There was once a slave-girl named Reile in Hangrum, and one feast-day one of the dekachangs made a song on her name, as if she were a mithan for sacrifice. Having made the song, they killed her or she died, I do not know which, and they buried her. In

There were once eight brothers whose parents had died, and having nothing to eat they went to the jhums and searched for tubers which the villagers had thrown away. A heramepai came, and said: "Grandchildren, what are you doing?" They said: "Grandmother, we have nothing to eat, and our parents

The quail and the squirrel were going to make a boundary between their lands. The squirrel hit the quail, and the quail wept. The barking deer asked why he wept. "The squirrel took my land and hit me, that is why I am weeping." The deer said: "I will see

Once upon a time there was a boy called Amang, and his parents died when he & his sister were very young. Some people gave them a little, most people did not. When all the villagers went with daos to clear the new jhums, Amang went too, but he had

The leopard-cat and the night-jar were friends. They went walking together. The leopard-cat said: "We are only walking together like this; where is your house?" The night-jar showed him her nest at the top of a tree and said: "That's my house." The night-jar asked the cat: "Where do you

The tortoise said to the marten: "Friend, let us work in each other's fields. Today we will go to your fields, tomorrow we will go to mine." "Very well," said the marten. They went to the marten's fields and worked away until noon. The marten had brought zu and rice

There was once a small boy and every day when his parents went to the fields he used to run weeping after them and clamour to be taken too. They took him home, but he ran after them again, and they struck him and scolded him and took him back

Once, they say, there was a man who went hunting with his eight dogs, and they got so much meat that the house was full of it. He put it in a basket to dry, and it became a woman, and the man married her. Every day the man and

Once there was a man named Nriemreng, and every day while he and his wife were in the fields his little son used to play in the village. Now there was a certain woman who greatly desired to marry Nriemreng; and she used to call the boy and play with

The tortoise went to the marten's jhum. They worked away all morning, and after a while the tortoise asked: "What shall we eat for our midday meal?" "Be quiet," said the marten. "There is food for us." They worked on and on and it was noon. There was food at

The monkey and the barking-deer were friends. The monkey said: "Pretend to be lame." The deer pretended to be lame. A man saw the deer and cried: "Look, look, a deer has gone lame! We'll catch it, we'll catch it!" All the villagers ran out after the deer, and the

A man used to set basket-traps to catch fish, but every night an otter came and ate the fish in the traps. The man was angry, and said: “Who is eating all my fish? I will set a trap.

Neomi’s descendants determined to build a tower so as to return to Heaven, whence their ancestor came. They built a wooden tower, and when it was very high a man at the top called down for more wood.

A  number of women once went down to the river to fish, and one of them  who was a little ahead of the others found a spot where a hornbill had  been killed by some bird of prey, and its feathers were scattered all  over the ground. There was one

Once  there was a Kachari Raja, and he married, and his wife bore him a  daughter. When she grew up she was very beautiful and the Raja her  father wished to take her for his wife. He called all his people and his  servants together, and said: “Listen! Men sow

The Birth of the Spirit. A Zeme Naga Folktale from Ursula Graham's Collection 1940-1944

Once  there was a boy whose parents had died, and he lived in the house of  some relatives, but the man and his wife constantly ill-treated him.  When he went with the other young people to work in the fields the woman  used to give him food to take with