Raphael Warjri

During the ceremonial distribution of power and attributes, gigantic animals like elephants, rhinoceroses are given sturdy hides and strength, tigers and bears with claws and strength, porcupines with spikes, snakes with venom, hawks and eagles with vivid distant vision,  owls and bats with nocturnal ability, birds with wings and flight in the sky and fishes to swim in water and so on and so forth. Human beings are faithfully engaged with their duties and arrive late for the ceremony. There are no more attributes to be bestowed upon human beings and they are left with no option but to accept the gift of intelligence from the divine entity. Subsequently, a divine assembly was convened for all the animated creatures to aver their ways of sustenance and survival on earth. Human beings declared before the congregation that they would live to earn righteousness, live to uphold the human and divine conscience, live to abide by maternal and paternal kinship. In Khasi parlance it is known as “Imsngi ban kamai ïa ka hok, tipbriew tipblei bad tipkur tipkha”. However, in the divine assembly, there is a governing council of nobles where human beings are given the supreme power over the other creatures on earth. Among other creatures, the serpent and the tiger are also the honourable nobles in the governing council. Both of them are envious of human beings because of their extraordinary physical strength and they vowed to avenge human beings. Ultimately, the mammon-serpent or ‘Thlen’ emerged before the governing council and proclaimed in the congregation to live in human blood and earn abundant wealth or “Ban im da ka longbynriew, kamai da ka longspah” in Khasi terminology. The exclamation of the mammon-serpent signifies an avid vow to terminate mankind and accumulate an enormous amounts of wealth. In view of this audacious statement by the mammon-serpent, the divine entity pronounced a verdict to sterilise the venom and chase away the mammon-serpent beneath the nine strata of the subterranean or ‘Khyndai pateng ñiamra” in Khasi. Thus, the python is one among reptiles that did not possess a venomous substance in its biological system and lives in caves and caverns.

During the golden era, ‘Aïom Ksiar’, all the creations on earth were mortal and encountered various stages of growth at different seasons of their lifespan and experienced suffering, misery, sorrow, and all negative misfortunes from the action and reactions of fellow creatures and parasites, except for human beings who were protected by a providential defense mechanism. Human beings possess eternal life and the recurring cycle of life rotates within every individual and, collectively, the human species is everlasting. The chief of human society, Syiem Nongklung, was curious about other creatures and desired to experience sorrow, suffering, misery and death for human beings also. At one point in time, he mocked the death of his child with a fake creature and intimated the supreme divine being Thawkur, about the sad incident. Thawkur was astonished and probed the unfortunate incident, but discovered an effigy that was false, because it was confirmed that the protective mechanism against the plague was in tact as per the divine sanction. The plague or ‘Khlam’ is the component of all the miseries and misfortune that prevail on earth. The unfounded curiosity of Syiem Nongklung affects entire human beings because the protection from the peril of a plague was withdrawn and, since then, humans are liable to taste all the miseries of life, including death. The effigy transformed into a stone and remained at Nongkhrah village till today.

When death occurred in humankind, the mourning tune emerged as the expression of grief over the dead person in society. In joyfulness and merrymaking, in festivals and celebrations, there are various tunes and songs for particular occasion, but never for the mourning of death. Thence, they hunted for monkeys, fleeced the skin; they cut down a tree and carve into a shape of a Khasi folk violin, maryngod; and so the sad musical notes reverberated from the strings of maryngod. The maryngod is a string instrument played with a bow and the folk tune for mourning is called 'Jamlu', even as other form of musical connotation is played on other occasion in accompaniment with other instruments like the flute, Jew's harp and percussion. Maryngod originated and designed for songs of lamentation, which both male and female members grieve. Therefore, male and female maryngod is distinctively designed with the lower portion can be easily differentiate between the male and the female version. The mourning tune called 'Jamlu' is being performed during the funeral ceremonies and it was mentioned that even the soul of the dead would partake in the mourning chant.

One day a farmer took his maryngod to the paddy field and while keeping vigil, he relaxed at the makeshift branch of the banyan tree and played the musical instrument. Suddenly, the malevolent creature like a vampire emerged from the tree after it heard the solemn melody. The vampire challenged the man to play, while she danced on the ground, till whoever was exhausted from the performance. The creature dared to devour him if he defeated. The man did not have any options and was  compelled to compete against the vampire and did not realise that, ultimately, the vampire was  tired and totally exhausted. The man was delighted and immediately jumped over and swiftly hit her with his machete on her chest, but the creature did not die. The man was nervous and vigorously stabbed from every part of her body, but still she did not die. The farmer persisted with all his might and ability to kill the vampire, but till dawn his effort was in vain. Just then the red-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer) appeared and squeaks and the farmer noticed its intention to intervene. He told the bulbul that he could not terminate the life of the vampire. The bulbul offered the farmer her help to do the job. In her own way of communication, the bulbul squeaked in such a manner that he could comprehend her instruction. The farmer followed her instructions and sharpened the bamboo piece known as kdait kasing and pierced through the chest of the vampire. Subsequently, the farmer pulled out the bloodstained bamboo and wiped in the rump of the bulbul. Since that incident the tail of the bulbul is always red and the evil spirits would not dare to dance with human ever after.

Thawkur longblei shisha, Meihukum juban la khlei

La buh la sam bynta, ki jynthaw te ha pyrthei;

Bormet tyngam ban ktha, bih ka sni ba par lynnong;

Niangkhlaw ryngkat u khla, ñianglartham, tyrpud, seiñiong.

Ha suiñ kaweh thapniang, hapoh um da shnet ba jngi;

Ki Sim la sner ki siang, Dohkha dohpnat,  u triang, dohthli.

La dum synñia ki tur, ki ba sngew ne ki ba tba;

Lymbit, dkhoh, labadur, thliem, u ktiar ne mrad kynsha.

Janor jabieng baproh, bhah bynriew te ba la mang;

Kyntien ba kren la thoh, bor longsyiem jynthaw naphang.

Juban bynriew kunok, dorbarblei ba la sawa;

Kamai te ia ka hok, tipbriew tipblei, tipkur tipkha.

U thlen na krem dymmiew, khlei juban ba la kam rhah;

Ban im da longbynriew, ban kamai da ka longspah.