Mekhay Doma replied, “I am sad because this is the last time I shall be seeing you and father. There are three animals on the way home who are waiting to eat me.”
The mother was a resourceful person and saying, “Don’t you worry about that”, she at once proceeded to make a huge barrel of lac. When the lac was heated and shaped into a bumbu or barrel she asked her daughter to get in. Then she closed the lid and rolled the barrel down the mountainside.
The leopard was waiting by the side of the road when the barrel rolled past him. “Whay, bumbu, have you seen Mekhay Doma?” questioned the leopard.
“Ma thong, Ma thong. Nga ni bumbu runglungma, rung lung, rung lung song ma go” (I haven’t seen, I haven’t seen. I am a round barrel and I must be on my way rulung, rulung),” replied the girl from the barrel.
Both the monkey and the pig were waiting when the barrel passed them. They asked for Mekhay Doma and she again said, “Ma thong, ma thong. Nga ni bumbu runglungma, rung lung, rung lung songma go.” As soon as she had said this the barrel hit a boulder and out came Mekhay Doma. The animals quickly seized her and prepared to cook her. The leopard went to collect the fire wood and the monkey went to fetch the water. The pig was to guard the girl.
Mekhay Doma sat against a big boulder and watched the pig as he browsed in the ground searching for roots and tubers and munching loudly, quite oblivious of his duty. She saw that he hardly looked in her direction. So she quickly dug a hole in the ground and hid in it.
After a while the leopard arrived with the firewood and the monkey with the water, “But where is the meat?” they both exclaimed together.
“Yaaa, she must have escaped,” said the boar, looking around, startled.
“Then you will have to be the meat,” declared the leopard and the monkey and they caught him and killed him.
Mekhay Doma listened to all the confusion and the noise. Then the ground began to get hotter and hotter for the fire had been built right above her. After a while it was becoming quite unbearable and she had to move a little. As she moved the stones on which the pot had been placed moved a little too. The two animals suddenly pricked up their ears in alarm. Mekhay Doma by now could no longer bear the heat and at the risk of being caught again came out of her hiding place. As she emerged, the pot containing all the pieces of meat fell over, spilling everything. The leopard and the monkey both sprang backwards in fright and ran away into the forest saying, “What evil thing is this?”
After Mekhay Doma came out of the ground she dusted herself and looked around. None of the animals was there any more. She wondered what had happened to frighten them off. She rekindled the fire which was dying down, as the water from the pot had spilled on it and roasted some meat which she found there. She ate all she could and carried the rest of the meat home.
Acho Tsagye
So Acho Tsagye cut off the ears too.
Dangbo thik naki wenda, Dingbo thik naki wenda, there were two brothers. Neither of them could remember their parents for they had both died when the two boys were very young. The older brother was rather simple minded but the younger brother was clever and hard working. They loved and cared for each other dearly. The younger brother called his older brother Acho Tsagye or Elder Brother Slow Wit in affection and he came to be known by that name in the village. He was everybody’s Acho Tsagye. He was a strong young man who was often called upon by the villagers to do jobs where physical strength was required.
One day the younger brother went out to plow his fields and he told his brother to make lunch and bring it to the field at midday. “Acho, please make sure that the food is very clean.”
Acho prepared some rice. To go with the rice he cooked some meat and chili, together with circular slices of radish. Then he packed the rice in a bangchung and placed the meat, chili, and radish on the rice. Carrying the bangchung in one hand and a container of singchang in the other, he made his way to the fields. On the way he happened to come across a large pile of cow dung right in the middle of the road. Acho very politely asked the cow dung to move away saying that his brother had asked him to bring his lunch clean. The cow dung of course could not move. Acho Tsagye warned it saying, “If you don’t move I’ll have to move you.”
Still the cow dung would not budge. So the elder brother laid down the food near the dung and picked up a large stone and threw it on the dung with force. The dung being quite fresh splattered and now the open bangchung was full of cow dung. Acho Tsagye wondered what he should to do next. Then suddenly he had an idea. He went to the nearest stream and began to wash the rice grains one by one.
