The wild boar and the tiger were sworn friends. One day when they met
in the jungle the wild boar said to the tiger, “My friend, let us two
fight and see which will get the better of the other and which will
fear the other. What will you take to protect yourself?” Then the tiger
said to the boar, “I will take cane and wind it round my body,” but the
boar said, “I shall smear clay all over myself.” They arranged that the
fight should take place six days later. Then the boar for six days did
nothing but smear clay over himself, letting it dry after each coating,
and the tiger did nothing but cut lengths of cane and wind them round
his body. Then when the six days were up they fell to and fought. Now
whenever the tiger flew at the wild boar and bit him, all he got was a
mouthful of clay, but the boar, whenever he attacked and bit the tiger,
bit through a piece of cane, till he had bitten them all through one by
one and killed the tiger. But when the boar was going away after his
victory a thin piece of bamboo ran into him. Then he said, “I have
killed the tiger. What is this doing running into me?” and seized it in
his mouth. But the thin bamboo cut his tongue off so that he died on
the spot. [191] Then another tiger came along and saw the body and ate
it. That is why nowadays tigers eat wild boars. Yet it is said that
because the tiger could not beat the wild boar at first, a tiger cannot
catch one now unless he bides his time and stalks it for two or three
months.
Rivalling in popularity the stories of animals is a large group of
stories about a mythical individual whom the Northern Lhotas call
Apfuho and the Southern Lhotas Yampfuho. He is spoken of as having
lived in the old, old days when men and animals spoke the same
language. [192] In his day, it is believed, there was a terrible
earthquake and the whole world became dark. [193] Apfuho clung to a
rock, and when light came and the world as we know it had come into
being he had been turned into stone. Some Lhotas say that the rock,
with Apfuho’s petrified dao-holder, can still be seen near Lakhuti, but
most people hold that it is not known where he met his end. He
corresponds exactly to the Sema character Iki, [194] and many of the
stories told of the two are identical. He is always represented as
getting in and out of scrapes, and as tricking his fellow-villagers or
his friend the tiger, usually in the meanest possible way. The name of
his village is never mentioned and there is no tradition as to where he
lived. The following are typical stories of his exploits.
Apfuho and the Old Woman.