As a young boy growing up, I had always loved and enjoyed listening to stories narrated by elders, parents, uncles or for that matter anyone. The stories could be legends, biblical stories, war stories, historical stories, adventure stories or stories associated with famous and legendary personalities. But a good story well narrated to me was what it took to make a day or an evening really meaningful for me.
An even today I still remember many of these stories which I heard while I was still a small boy. One such story is the story of the three brothers – the man, the tiger and the spirit.
According to a legend of the Angamis, man, tiger and spirit were sons of one man and there was a time when these three lived as brothers under the same roof. Of these, the spirit was the eldest and the man was the youngest while the tiger was the middle one. The spirit and the man were quite liberal and reasonable in their thinking and behavior and they got along well. But the temperament of the tiger was quite different from those of his brothers and it was a difficulty to deal with him on many issues.
As the years rolled by, there came a time when their mother became old and fragile and could not move out of the house anymore. Thereupon, the three brothers decided that they would take turns to look after their ailing mother. It was agreed upon that one of them would stay at home everyday and look after her while the other two go out. Whenever the man or the spirit stayed with their mother, their mother would be in high spirits as both the man and the spirit really took great care of their mother. However, whenever the tiger stayed with the mother, their mother was weakened to the extreme. This was so because the whole day the tiger would kiss the different parts of his mother’s body and say ‘mummy, I would love to taste this part’.
Then one day, their mother died while the man was staying with her. Upon this, the man and the spirit began to ponder about an ideal spot to bury their mother. This was so because if she was not buried properly in an ideal spot, the possibility was always there that their brother (the tiger) might dig out her body and eat it. After much considerations and deliberations, the spirit and the tiger thought that the best spot to bury their mother would be the fireplace. Therefore, they dug their mother’s grave in the fireplace and buried her there beneath the fireplace.
When the tiger came home that evening and enquired about their mother, neither the spirit nor the man gave him any proper reply. The tiger went about smelling every nook and corner of the house and compound but could not detect the spot as their mother had been buried beneath the fireplace and cooking was being done in the fireplace. This is why the Angamis still hold the view that it is not taboo to make fire above a grave or in a graveyard.
After the death of their mother, because of the differences in their temperament and nature, there also came a time when the three brothers realized that they could no longer live together as brothers under the same roof and that it would be best for all of them to separate and go their own ways. But here also, a problem cropped up as both the man and the tiger preferred to live in the village and not in the jungle.
Therefore, to settle this issue as to who would live in the village and who in the jungle, the three brothers decided to conduct a race for the man and the tiger. A piece of cloth was to be hung at the end of a field and the man and the tiger were to run across the field and touch the cloth. Whoever touches the cloth first would be the one to live in the village and the loser would be sent into the jungle.
This was undoubtedly a competition where the man stood no chance. There was not even an iota of chance that the man would beat his brother (the tiger) in such a race as the tiger could run much faster than the man. But as mentioned above, the sprit and the man were close to one another and therefore they agreed upon a plan to beat the tiger in this race which the tiger was sure to win under normal circumstances.
The plan was that when the tiger would be approaching the target, the spirit would shoot the hung cloth with his catapult. And when the hung cloth moves as a result of this shot, the man was to tell the tiger ‘I have touched the cloth’.
Finally, the anticipated race took place and sure enough the tiger sped away leaving his younger brother (the man) far behind. But as the tiger was approaching the hung cloth, the spirit fired his catapult and hit the hung cloth and when the cloth moved, the man yelled ‘I have touched first’. The tiger looked up and saw the cloth moving and accepted his defeat. It was said that this was how the tiger came to live in the jungle while the man came to occupy the village.
In the course of time, probably the man and the spirit also separated and went their separate ways. And when the man came to realize that all men would surely die one day, he sent one of his animals (‘Tenya’ in Tenyiedie) to his elder brother (the spirit) and requested the spirit to let men die according to their age i.e. the elders dying ahead of the youngsters. However, the entrusted animal (the ‘Tenya’) delivered the message wrongly to the spirit telling that both the elders and the youngsters should die randomly and not according to their age. This is the reason why, according to this Angami legend, death comes randomly to us irrespective of our age.
Khrietuonyü Noudi hails from L. Khel, Kohima Village and has a post-graduate degree in political science from Delhi University