It was now long past midday and the younger brother was hungry and worried. He waited, but Acho Tsagye did not come. So he decided to go and see what the matter was. When he found his brother leaning over the banks of a stream washing the rice grains one by one he was baffled and asked: “Why are you doing that, Acho?”
Acho Tsagye explained what had happened. The younger brother shook his head sadly in disbelief and said, “Aye wa, Acho, listen carefully. I will now go home and eat something. You go to the field and watch the oxen. Don’t let them move away.”
Acho Tsagye made himself comfortable under the shade of a tree.
Lying deep in the soft grass he watched the oxen which were grazing nearby. Then he noticed that they were swishing their tails constantly. He thought, “Ya, I better tell them to stop moving their tails. My brother told me not to let them move.”
So he went to the oxen and he told them to stop moving their tails. But the oxen continued swishing their tails as oxen do to keep away the flies. Acho Tsagye thought he had to stop them. After long and deep consideration he decided that he would cut off the tails so that they would not be able to move. When he cut off the tails the oxen began to flip their ears as oxen do. So Acho Tsagye cut off the ears too. Now the oxen began to run away in pain so he cut off their limbs too. When the younger brother came back to the field he witnessed the most gruesome scene and he was horrified. Acho Tsagye explained proudly how he had stopped the oxen from moving.
The younger brother was helpless and in a moment of extreme frustration decided to leave his brother and run away. Secretly he began to prepare for his escape. He got a large tseseb and every day he filled it up with provisions. Just on the day he was to go Acho Tsagye found the tseseb. He thought, “It looks like my brother is preparing for a journey. I would like to go with him,” so he removed all the provisions from the tseseb and got into it himself. The younger brother saw that Acho Tsagye was not around so he thought this to be a good opportunity. He put his tseseb on his back and ran away. The younger brother walked for a long time. Then he rested his basket on his T-stick and thought aloud, “Here I am, I wonder where my Acho Tsagye is.” Acho Tsagye heard this and he whispered, “I am right behind you.”
The younger brother walked across valleys and climbed mountains. Now he was very tired. So he took the tseseb from his back and started to prepare a fire and clear the area a little so that he could camp there for the night. When he opened the tseseb to take out some food he was shocked, for it was Acho Tsagye who struggled out of the tseseb. He crawled out of the basket with a big grin on his face and stretched out his limbs luxuriously for he had sat cramped in the basket for the whole day. Nothing of the provisions the younger brother had so carefully packed for many days was in it. He was utterly exasperated.
“Don’t worry, we’ll spend the night in that house. I am sure we will also get some food there” said Acho Tsagye as he pointed to a huge house which was not very far from where they were.
The house was very big and very rich but there was nobody inside. So the brothers decided to hide in the ground floor of the house where the domestic animals are usually housed and see who came to occupy the house. The room was huge. The brothers soon noticed that there were different-sized holes in the ceiling of the room and wondered what they were for. They had not been in their hiding place very long when there was a tremendous thumping of feet on the grou
nd so that it shook, and scores of voices roared and rumbled. Then through each of the holes in the ceiling a huge black furry tail hung down. The sinpos had sat down to their evening meal. There were tails of every size. But the biggest tail hung in the middle of all the tails. Acho Tsagye had a great urge to pull on the tails so he said, “Can I pull on one of the tails.”
The younger brother, who was trembling with fear and scarcely daring to breathe, whispered: “No, no, don’t you realize what tails these are? They are the tails of the sinpos. If you touch the tail we will surely be eaten.”
But Acho Tsagye kept on persisting until the younger brother agreed, saying, “If it makes you happy, just touch one very gently.”
