Week 6 Story: The Unlucky Tiger

Author's Note: A lot of the Khasi Tales focussed on a tiger king. I thought it would be fun to think of all the stories as being about the same tiger who has just had a very unfortunate life. "A Series of Unfortunate Events", anyone?
**Disclaimer: I’ve never actually read "A Series of Unfortunate Events"

In the beginning, all animals were equal. One would think a balance of power would create peace amongst the animals of the Jingle, but chaos reigned. In the hopes of easing the fighting, the gods gifted each species an attribute at which they would be the best. The tiger received the gifts of craftiness and stealth, making him a lethal hunter. He spent his days slipping silently through the underbrush, spying in his prey. There cane a day, soon after the last of the animals had received their gifts, that the tiger happened upon a son of man. The tiger knew the humans had been given the gifts of beauty and wisdom. He wondered at man's reason for entering the woods, where many animals could now kill him quite easily. Curious, he followed the human to the home of the gods. There, the tiger heard the man ask the gods for strength to match his beauty and wisdom. The gods instructed the human to return the next day for his gift. Jealous, the tiger came back the next day and stole the gift of strength for his own. When the human arrived, his gift had already been given, and he received the gift of skill instead.

Because of his stolen strength, the tiger was chosen as king of the animals. However, he was ignorant to the cultures of his kingdom. While he was out hunting one day, he heard the most beautiful singing and demanded to marry the singer. The monkey tribe to whom his bride belonged invited him to claim his young bride a week later, but when he attempted to wake her, her head fell off! Her family attacked him, wounding him in a way that would never heal.

As the tiger king grew weaker and weaker from his injuries following the monkey incident, he became unable to bring his hunts back to fill the family stores. His sister, the cat, grew irate with him. When confronted about the struggle of a royal family living like peasants, the tiger grew angry. It was not his fault the monkeys had attacked him over a simple underestimation of his strength! Things were back to normal for a while, until he had some friends over. He asked his sister to light the hookah and the brat had the audacity to tell him there was no fire! So he sent her to retrieve some from the humans. The cat took so long to return, that the tiger's friends began to dismiss themselves. Angry that his sister had ruined his social gathering, he began walking to the human village to retrieve her. However, as the tiger king got closer, he began to weaken his old injuries making themselves known... and he collapsed.

The Tiger King Falls
Source: WikiMedia Commons

Bibliography:

How the Tiger got his Strength, Ms. K U Rafy

The Tiger and The Monkeys, Ms. K U Rafy

How the Cat Came to Live with Man, Ms. K U Rafy

Reading Notes: Khasi Folktales (Part B)

1. The Leap of Ka Likai

• Synopsis: 
• Ka Likai is a widowed, single mother who remarries in the hopes of providing a better life for her daughter
• The new husband becomes jealous of Ka Likai's love for the child
• He kills and cooks the girl and feeds her to her mother
• Ka Likai throws herself off of a the cliff of a waterfall in her grief
• Posibilities:
• An alternate (happier) ending
• Told from the daughters perspective
• Maybe a little TOO gruesome if the plot remains unchanged
• Epilogue where the mom and/or daughter come back to haunt the husband

2. What Caused the Shadows on the Moon

• Synopsis:
• The moon (in human form) abandoned his family (fire, water, sun) to consort with demons in the underworld
• He came back and asked for his youngest sister's (the sun) hand in marriage
• His mother refused
• The sun found out about his proposal and she threw hot ashes on him and scarred his face
• Possibilities:
• I actually like this one, minimal changes to the original story.
• What if the mother had agreed to the marriage?
• What if all of his sisters teamed up and went "John Tucker Must Die" on him?
• What about the other sisters lives?
• The other two standard elements are earth and air. Perhaps they are the older sisters husbands?

3. U Ksuid Tynjang

• Synopsis:
• U Ksuid Tynjang is a demon cursed with never ending itching
• The itching could only be stopped by human touch, but he was too ugly for people to come willingly
• He kidnapped lost travelers and forced them to rub his body
• If you refused, you would be tickled to death
• 2 sisters and their brother get lost on the way home from a fair
• The sisters are captured but the brother escapes
• The brother returns home and he and his parents request the gods help in saving the sisters
• One god is thought to have left them the axe that the sisters find
• The sisters use the axe to kill the demon
• Demons can't truly die, so he comes back as a vine in the forest
• Possibilities:
• What happens after the sisters escape?
• The sisters simply trick the demon into releasing them
• There's a way to break the curse?
• A la beauty and the beast

4. What Makes the Lightning

• Synopsis:
• The humans had a yearly festival (similar to those represented at modern day Renaissance Festivals)
• The animals saw the humans merriment and decided to have a festival of their own
• The Lynx, U Kui, brought a beautiful silver sword to show off
• U Pyrthat, the thunder giant, asked to borrow said sword
• His dancing and drumming got so intense that he scarred all the animals away and unintentionally stole the Lynx's sword
• The flashing of the sword and banging of the drum are thunder and lightning
• Possibilities:
• This story wasn't that interesting, I don't have any ideas.

