Tribal folktales from Arunachal Pradesh

(From Myths of the North-East Frontier of India, by Verrier Elwin, 1958, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, New Delhi.)

Abotani and the Yapom, Galo, Subansiri.

At the very beginning Sichi-Chitu-Tuni gave birth to two brothers, Yapom the elder and Abo-Tani the younger.  The brothers lived near each other on the spur of a great hill.  Yapom gave Abo-Tani mithuns, pigs, fowls and dogs but in his own house he had only wild animals, tigers, deer, porcupines, bears.  But Abo-Tani's animals often used to visit Yapom's house and this annoyed him. "Why don't you look after your animals properly?" he said.
This led to a quarrel and the brothers decided to live seperately.  Abo-Tani said, "Let us divide the land and each make his own house and live there".  Yapom said, "Very well;  I will take the low land in the valleys".  But Abo-Tani said, "No, I want that: You go to the hills."  Yapom said, "Well, I will go to the hills."
When they divided the land, they killed a mithun and shared the meat between them.  Yapom carried his share away, but it was too heavy for Abo-Tani.  He was wondering what to do, when Tapeng the bat came out from beneath a stone.  Abo-Tani asked him to be his porter, but Tapeng took the meat to his own cave.  He also took the mithun horns and set them over the door.

When Abo-Tani realized that he had been tricked, he went to find Tapeng. He reached the cave and recognized the horns above the door.  He caught hold of them and Tapeng flew out.  Abo-Tani seized him and was about to kill him with his dao.  But Tapeng persuaded him to tie bits of wood to his wings and set fire to them.  This is why the bat is black.


But Tapeng did not die.  He flew to Yapom's village and burnt his house and granaries and his wives and children perished in the flames.  Yapom and his clan began to fight with Abo-Tani. Dige-Wiyu was born from Sichi-Nido (earth and heaven) to bring the war to an end.  This Wiyu was white in colour.  He separated the enemies and said, "From Abo-Tani will come the race of men, from Yapom the race of Wiyus."
Dige-Wiyu divided the land and wrote down his orders.  For Abo-Tani he wrote on skin, for Yapom he wrote on stone.  Abo-Tani took the skin home, but one day when he was hungry he roasted and ate it.  This is why the children of Abo-Tani know nothing of reading and writing.

Pasi, Siang Frontier Division.


One day the wiyus captured a man and retained him captive. To release him, his kin offered to the kidnappers poultry, pigs and a mithun which they brought to the mountains. The wiyus accepted the ransom and promised to free their prisoner. But in the evening, instead of their brother, the men saw the cattle returning home.  They immediately, took the animals back to the country of the wiyus, but once again they returned to the flat area where the Pasi Adi live. For the third time, the men went to the mountains, and tried to settle the affair with the wiyus:
“We have given you, twice, those that you asked, but each time you have driven them back to us, and still you will not release our brother".   The wiyus explained that as long as the cattle returned back they would keep the prisoner. This gave the men an idea: “We will kill the animals and their souls will go to you, rather than return to us.”. This marked the first sacrifices and the prisoner was released. (Originally from  Myths of the North-East Frontier of India, by Verrier Elwin, 1958, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, New Delhi.)

Hrusso (Aka), Buragoan, Kameng.

Below the earth there is a great creature called Phum-Badra and the world rests upon its back.  Its head is turned towards the rising sun and its back towards the sunset.  There is an insect called Chunchi- Raba- Rubbu and from time to time it flies down to Phum-Badra and says, “I have come from the face of the earth to tell you that all men and animals are dead.”  This makes Phum-Badra very sad and he begins to weep and his whole body trembles and shakes the world. 
When the earth quakes the birds and animals of the forest cry loudly and men shout in fear crying, “We are here, we are here”, and when he hears the noise Phum-Badra realizes that he has been deceived and stops shaking the earth. 



