| Longshim | Date: Tuesday, 21/04/2015, 9:16 PM | Message # 1 |
 Generalissimo
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| The Story of the Shapi (Hollocks Gibbon)Laruri Village
Storyteller: Tampingtsü Thüvüri
Mr. Tampingtsü
Translated by Mr. Mr. Lalhmangaiha, Head Teacher, Sütsü
In our forefathers’ time, people would go to the field together in groups, and these groups would take turns tilling the fields. This is a story of a group of females from our village who went to work in the field. Amongst this group some of them were orphans and one day, on the way back home, the group stopped and started talking about mothers. They asked each other, “Does your mother love you? Does she care for you? ” One woman replied, ” Yes my mother loves and cares for me”. The others told her to carry the bamboo basket used to hold the tools and the midday meal to the village and to give it to her family. Those that were not loved and care for by their parents, or didn’t have parents at all, took off their leggings (used to protect them from mosquitoes while working in the field) and tied them around their heads as headbands and then they climbed up into a tree and together they began to sing, and their song goes like this:
“Tsaso king matri nvüso king matri, kang kang lopepe he tra tra”, ending the song with “trülak trülak”. This translates as “I have no fear of the spear, I have no fear of the dao, I only have fear of the sound of the cross bow”. (At the end of the song they call the shapi or hollocks gibbon which makes the sound “trülak trülak” when they jump from tree to tree).
We believe that the shapi monkey, the hillocks gibbon, is related to this group of girls who had no parents. This type of monkey does not destroy our crops.
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