Khla and Kur: An Oral Series On Tiger-Clan Kinships
Mrs Laitmiet is from Kunongrim, a village situated on the steep ravines somewhere between Sohra and Mawsynram. She belongs to a clan which owes its very existence to the kindness of a tiger in the ancient past.
According to her, an ancestress of her clan had been accused of some wrongdoing by her fellow villagers and was subsequently imprisoned at Kongkhen on a ledge located on the side of a cliff. The sheer rock wall was impossible to climb and at the bottom was a pool of deep swirling water. She was dead for all practical purposes.
In her desperate fear, the woman cried aloud and prayed to the gods for deliverance. In the dark of the night, she was roused from her troubled sleep and was surprised to find a rope had been lowered down to her. Ecstatic, she grabbed onto it and was soon safely out of her jail. Imagine her terror then, when she discovered that it was tiger who had drawn her up and that it was his tail that she had mistaken for a rope.
However, the tiger proved to be gentle. It had heard her cries and had taken pity on the unfortunate woman. It even carried her away on its back and dropped her at a place close to Kunongrim village. There are still tiger marks there to this day.
The ancestress sworn that from that day forward, none of her progeny would ever eat tiger meat again. She took the name “Laitmiet”, which means “freed at night”, a beautiful reminder to her clan and others about that faithful night and the kindness of that strange tiger.
Kane ka ba phin sngap ka dei tang kawei na bun tylli ki khana kiba pyni ia ka jingiadei kaba jan hapdeng ki kur Hynniewtrep Hynniewskum bad ki khla ha ki por hyndai hynthai.
Sngap ia i Mei Byllinbon Laitmiet, katba i iathuh khana shaphang ka kur jong i, ki Laitmiet, bad balei kim ju bam doh khla shuh, naduh ba ki ia shem bad uwei uba pyllait im ia ka meirad jong ki.