(From A New Book of Tribal Fiction, Verrier Elwin, 1970, Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh).

The Cricket and the Crab (Adi tale)

A long time ago a Wiyu had a daughter, Cricket, and a son, Crab.  After the birth of Crab, his father died and the mother, unable to do the heavy work of the fields resolved to go to Tibet to trade.  As she was about to leave, her little daughter ran to her and begged her to come back soon and the other noticed that the girl’s hair was full of lice. 
She thought, “If I leave her here like this, the lice will get into the boy’s hair too.  I had better take her with me.”
So mother and daughter went together to Tibet leaving the boy behind. 
While the mother was trading skins for salt and wool in Tibet, she died but her daughter like the country so much that she decided to fetch her little brother and settle there.  She went home but when she asked Crab to go with her, he refused.  She tried to drag him along, but he was too strong for her and in a fit of temper she beat him with her dao and broke his legs.  He scuttled away to hide in a hole under a pile of stones.  Ever since the crab’s legs have been bent and he has lived in holes and under stones. 
But Cricket returned to Tibet and every year in the rains still comes to see her brother.  But he hides when he hears her song.

What Happened to the Snakes (Adi tale)

A certain Wiyu live in a very rainy village with his two snake-sons, Bunja and Bidak.  He later had two other sons, one a tiger and one a bear. 
When he grew up, the bear was sent by his father to get him vegetables and roots from the forest.  But he liked the forest so well and got so much to eat that he stayed there and never came home. 
Then the Wiyu sent his son the tiger to get him meat, but all the tiger did was to steal a mithun from Abing-Nibo’s village.  The next day he went again and this time he stole a pig.  The third day, Abong-Nibo was waiting for him and gave him a good beating with the tongs from his hearth:  They made stripes all over his body.  “Thief!” he cried, and spat at him and made round blobs on his body. 
The tiger ran weeping to his mother.  “Son”, she said, “these are men, the sons of Tani.  If you steal their things you’ll be in trouble.  It is better not to go anywhere near them.  Hunt in the forest instead; it will be safer and much more fun.”  So the tiger went to the forest and got so much to eat there that he never returned home.
When the snakes heard that a mere son of Tani had dared to beat their brother, they were angry and went to Abing-Nibo’s village and began to kill the people there.  But Abing-Nibo caught them and took them to the village of Wiyus, where he held a Council to decide what should be done. 
The Wiyus said, “Take out their fangs as punishment and take their beads as compensation.”
Abing-Nibo agreed, but when he threw away the fangs all kinds of poisonous snakes were born from them.  Bunja and Bidak have ever since been without poison and run away whenever they see a man, but he other snakes still attack human beings in revenge for their lost beads.

 Sleep and Love (Adi tale)

Originally men did not sleep but worked both day and night.  But the Wiyus of the mountains and the Wiyus of the rivers did not like this and they went to Sitking-Kedeng and said, “If these people work so much they’ll spoil our hills and we’ll have nowhere to live.”
Sitking-Kedeng said, “Don’t worry, I’ll see to it.”
Now the spirits of night, male and female, came into being far below the surface of the earth.  They grew up and married each other and had many children, boys and girls, and they built a large village for they were just like human beings. 

One day the Wiyu boys and girls went to a human village and caught the souls of the boys and girls and took them home and after that people began to sleep.  The Wiyu boys take the souls of human girls and marry them.  Then in the morning everyone goes home.  

4 comments:

  1. Can anyone give more information about Yapom? Yapom is a spirit. How does he look?

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  2. "Unlike the other Nagas, the Wanchos, together with the Nocte and a small minority of the Konyak, still retain the belief of ‘Animism’. It means that they believe in the existence of two powerful deities, Rang and Baurang." - It would be great to know more about these deities if anyone has information.


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  3. Very good website
    Iam very happy to read website
    Thanks 👍👍

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  4. Can anybody please help me to confirm that if these folktales could be written in the school projects?

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