Acho Tsagye rolled up his sleeves, spat into his palms, rubbed them together and seizing the largest tail, he began to pull it with all his might. The sinpo jumped up, Acho Tsagye banged his head on the ceiling, “dang”. Then Acho Tsagye pulled with all his strength and the sinpo landed on the floor with a “byaak.” This dang, byaak, dang, byaak continued for a long time. The other sinpos were so shocked and frightened that they all ran off with a tremendous thumping of their feet and the excited rumbling and roaring of their voices. The sinpo and Acho Tsagye were of equal strength and neither would give in. Finally the skin from the sinpo’s tail came off. The sinpo howled in pain and ran off.
Complete silence reigned. Only the sound of the crickets and the occasional screech of an owl could be heard. The brothers waited anxiously but nothing came. Finally they crept out of their hiding place and ventured forth very quietly on tiptoe, but there was no cause for fear as there was not a single sinpo in the house. The two of them sat down and had the sumptuous meal that the sinpos had laid out but had only started to eat.
The next day the brothers knew that the sinpos would come back. So as dusk fell they hid in the roof truss. Soon there was the thundering of voices and the thumping of the feet as the sinpos came back to reclaim their house. The two brothers could watch the sinpos unseen from the roof truss. They were all huge heinous-looking ape-like human beings with lethal-looking fangs. One had a fang that grew upwards so that it touched the ceiling while the other fang grew downwards till it scratched the ground. They all had long tails. The biggest sinpo who was the leader had a raw skinless tail which he carefully nursed every now and then. Soon they made a big fire, on top of which they put an enormous pan of oil. As the oil was being heated Acho Tsagye had the urgent need to relieve himself.
“I need to urinate. Can I urinate into the pan?” The younger brother who was trying to hold his rattling teeth begged him not to. Acho Tsagye kept on insisting. Finally the younger brother said, “If it will make you happy, but just one drop. Please only one drop.” A huge smile of relief spread over his entire face as he began to relieve himself right into the hot pan of oil. The whole pan became a ball of fire and the sparks soon caught on to the fur of the sinpos and they began to shriek and holler in panic. They got up and started to runaway, roaring and screeching with pain.
The two brothers got out of their hiding place and made a meal for themselves and slept peacefully that night. The sinpos did not come back and so the brothers took over the house. There was enough food and clothes to last them for many lifetimes and they were very happy.
One evening, many days after the sinpos had run away, they were eating leab, a thick soup prepared from buckwheat flour with tender buckwheat leaves and juicy bones flavored with pungent acorn peppers. Suddenly they heard the same roaring of voices and the thumping of feet and the sinpos came into the house, shouting, “We’ll tear them apart. We’ll eat their hot flesh and drink up their hot blood.” At once the younger brother got up and began to wrestle with one of the sinpos. But Acho Tsagye continued eating his soup, warning them, “Ya, ya, be careful. You can wrestle as much as you like but don’t spill my soup.”
The younger brother was soon tired and worn out and he knew he was losing the fight. He had to think of something quickly to save himself. He saw his brother sitting in the middle of the room slurping up his soup quite oblivious of what was happening. So he began to edge towards where his brother was sitting. Finally when he could reach the soup bowl with his toes, he kicked it over. At this Acho Tsagye became uncontrollably violent and got up, saying, “Well, if you can’t wrestle without spilling my soup I’ll have to join in too.” He then began systematically to pick up the sinpos one by one and swung them over his head like slings and threw them across the hills and over the mountains. The whole area was filled with the wailing of the defeated sinpos. The moans grew fainter and more distant and finally nothing could be heard. The sinpos would never come back now and the two brothers lived happily and comfortably for the rest of their lives.
The Silly Leopard
He could feel all sorts of sensations and he was sure it was the fish.
Dangbo..o..o Dingbo..o..o.. in a dense forest, somewhere in the rugged Bhutanese mountains, there was a leopard. He had been grievously humiliated by a fox who had played a nasty trick on him. He swore that he would catch the fox and kill him. He traveled all over the forest looking for the fox. One day he saw the fox sitting on the bank of a lake completely preoccupied with something. The leopard at once went towards him. As soon as the fox saw him coming, he gestured to him to be quiet. This made the leopard even more angry and he shouted, “You nasty fox, you think you can trick me again? This time I am going to kill you.”
