| caption: |
myth concerning separation into tribes |
| text: |
In explanation of their seperation into tribes with different languages, they relate that the three grand-sons of the above chief, while one day all playing together in their house, were told by their father to catch a rat, that they were busy about it, when being suddenly struck with a confusion of tongues, they were unable to effect their object. The eldest son spoke the Lamyang, the second the Thado, and the third, some say, the Waiphie and some the Munnipore language. Thus they broke into distinct tribes. Although occupants of the hills to the South of the Valley of Munnipore, their traditions do not give the southern hills as the place of their origin, but rather lead them to the belief that it was in the North. I have before noticed the circumstance of the Koupooees believing themselves to be occupying the sites of villages which once belonged to the southern tribes, and as this belief tallies with the Khongjai idea, that they came from the North I might conjecture, the latter had formerly occupied the position now occupied by the Koupooees, but the Khongjais themselves do not (57) even hint this to be the case. |
