Title: The tale of a Jamphul/ digging bar

Language: Chakhesang

Description: A long time ago, there was a man who lived his life very comfortably and reached his time for marriage. The his dad said ,” Okay you go to a different village and find
yourself a good wife “, and send him off. As he went down , after a while he climbed up a tree and jumped down , and he became a digging bar. He then went to one village .”Can I be a guest at your place?”, he asked the house owner. The owner replied. “you may come in”. And he checked but no one was there .Then the voice asked again “Come come inside and be our guest”, and then the digging bar came inside. So the family welcomed the digging bar and served him. In the next day , early in the morning he woke up early and as he stood outside , he saw both the beautiful daughters of the owner going down to fetch water. Then the boy sat inside the house like he didn’t go out and he asked the father for the hand in marriage for the younger daughter. As he asked, the father said, “Ask my daughter yourself”. The Elder daughter said to her younger sister ,”It’s okay it’s fine ,you go to him and I will wherever you go, I will come and visit”. Then younger sister said,” okay then i will go and on the way I will trick him and come back”. So they packed her things and she left with the digging bar. She walked slowly, the digging bar also went slowly, she walked faster , and the digging bar also went faster following her. So nothing could be done to trick him and she got worried and
cried. Then the digging bar said, “Why are you worried ,don’t cry. “By the time they were almost reaching , the guy asked her not to look at him and then he climbed up the tree and jumped down , he was very beautiful and he became the person he was before.”You can look at me now “. Ans as she saw , she felt very shay and embarrassed as he was very handsome. The young man said, “It’s okay come “.As they reached the house , the stairs were shinning and clean. As they reached the housekeeper and the helpers came and helped them, washed the girl and gave her new clothes to wear. And she lived there happily and comfortably. After some time her older sister thought about how long she haven’t heard anything from her younger sister, and decided to go and visit her with her. She then went around asked others where they lived, and they said ,”it’s that good house there”. At the footstep she fainted as it was so clean and sparkly and she couldn’t handle it .Then the housekeeper and the helpers came down and thought about how the lady who fainted looked just like their missus. And
took her up and the younger sister told them she is her elder sister. And the both of them stayed together happily. But the elder sister got jealous that her sister was living so comfortably . And with a jealous heart she asked her sister,” hey sister let me see if you have any lice”. She checked her hair while sneaked in and broke the bones of the frog one by one , and she said to her sister, “ah you have a lot of lice in your hair ,lets go to the pond and wash it”, her sister agreed and the both went to the pond. The elder sister pushed her into the pond , and then wore her sister’s clothes and went back. Just then the husband came back but noticed his wife wasn’t like before and that she was different the face is similar but the behaviors didn’t feel his wife and he stayed worried, at that time in their pond a beautiful flower bloomed and at night that flower jumps out and cleaned the house ,while making sound , and it went like that for some days. Then one day the husband wanted to know what was really happening with all the sound at night, so as he was hiding and seeing through a hole it looked exactly like his wife so he ran and hugged her tightly.
“let go of me ,let go of me ,it’s going to be sunrise”, she requested. Then the husband told her ,”If you don’t tell me who you are I won’t let go”. Then she told him about what happened, he held her tightly so that she won’t go back into the pond As the sun rose she became alive, then the elder sister got really worried and she begged and apologized to them, “I’m sorry I
was wrong , please let me at least work here as your housekeeper. Then they let her be the housekeeper and they all lived happily ever after.

Format & Duration: 5 minute 13 second
Date of Recording: 8/25/2024
Date of Upload: 20 January 2025
Performer: Azuno Venuh
Creator: Sesou Thele
Publisher: Tetso College, Dimapur
Note: I would like to thank my family and friends and for thier help thoughout this project . I would also like to thank the principal and my teacher for giving me this oppourtunity.

Cite this work

 Sesou Thele   . 2025  .  The tale of a Jamphul/ digging bar   (Narrated by  Azuno Venuh  )  . NEIIPA, Tetso College  . (https://neiipa.in/audio/the-tale-of-a-jamphul-digging-bar/)  . Accessed: (05-Feb-2025)