v FOLK-LORE 95

Another story connected with this feast is that Thlandropa
gave a number of presents : to the ancestor of the Poi or Chin
tribes he gave a fighting dao, while the ancestor of the Lushais
only received a cloth, which is the reason that the Poi tribes
are braver than the Lushais. On my asking what the ancestor
of the white man had received, I was told he had received the
knowledge of reading and writing—a curious instance of the pen
being considered mightier than the sword.

Thlandropa appears to have been a great person in his day,
for he is supposed to have received Khuavang's daughter in
marriage, giving in exchange a gun, the report of which we call
thunder. This legend puts Khuavang on a par with Pathian,
and supports the theory that the differentiation is of com-
paratively recent growth.

There is a legend that the king of the Water Huai fell in
love with Ngai-ti (loved one) and, as she rejected his addresses
and ran away, he pursued her and surrounded the whole
human race on the top of a hill called Phun-lu-buk, said to be
far away to the north-east. As the water kept on rising, to
save themselves the people threw Ngai-ti into the flood, which
thereupon receded. It was the running off of this water
which cut up the surface of the world, which Chhura had
levelled, into the deep valleys and high hill ranges of which
the whole world as known to the ancestors of the Lushais con-
sisted.

As a sample of the second class of tale, the following story
regarding the origin of the Tui-chong river, which joins the
Kurnaphuli, near Demagri, may be taken:—

Nine miles from Demagri, on the Lungleh road, the traveller
has to cross the Tui-chong river, one of the largest tributaries
of the Kurnaphuli, on which Chittagong stands. This river?
according to the Lushais, owes its origin to the self-denial of a
girl called Tui-chongi, who, with her little sister Nuengi, was
walking on the hills whence the river rises. It was April, and
the sun blazed down on them. Nuengi began to cry for water.
" How can I get you water on the top of a hill ? Don't you
know that all the springs are dry, for are not the jhums ready
to be burnt ?" " Water, water, or I shall die," wailed Nuengi.
" Would you rather have water than me ?" asked Tui-chongi.