2/2 Tangkhiil Folk Tales and Notes on some
to him, " If you want to eat me you had better take me by my tail and shake me six tinies, then I shall eat tender." But when he shook him the young bird escaped and flew away.
The last incident recalls the Lushai story of the " Bear's Water Hole," which was included in a paper I read before this Society. 1 In that story the quail persuaded the monkey to lend him a reed instrument which the monkey had made, and then flew away with it. But the monkey seized him by the tail, which came out in his hand. The monkey demanded a ransom of eight mithans. " Oh," said the quail, " if I have to pay eight mithans I'll just go tailless," and away he flew. The fooling of the tiger is also a very common incident in the folktales of these tribes. In fact, the tiger is represented as a very simple person. ^ In a tale told me by a Thado ^ Benglama gets a tiger to help him out of a quagmire by promising to let the tiger eat him when he has got out. He then obtained a moment's grace and began tying himself to a tree, explaining that an awful storm was coming. The tiger, fearing the storm, asked Benglama to tie him to the tree ; which was done. Then Benglama departed, leaving a mallet by the tiger with which passers-by might beat him. The wild cat came by, and the tiger pleaded relationship and was released. He tried to catch the wild cat, who, however, played various tricks on him, which ended in his trying to steal Benglama's fowls and getting soused with boiling water ; then, being persuaded to roll down a waterfall to cool himself, he died.
Benglama is the Thado name for a character who appears in the folktales of all the tribes in these hills, and also in
' Folk-Lore, vol. xx. pp. 412, 413.
- The Sema Nagas, pp. 319, 343 ; The Lhota Nagas, pp. 177, 178 ; The Khasis, p. 165 ; The Kacharis, p. 144, in which, however, the tiger scores in the end.
3 The Lushei-Kuki Clans, p. 208.
