Santali Folk Tale : Lendeth Horo

Santali Folk Tale : Lendeth Horo 

North American Tribal Mythology

At first, in the deep sea, there was no sign of land. Lita (Marang Buru) at the instance of Thakur and Thakuran created some living organism in the deep sea. Ichha Haku(Prawn) Katkam(Crab), Lendeth(earthworm) Horo(tortoise) etc were such type of organism. One day Lita, thought of creating of human being. He made two idols from his body’s dirt. He then asked one of his assistant to bring the ‘life’ which would be put into human being.Assistant got the ‘life’ from the place where all the lives of livings were kept hanging. Assistant fetched immediately and handed over to her Lita. Lita put the same into the two idols and alas ! the two idols became two birds and flew away. Lita astonished at this. He then immediately called assistant and asked about how this happened, these human beings were supposed to be ‘human’ but how they did get like ‘bird’. The assistant confessed her mistake. The mistake was that the human life was kept hanging higher place than that of the birds life as a result of which she could only reach the birds life and brought it to Lita .

Thus two idols instead of becoming human beings became two birds. These two birds were known as Hans and Hansly. As there was fathomless water all around, the birds could not find any solid place to put their legs and take rest. Then they cried a lot. Lita became very much worried about it. He, then offered his body for their rest. The two birds took rest there and became very happy. And So on, the two birds flew in the sky all day long and in the evening they use to come to Lita for rest.

The days passed on. The two birds grew up. When the time came for laying eggs, the birds again cried for a place, as the body of Lita was not a suitable place to lay egg. Then idea of creating land came into Lita’s mind.

But the idea got stucked at how this is supposed to be done. Lita thought seriously on this issue day and night and ultimately he came to a point that the earth(soil) was lying suspended at the bottom of the sea and to begin the creation of land now the question was how to bring it up. Lita called for help from every living organism of the sea and asked them to bring the earth up from the bottom. It was kind of crab first. He tried a lot but failed. Then king of prawn made some attempt but he also failed to bring the earth up. At last it was king of earthworm who with his mouth took the earth and with other mouth excreted out to the surface of the water. But alas !  the earth(soil) could not hold itself on surface of sea. Then Lita asked the king of tortoise and told him to remain flat on the surface of the water. Then the king of earthworm swallowed the earth with his one mouth and with the another he excreted it out on the back of the king of tortoise. Then the earth remained steady. Lita became very happy .This is how a stable land was created, as turtle was lying on the surface of sea, it was possible to get float away on sea, to avoid this the body of the tortoise was then tied with the golden chain from four corners .Then the king of earth worm with his subjects, worked days and night and made a land on the surface of the sea water. Then Lita brought the two birds to that land and the birds lived there happily.

After some days grass named Siram and Plant named Karam grew up on the land. The two birds made a nest on the Karam tree with siram grass. The female bird laid two eggs there and hatched out two human being. Lita became very happy seeing these two human being. Later stage these two human being were known as Pilchu hadam and Pilchu budhi. The word Pilchu comes from the word ‘Pil’ which means the specimen capable for reproduction.