Sakhi Darlong Myth

       Once upon a time, there lived a widower who goes hunting every day. One day, the widower’s Kar ( a typical Darlong trap usually made to hunt down animals that does not crawl) made shot down a beautiful she-deer. The widower brought the deer home, peeled off the skin, cooked a portion of the meat and fermented a portion of it hanging over a Rap to consume it as Sahroi (fermented meat). Aftermath of the incident (which was nothing new to the widower), kept up his schedule going undisturbed. One certain day, as he returned from his tiresome day work the widower found that his evening meal had been cooked by someone. He was greatly happy to learn that someone in the village cared about him. He ate the prepared food and slept for the night. The next, day, widower once again went out to work at a jhum. At dusk, he returned home and found his meal prepared well before his arrival. The widower once again was happy to learn that someone in the village do understood his loneliness. The next day, the widower taking his spear, bow and arrows went out to hunt. On his return, the widower once again found that his meal had been prepared by someone. The widower was left in great surprise and inquired about it in his neighborhood but none seemed to know anything about it. The incident continued day after day making the widower grow all the more inquisitive. Thus, the widower finally decided to discover the person behind the mystery.

            The next morning, the widower pretended to go out for work and hid himself in one corner of his house. Towards the latter part of the day, the widower began to hear some noise at his kitchen. His surprise knew no bound when he found out that the fermented meat transformed into a beautiful damsel and cooked his food. The man jumped upon the damsel and caught hold of her.

‘Leave me alone and let me go’ the damsel shouted.

‘I cannot do so, unless you promise to marry me’ replied the widower.

‘Please let me go. I cannot marry you, for you will call me Sakhi-Darlong after the marriage’ insisted the damsel. However, the widower rigid of his decision continued on his appeal. The damsel having no other option made a condition saying, ‘Make a promise never to call me Sakhi-Darlong anytime or anywhere once I stay to marry you’. The widower readily accepted and promised never to call the damsel Sakhi Darlong. The widower thus was married to a beautiful damsel.

            Seeing the widower beautiful wife, other men of the village grew jealous of the widower but none dared to say a word. With the passing of time, the couple were blessed with two children. Everything was working well for the family until one day when the husband of Sakhi Darlong attended a wine fest. During the wine fest, the husband of Sakhi Darlong did not return home at expected time. So, Sakhi Darlong sent her children to look for their father. The children went to their father and asked him to come home. The latter replied, ‘I will be back within a while’. The mother sent her children for the second time yet the husband gave a similar answer. The children were sent for the third and fourth time that provoked the once-widower (who was in a drunken state by then) to anger. He shouted at his children, ‘Tell your mother, Sakhi-Darlong not to unnecessarily pester me. Go home and never come again’. The children returned back home and their mother enquired what their father had said. The elder son replied, ‘It is nothing serious mother. He said that he will be coming soon’. However, the suckling, not knowing what the consequence would be told the truth saying ‘my father said, tell your mother Sakhi Darlong not to pester anymore’. Sakhi Darlong kept silent for a while as the words hurt her beyond expression. All of a sudden, ‘Hawt’ shouted the Sakhi Darlong and in a spur of moment transformed herself into a deer breaking their spoon and bearing it as earrings. She asked her children, ‘Do I look beautiful, dear ones’

‘Yes, mother’ replied the suckling.

‘No, not at all’ answered the elder one.

‘Hawt’ shouted the Sakhi-Darlong for the second time and disappeared leaping off through the window. The children cried for their mother but to no avail. The husband of Sakhi-Darlong returned home late at night drunk and found his children asleep.

            The next morning, the children informed their father about the incident who showed no difference to their lost. Since, the younger child was yet a suckling, he began to weep in thirst. At this, his elder brother took him to a forest calling for their mother (in a form of song);    

‘Ki nu, ki nu,

Kinu Sakhi-Darlong,

Sipsepa’n thlum tui a hral’.

(Translation: my mother, my mother, my mother Sakhi-Darlong, my baby brother is thirsty)

The young boy kept reaping his lines for some time. After a while, a huge she-deer appeared, approached the children and showed up her breast so that the suckling boy could quench his thirst. Thereafter, the she-deer once again disappeared in the jungle. Every day the two brothers would go to the jungle sitting under a tree and sing their song. One day, the children’s father grew suspicious of his children’s action and decided to spy on them. Thus, he discovered the secret of his children.

            The very next day, the husband of Sakhi-Darlong called his neighbors and friends saying ‘there is a huge she-deer at my Chul. Let us hunt it down’. In the afternoon, the children went to the jungle and sang;

‘Ki nu, ki nu,

Kinu Sakhi-Darlong,

Sipsepa’n thlum tui a hral’.

Once again, the she-deer appeared and fed her sucking child. The elder son also informed his mother Sakhi-Darlong about his father’s plan to hunt her down. On hearing the plan, Sakhi-Darlong asked her children not to worry. Sakhi-Darlong then asked her children to undertake a small task, ‘when your father and his men would slay me, take my blood and apply it to the Phunchawng  tree beside the house. My spirit shall survive in the tree’. Sakhi-Darlong’s husband and his men hunted the she-deer and brought home alive. When one of the hunters cut the throat of the she-deer, the children took the blood and applied it on the tree as asked by their mother. Sakhi-Darlong’s spirit survived in the Phunchawng tree from thence.

            The next afternoon, the two brothers sat under the Phunchawng tree and the elder brother sung;

‘Ki nu, ki nu,

Kinu Sakhi-Darlong,

Sipsepa’n thlum tui a hral’.

At this, the Phunchawng (cotton) tree shortened itself so that the suckling could suck the flowers and quenched his thirst. In fact, the two brothers would spend their entire day under the tree playing and laughing with one another. Every time, the two brothers go to the tree, the tall tree would shorten itself or bend down its trunks full of flowers for the children to suck.

            With the passing of time, the children were suspected by their father who later came to know about the existence of Sakhi-Darlong in the tree and decided to cut the tree once and for all. The children once again informed their mother about their father’s intention and the mother asked her children to take the first piece that sprung off while axing the tree and threw it into a lake. On the next day, Sakhi-Darlong’s husband took a huge axe and began to axed the tree. No sooner did a piece of it sprung from the tree, the children took the piece and threw it into a lake beside their village. The piece of chopped tree transformed into a huge whale. The children thereafter go to the lake every afternoon when their father goes for hunting. Nevertheless, the secret couldn’t last for long as their father once again came to learn about it. So he called upon his villagers for another time to get rid of the whale in the lake. The children once again informed their mother, Sakhi-Darlong about their father’s plan. Sakhi-Darlong told her children to keep cheating their father and the villagers by misdirecting them when they fish for her. Hence, the two children standing on the bank of the lake and shout, ‘upward’ when the whale moved downward and ‘downward’ when she moved upward. In spite of the children’s effort, the whale was caught by the fishers and was brought to land. As soon as the whale was brought to land, she swept her children with her tail and disappeared in the lake. It was claimed that the children also turned into whale. Hence, the Darlong do not consume a whale anytime considering it to be a potent

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