A man once hurt his thumb while splitting bamboo strips. A girl named Kungawrhi emerged from the cut. She was so tiny that she would have just one grain of millet as her meal. She eventually grew up into a beautiful woman with several suitors. Finally, a tiger man married her.
An old woman who went to collect firewood from the forest told Kungawrhi’s father that his son-in-law had turned into a tiger and carried his daughter into the woods. Hearing this, the father grew anxious and decided to rescue his daughter.
He requested two young men named Phawthira and Hrangchala to rescue Kungawrhi. When both of them arrived at the house, the tiger man was nowhere to be seen. They told Kungawrhi that they had come to save her.
Kungawrhi helped them hide on a shelf. The tiger man came back home drunk. However, he could smell two young men hiding in his house. Kungawrhi told her husband that he was probably mistaking her human scent for someone else’s. The tiger continued to look for the men nonetheless. After a while, he went to bed. Before dawn, Kungawrhi took the two men out into the forest and asked them to hide there.
The tiger man got up in the morning to go on a seven-day trip. However, he came back the next day itself. He then told his wife that he would be away for six days, but returned within two days. He kept doing this for the next few days to keep an eye on her. Finally, he left saying that he would be back the following day, but returned after a week. The two young men made the most of this opportunity and sneaked Kungawrhi out.
While leaving, Kungawrhi collected some grass seeds. The tiger man returned seven days later. After enjoying his drink, he looked for his wife. Figuring she wasn’t there, he climbed up a tall tree and looked around the forest. He could spot the light reflecting off her wristlets. The tiger was quick to find them.
Kungawrhi was warned by a spiritual voice to throw the grass seeds away. The plants from the seeds grew so thick and dense that it became hard for the tiger man to go deep into the forest. However, he somehow managed to get there. Next, the same spiritual voice ordered Kungawrhi to throw the water seeds away. This created a massive water body like the sea that stood between them and the tiger man. But the tiger man somehow crossed the sea, too. She then threw the fire seeds to create a wall of fire between them.
They safely got to a house in the middle of the woods to spend the night at. The tiger man kept walking around the house. That’s when Hrangchala grabbed his bow and killed the tiger man with one shot.
During their stay in the woods that night, Hrangchala stood guard while the other two slept. A few goblins showed up at midnight and threatened him. The fearless Hrangchala warned them to go away lest they meet the same fate as the tiger man. Scared for their lives, the goblins left.
A few hours later, it was Phawthira’s turn to stand guard while the other two slept. The goblins turned up again and threatened him. Afraid of the goblins, Phawthira began trembling with fear. As the fire around the house slowly went out, the goblins entered the house and took Kungawrhi away. While the goblins were abducting her, she began dropping strands of thread along the way. This helped Phawthira and Hrangchala zero in on the goblins.
Hrangchala warned the goblins to let go of her. When they did not do so, he dropped his brass hairpin, destroying a portion of the village. He next dropped his comb and annihilated the other part of the village, inflicting heavy casualties on the goblin population. The terrified goblins now promised to hand Kungawrhi back to the two men, but they did not. Instead, they sent a goblin girl to them.
Hrangchala pushed aside the goblin girl and searched for Kungawrhi. He rescued her and took her to her father safely. Hrangchala married Kungawrhi and they never got tired of narrating their adventurous tales to their children and grandchildren.
Kalai is passionate about reading and reinterpreting folk tales from all over the country. Write to her at kalai.muse@gmail.com to know more about her.
Folk tale adopted and abridged from Internet Archive.