swallowed the prawn. So they pinched him all over the back, and that is why toads have warts on their backs."
Here is another tale recorded by Colonel Lewin, the pioneer of exploration and administration in what is now the Southern Lushai Hills, who, though he penetrated but a short way into the hills, made such an impression on the people that to this day, 40 years after he left them, a Lushai who wishes to pay you a great compliment will tell you that you are just like Thangliana, which is their way of saying Tom Lewin. Colonel Lewin took the tale down from a Bunjogi (a clan allied to the Lushais), but the tale is practically the same as is told to this day wherever Lushai is spoken. It must have been recorded in the neighbourhood of Demagri:—
"Formerly our ancestors came out of a cave in the earth, and we had one great Chief, named Tlandrok-pah. He it was who first domesticated the guyal (tame bison); he was so powerful that he married God's daughter. There were great festivities at the marriage, and Tlan-drok-pah made God a present of a famous gun that he had. You can still hear the gun; the thunder is the sound of it. At the marriage, our Chief called all the animals to help to cut a road through the jungle, to God's house, and they all gladly gave assistance to bring home the bride,—all save the sloth (the húlúq monkey is his grandson) and the earth-worm; and on this account they were cursed, and cannot look on the sun without dying. The cave whence man first came out is in the Lhoosai country close to Vanhuilen's village, of the Burdaiya tribe; it can be seen to this day, but no one can enter. If one listens outside, the deep notes of the gong and the sound of men's voices can still be heard."[1]
- ↑ T. H. Lewin, The Hill Tracts of Chittagong, etc., 1869, p. 95. I regret to spoil this piece of poetic description, but I have seen this cave. It is a hole about four feet square and two or three feet deep, and I certainly heard no deep notes of gongs nor human voices. But perhaps they are only audible to true sons of the hills, not to alien invaders, however sympathetic.