At this the fox pretended to be very surprised and said as calmly as possible, “Tell me, what is your problem? Maybe I can help you.”
“That nasty trick that you played on me has made me the laughing stock of the entire forest.”
“Which forest?” asked the fox.
“The forest behind the hill,” replied the leopard.
“I knew it” said the fox, “there had to be a mistake. I never go beyond the shores of the lake. I belong to the clan of the peaceful fishing fox. We fish for our food and can only live where there is water and fish.”
The leopard’s curiosity was at once roused. “How do you fish?” he asked.
“It’s quite simple. I just have to sit with my tail dipped in the lake and the fish hang onto it. Then I pull out my tail and there is always more fish than I can eat.”
“Please let me try,” said the leopard.
“Oh, no, this is our means of living, so I cannot let you do it.”
“Please, please, just once,” begged the foolish leopard.
“All right, just this once. Now you must sit very still with your tail dipped in the water and you must pull it out only when the first rays of the morning sun touch the tops of the trees.” So saying the fox sprinted off and disappeared into the forest.
It was winter time, and the lake froze in the night. Sitting in the bright moonlight night watching the sparkling stars, the leopard thrilled at the idea of all the fish attaching themselves to his tail. He could feel all sorts of sensations and he was sure it was the fish. As the first rays of the sun touched the tops of the trees in the forest he tried to pull out his tail but it was frozen fast and he had to struggle and pull vigorously for a long time. Finally he could free himself but the skin from his tail remained frozen in the lake. He howled in pain. Now he was even more determined to catch up with the fox and kill him.
After several days of searching, he spied the fox sitting crouched on his hind legs, holding a drum stick between his paws and chanting strange words and hitting the ground with the drum stick. The leopard jumped upon him and seized him, shouting, “You trickster, look what you have done to me. I am going to kill you!”
Feigning complete innocence the fox said, “I do not know what you are talking about. Before you kill me at least tell me what happened.”
The leopard explained in great detail how the fox had tricked him the first time and made him the laughing stock of the entire forest and how the fox had again tricked him and made him lose the skin off his tail. On hearing this the fox clicked his tongue and shook his head
in sympathy and said, “I wish I had met you before, I could have warned you. Those foxes living on the banks of that lake happen to be my distant cousins and they are known for their trickery. I am so ashamed of them. Please allow me to tell you how sorry I am for your misfortunes.”
The silly leopard at once believed the fox and asked him what he was doing. Of course, the fox was just waiting for the leopard to ask him that question. The fox laid down his drum sticks and looking at them fondly, he said, “I am a drum fox. I live by drumming. I hit the ground and when I have drummed it enough and chanted all the right words, delicious honey just pours out of the ground. I do not eat anything but honey so I do not go anywhere beyond this area.”
Once again the leopard became very curious and asked, “Do you think I could try some of the honey?”
“Of course you can try, but at the moment I don’t have any. In fact if you had not stopped to talk with me, I was just ready to get some.”
“Please let me try. What should I do?”
The cunning fox looked around, saying, “As you will be tasting the honey only once in your lifetime let me find the best spot for you.”
Having said this he put his ear to the ground and listened to the steady buzz of bees in an underground hive. Then he taught the leopard some nonsensical words and asked him to hit on the ground with the drum sticks as hard as he could. The leopard took the drum sticks and chanting the nonsensical words he began to hit the ground with great enthusiasm. By this time the cunning fox had quietly walked off without even so much as a backward glance.
It was not long before the ground broke open and the angry swarm of frenzied bees came bursting out, with great ferocity and stung the leopard mercilessly. He shrieked and waved his paws and jumped on his hind legs but the thoroughly infuriated bees would not leave him till they were satisfied.
Folktales of Bhutan Page 8