5. The Legend of Ka Panshandi, the Lazy Tortoise

• Synopsis:
• There was a pool of water so clear that the stars would use it as a mirror to gaze at their own beauty
• An ugly and lazy turtle swam in the pool nightly
• One of the stars noticed the turtle and fell in love with her, being too far away to notice her ugliness and laziness
• Although he was warned against it, the rich and handsome star came to earth and married the turtle
• When he realized how lazy the turtle was, and that she would not change, the star left her
• The turtle is now used as a warning against being a lazy wife
• Possibilities:
• What if the turtle HAD changed for her husband?
• Is there a reason the turtle is so lazy?

6. How the Cat came to Live with Man

• Synopsis:
• A cat lived with her brother, the king (a tiger)
• The tiger was too lazy to bring home his leftovers from hunting, so the cat had to hunt mice and frogs for herself
• This was considered peasant's work
• The cat attempted to discuss this predicament with her brother, but he grew angry at its mention
• The tiger had guests over and ordered his sister to light the hookah (tobacco)
• This too was considered peasant's work and a great dishonor
•  The cat said there was no fire in order to avoid the task
• The tiger sent her to the human village to get more fire
• The cat got distracted my the village children petting her
• The tiger grew angry at her delayed return
• This led to abuse when she did eventually come back
• The cat decided to live with the humans instead of facing her brother's wrath
• Possibilities:
• The Cat could overthrow her sick brother and become queen
• What if the roles were reversed?
• A first person point of view from either the cat or the lion would be interesting

7. How the Tiger got his Strength

• Synopsis:
• All of the animals, and mankind, had equal strengths and were un able to live in peace
• The gods decided to resolve the issue by giving each species a gift
• Humans: Beauty and Wisdom
• Tigers: Craftiness and Silent Walking
• When man returned home, his mother asked him to go back to the gods and request the gift of strength as well
• The gods agreed and told him to return the next day
• The Tiger had been eaves dropping and decided to take the gift of strength for himself
• When the man returned the next day and the gods realized they had been tricked, they gave man the gift of skill instead
• Possibilities:
• What if the gods had known the tiger was an imposter?
• Rewrite from the man's point of view
• Epilogue where the human encounters the tiger after receiving the gift of skill 

8. Why the Goat lives with Mankind

• Synopsis:
• A goat was eating leaves in the forest and was approached by a tiger
• In her fear, the goat told the tiger that she was eating a tiger rather than eating leaves
• The tiger saw the goats beard and mistook it for a weapon or sign of strength and ran away
• The goat, upon realizing what had happened, began to complain that she was not actually as strong as the tiger believed her to be
• When the same tiger saw the goat later, he hid in fearThe tiger overhears the goat complaining about her lack of strength and kills her to restore his honor
• Other predators began hunting goats
• When they neared extinction, the goats asked the humans to protect them
• Mankind said they would protect the goats, but only if they came to live in the villages with them.
• Possibilities
• I think this story could be told from the tigers perspective
• Could this tale be linked to the one before it?
• What if the Tiger from stories 6, 7, and 8 (as well as some stories in part A) were all the same Tiger?

Baby Goats (They're so CUTE!!!)
Source: Wikimedia Commons

9. How the Ox came to be the servant of Man

• Synopsis:
• Mankind was being wasteful and would not survive as the population grew
• A god sent an Ox to correct the problem with a message to the humans
• On the way, a crow landed on the Ox's back and ate the bugs that were pestering him
• As a way of repaying the crow of taking care of his bug problem, the ox agreed to not tell the humans to stop wasting food
• The left over food is what the crows would eat
• When the ox told the god what he had done, he was punished and banished
• The ox, having nowhere to go, returned to the humans and offered to be their servant in exchange for food and shelter
• Possibilities:
• How would that same god feel about today's society?

Story Source: Folktales of the Khasi

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