ABORS AND GALONGS. 65 



taken back to the village and eaten a.t the feast. A bat carried the news of this to 

 Nipong, who called on all the powers of water to rise and destroy Kojam Koja. He 

 also sent two huge snakes to undermine a cliff under which the village was built. So 

 Kojam Koja was blotted out, and all the people that were in it were buried in 

 its ruins. But the heads of the people have sprung up as the chestnut tree (Tanu) 

 and their other members have sprung up as the different kinds of bamboo, and the 

 plant known as kojam koja. The hearts of the people sprang up again as ginger 

 and onion roots. 1 



Now whilst gods and men were living together on the earth, there was much 

 i.x ,„.„,, B . -u. distress because there was no water , and gods and men 



Drought and the Water Spirit. ' & 



alike were lean and thin. But it was noticed with a good 

 deal of wonder that the rat was always fat and sleek. So one day a man followed 

 the rat and tracked it to a big stone in which it found water to drink. Then 

 the man came back and told what he had seen. But when the men came to break 

 the stone and get the water out for themselves they found that the stone 

 was very hard, so hard that it broke the tools they brought with them. So 

 the god Debo-Kombu took his bow and shot at the stone with an arrow and a 

 trickle of water — the stream of the arrow — -came welling out of the rock. And so Debo- 

 Kombu is worshipped with his bow and his arrow to this day. But only a tiny flow 

 of water ran out of the stone. Then the godNurupurtookanaxe, and broke the stone 

 and the water gushed out freely over the thirsty earth. And he too is worshipped 

 for ever in the water he gave to gods and men. 



No story of the origin of fire has been met with in the Abor hills and only a vague 

 ~ . legend of a time whew the water rose and covered the land 



Fire and Flint. ° 



till only the tops of the highest hills could be seen. But 

 the Subansiri Daflas tell the following story of the quarrel between fire and watei 

 and how fire came to man. 



Once upon a time fire fought water. And all things growing in the jungle, green, 

 things to whom water was life, helped water. So water rose steadily out of its bed 

 in the valley below and followed fire up and up the mountain side. And fire fled 

 up to the top of the mountain and nickered there for he could go no further. And 

 water rose and rose and covered all the low hills and filled all the valleys and at last 

 was lapping the topmost peak on which fire had taken refuge. Then, just as water 

 began to break over the very top of the mountain, fire darted as a last refuge into a 

 stone and has remained there ever since to be the servant of man. And then water 

 sank and sank down into its bed once more. 



Now, according to the Dobang legend, in those early days the sun was much 



bigger and far hotter than he is now. So hot was he that 



he burnt up everything, trees and harvest alike, and the 



people in their distress cried out for someone to lessen the fiery heat. So a god Tamo 



ate up a portion of the sun, and Debo-Kombu took his bow and shot an arrow into 



l Minyong. 



