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Audiobook edition · 4 h 40 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if hills could judge, rivers could speak, and the forest held powers you ignored at your peril?
In Folk-Tales of the Khasis, Mrs. Rafy gathers traditional stories from the Khasi people of Meghalaya in northeast India. These separate short tales lead into a world of hills, rivers, forests and animals, where the landscape takes an active part in events. They ask how the world comes to look as it does, and how people ought to live.
The collection brings together tales of living nature, animal quarrels and spirits that share the land. Cunning, greed, patience and pride take shape through creatures and their encounters. Unseen powers of water and forest demand care within these stories. Behind each tale lies a community's memory, carried by speech and shared through its history and values.
What you’ll discover
- A landscape with a voice Meet hills, rivers, trees and animals that act, speak and judge.
- Quarrels that reveal character Find human faults and virtues reflected in the disputes of animals.
- The unseen close at hand Explore tales where spirits share familiar places and ignoring them carries consequences.
- Questions about the world Discover stories that explain the shapes and features of the natural world.
- Memory carried through stories Encounter Khasi history and values through tales passed from person to person.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy myths that explain nature, animal fables with sly heroes, and stories tied to real hills, rivers and waterfalls. Families choosing tales to read aloud should know that some contain graphic violence, child murder, cannibalism and suicide.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Sky tales explain eclipses, thunder and the moon
- Hills, trees and rivers carry old stories
- Clever small animals outwit the strong and proud
- Vanity, greed and laziness bring their own ruin
- Love and grief shape customs of mourning and welcome
- Gods, demons and dragons test the people
- The last tale gathers many themes in one
Who’s who
- Ka NamA beautiful girl carried off by a tiger, she escapes with a mouse's help and wraps herself in a toadskin.
- Ka SngiThe Sun, a kind and generous goddess who shelters the girl and later faces the giant toad.
- U RaitongA poor man thought half-witted who plays his flute in secret at night and mourns his family.
- Ka BthuhA wealthy woman of Cherra who plots to stop the giant U Ramhah from robbing her people.
- U Babam DohA boy whose tears become gold, and who sets out to clear his mother's name and his father's.
- Ka LikaiA young mother in a village above the falls who lives for her baby daughter.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print hardcover
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Contes populaires des Khasis
by Mme Rafy · 1920
A girl hides inside a toadskin and climbs a magic tree toward a home in the sky.
Medium level2–5 hours to readfrançais
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In short
The Khasis of northeast India tell stories about the sun and beat drums at an eclipse. Folk-Tales of the Khasis, gathered by Mrs.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Sky tales explain eclipses, thunder and the moon
Many tales in the book explain what people see overhead. In the first, a girl named Ka Nam escapes a tiger with the help of a mouse, climbs a magic tree to the Blue Realm and finds a home with Ka Sngi, the Sun. The giant toad U Hynroh wraps her in his toadskin to keep her as his slave.
The tale connects her journey with the noise Khasis make at an eclipse. Other tales work the same way. The thunder giant U Pyrthat admires a lynx's silver sword at an animal festival. The Moon, U Bnai, leaves his family to seek pleasure and ignores their warnings.
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Details
- First published
- 1920
- Language
- français
- Level
- Medium level
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What is Folk-Tales of the Khasis about?
It is a collection of thirty-two traditional tales of the Khasi people of northeast India. The stories explain eclipses, rivers, animals and customs, and they feature gods, demons, giants and clever animals.
Who are the Khasis?
The Khasis are a hill people of northeast India who live in the Khasi Hills around Shillong. The tales name real places there, such as Shillong Peak, Cherrapoonjee and the river Umiam.
Why do the Khasis beat drums during an eclipse?
The opening tale connects eclipses and the custom of beating drums with a quarrel involving the Sun and a giant toad.
The author
Mrs. Rafy
Folklore collector
Mrs. Rafy signed her preface with the initials K. U. R. and dated it August 1918. She collected the Khasi tales of Meghalaya in northeast India and published several of them in a Calcutta newspaper before gathering them in this book. Little else about her life is given in the book.
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