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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 126 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 126 pagesAbout 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
Readers who enjoy fables, myths and bedtime tales from living oral traditions will love this collection. It also suits those curious about the hill culture of northeast India.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Small helpers enter a dangerous world
- The landscape has a human face
- Private vanity puts everyone at risk
- Cleverness gives the small an advantage
- A careful plan confronts monstrous hunger
- Grief gives customs their human roots
- Knowledge depends on gratitude and care
- A shared meal begins a test
- Visible wonders carry warnings and memories
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Folk-Tales of the Khasis in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Folk-Tales of the Khasis
by Mrs. Rafy · 1920
A tiger carries off a girl, a mouse plots her escape, and a sun goddess burns a toadskin to set her free.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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In short
A tiger carries a village girl to his den and feeds her well, because he plans to eat her once she is grown. A little mouse overhears him and sets the girl running.
Folk-Tales of the Khasis at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 30 min2 h fast, 3 h slow
- Length
- 36,200 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1920by Mrs. Rafy
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Khasi tales explain the sky, sun and moon
Tales across the collection answer questions a child might ask while looking up. Why does the sun go dark in an eclipse? Why does the moon carry shadows? The Khasi storytellers answer with families of beings who live in a Blue Realm above the hills, and who quarrel and love as people do.
In the first tale, a girl named Ka Nam is taken by the tiger U Khla. A mouse warns her and sends her to the giant toad U Hynroh, who dresses her in a toadskin and claims her as his slave. The mouse then leads her to a magic tree that grows up to the sky. There the sun, Ka Sngi, takes her in and burns the toadskin while the girl sleeps, which breaks the spell.
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A tiger carries off a girl, a mouse plots her escape, and a sun goddess burns a toadskin to set her free.
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Details
- First published
- 1920
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
- Paperback
- 126 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 126 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 200 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print hardcover
- 200 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Delivery and returns
- Printed when you order. Usually here in 12 to 14 days.Arrives Tue 1 Dec to Mon 7 Decto United States, printed for you at cost
For Christmas, order by Thu 12 Nov
Cite this edition
Rafy, Mrs. Folk-Tales of the Khasis. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/folk-tales-of-the-khasis.
Rafy, Mrs. (2026). Folk-tales of the Khasis. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folk-tales-of-the-khasis (Original work published 1920)
Rafy, Mrs. Folk-Tales of the Khasis. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folk-tales-of-the-khasis.
@book{rafy2026folktales,
author = {Rafy, Mrs.},
title = {Folk-Tales of the Khasis},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folk-tales-of-the-khasis},
note = {First published 1920}
}
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What is Folk-Tales of the Khasis about?
It collects thirty-two legends from the Khasi Hills of northeast India. They tell how eclipses, rivers, animals and customs began, with gods, spirits, giants and talking animals, and they show the values and beliefs of the Khasi people.
Who is Mrs. Rafy?
Mrs. Rafy is the name under which the author published this collection. Her preface is signed K. U. R. and dated August 1918. She says she printed some of the tales in a Calcutta newspaper before gathering them in this book.
Who is U Thlen in Khasi folklore?
U Thlen is a snake-god and vampire that feeds on human blood. In the tale, a cunning spirit named U Suidnoh and the giant U Ramhah kill him, but a surviving piece grows into a hidden menace in certain families.
The author
Mrs. Rafy
Folklore collector
The book is credited to Mrs. Rafy, who signed its preface with the initials K. U. R. in August 1918. She collected and retold the tales in English and had printed several of them in The Statesman of Calcutta. The book shows her as a careful gatherer of Khasi oral stories.
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