Title: The Little Girl Who Turned into a Bird

Language: Chakhesang (Khezha)

Description:

This is a story about a mother and her little daughter who go to a paddy field to work. While the mother toils away, the little girl waits patiently. As time passes, she gets hungry. She approaches her mother and asks her to come and eat. However, the mother gently refuses her, saying, ‘Wait, let me work a little more’. The girl goes to her mother for the second time, saying she’s hungry, the mother denies it again for the second time. The third time, the little girl asks her mother for her shawl and ties it around her shoulder. She asks for another shawl and ties it around her other shoulder, and then she turns into a bird, making the sound of ‘a woo a woo tsatsa khuna tala mala tri tri’. Then her mother calls her, ‘My daughter, come down; let’s have food.’ But she says, ‘No, mother, I’ve called you multiple times but you denied; now I’ve turned into a bird’. She continues making the sound and flies away.

Format & Duration: Audio: 1min, 22 secs
Date of Recording: 8/15/2024
Date of Upload: 21 October 2024
Performer: Aneile kapfo
Creator: Nikule Kapfo
Publisher: Tetso College, Dimapur
Note: This story was told to me by my mother when I was a child, and she told me her mother used to narrate it to her. I am really thankful to my mother for passing down this folktale through generations. Anyone who hears it, I hope they gain some knowledge about the Chakhesang folklore.

Cite this work

Kapfo, Nikule  . 2024  . The Little Girl Who Turned into a Bird ( narrated by Aneile  kapfo)  . NEIIPA, Tetso College  . (https://neiipa.in/audio/the-little-girl-who-turned-into-a-bird/)  . Accessed: (21-Nov-2024)