A Folktale from Nagaland.
Folktales are stories, passed down from generation to generation orally
“One day; millions of years ago, when the earth was covered by trees, God asked the first man, who was called Nanga Baiga, and the first woman, who was called Naanga Baigin, how they were to survive on earth. He reminded them that whatever they did they must always be good to the earth for she was their mother.
Nanga Baiga said he wanted to grow plants that they could eat. So he wanted to cut down the trees in the forest. God agreed.
Nanga Baiga cut down all the trees that he could see. Then he broke off the branches, chopped up the trunks, dried them in the sun, and set fire to the wood. The fire burnt for days, till all the wood was ash. Then it began to rain, and the rain lasted for seven days.
God appeared again. He gave Nanga Baiga some seeds and told him how to sow them. Nanga Baiga did as he was told, and spread the seeds.
Then God told Nanga Baiga to go home and sleep for a few months, and not to worry about anything. After four months, Nanga Baiga awoke, and he saw with wonder that his fields were full of grain.
After a few years, Nanga Baiga and Nanga Baigin had two sons. The older farmed using the same techniques as his father did. The younger one, who liked to invent things, made a plough and dug furrows in the land so that the crops would grow better.
Soon both the brothers married, and had children and grandchildren. The earth began to complain. ‘God’, she cried, ‘look at the way all these people wound me and make tears in my breast. I am ill and exhausted. I cannot go on producing grass, and trees, and flowers, and fruit, and grain. Tell me what to do.’
God was angry at the way Nanga Baiga and his family had wounded and used mother earth. <he said, ‘Strike them down, with flood, and storms, and disease.’
That is how disease and natural disasters came to be.”
Eunice de Souza was born and grew up in Pune, in a Goan Catholic family. She studied English literature with an MA from the Marquette University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. from the University of Mumbai. She taught English at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and was Head of the Department until her retirement. She was involved in the well-known literary festival Ithaka organized at the college.
She has also been involved in theater, both as an actress and director. Her published works include four books of poems, four edited anthologies, two novels; and several books for children.
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