Details

Latitude

28.12485

Longitude

94.35585

Start Date

2015-03-22

End Date

2015-03-22

This is a folktale about a young woman named kiinə hɨkkɨ mumdii and a man named ladaŋ joŋgo lɨoo. The speaker called this story a mɨɨho-ŋothonam, or an unpleasant story, by which he means that it recounts happenings that he wouldn't wish on anyone. It happened that kiinə hɨkki mumdii ate some food which was offered to her family from a lady named pondo nari, who had come to her house with a marriage proposal. The young girl ate the food without realizing that by taking the food she was accepting the marriage proposal of ladaŋ joŋgo lɨoo to become her own husband. Two or three years passed, but her husband never came to claim or visit her. One day she decided to go to the house of her in-laws. Such event is called milo dukkaŋ. When she arrived at her in-laws house, the in-laws told her that her husband had left for hunting and would not return for many days. She returned a second time, and was told the same again; however, this time she went inside the house and found a diminutive man with a large goitre lying near the fireplace. She realized that he in fact was ladaŋ joŋgo lɨoo, her husband. Seeing this she fled from the house and went to several places, including tako taləŋ ɲioo and kojum koje to look for someone who could perform a ɲamdum pɨnnam ('bride exchange'). But it turned out that everyone's efforts were somehow defeated by ladaŋ joŋgo lɨoo. Finally, kiinə hɨkhɨ mumdii returned to landaŋ joŋgo lɨoo, resigned to stay as his wife. One day she became pregnant, and her belly grew far beyond the normal size. When she finally gave birth, more than ten children came out, one after the other. Seeing this, the husband decided to mark each one on the ear in order to identify them. This was done by attaching a pakraŋ iron like a ring. However, there were not enough pakraŋ for all of the children, so that some of them did not get marked. These children became the lizards, snakes, chameleons and various other reptiles. The rest of the marked children went on to live as human beings.

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