Naga culture is So rich!

Some of my grandmas traditional jewellery!
And yes, of course I wore them and took pictures.

Storyteller

Mrs Metongla Aier, the story teller,
85+ and still a Beauty.

Sweet revenge. Translation of Story 1.

In many Naga villages, children and the singles used to stay in village dormitories called Morungs. The boys and girls had different dorms and during the day would go home to their families.
There were two brothers who lived in one such dorm. They were constantly teased by the other children calling them names like “Lappi” (meaning Sissy and good for nothing) but were more often called one particular name - tebüh mangyang mayanger.
One day when they went home, they asked their mother “Oja (meaning mother), why do the other children always call us names and laugh at us?”
“Sons, a time will come when you will be mature enough to understand and then I will explain to you about it. Till then just be patient and try and ignore whatever they say.” She then asked the older son to bring a couple of thick mangy wood and kept them on the bamboo shelf which hangs above the fireplace.
A few months later she called her two sons and asked them to chop the wood into half at one go. The older brother picked up the dao/nok (a dao is a big naga knife) and at the first try he chopped the wood into half, but when the younger brother tried he could not manage. So the mother put the wood back in the same place. (It is said that the longer you keep the wood above the fireplace the harder it becomes.
After a few months, the mother called the younger son and again asked him to chop the wood in half. This time he succeeded.
The mother said to her sons, “I believe that you are now ready and physically fit to know the truth.”
She told them their father was killed by a tigress when they were still very small. And because the tigress still freely roamed in the near by jungle, the other children called them names like – ‘tebüh mangyang mayanger’ - meaning ‘one who cannot take revenge for their father’. You have both tolerated the insults for so long but now you are both mature and I know that you can take revenge for your father’s death by killing the tigress.”
The boys were shocked when they heard the story but agreed right away to do as their mother told.
“But first you need to prepare your tools, sharpen your weapons and identify the footprints of the tigress.”
The brothers spent days preparing and sharpening their tools and weapons. Finally they set out into the jungle to identify the tigress by its footprints. After some time of searching they came across some footprints and carefully dug out one. They brought it home to show their mother. When she saw the footprint, she laughed and said, “This is a wild cat’s footprint and not that of the tigress”.
The next day they ventured deeper into the forest and found large footprints. Hoping they were of the tigress, they carefully dug one out and brought it home to show their mother.
This time the footprint was that of the tigress which killed their father.
The boys felt good that they had identified the right tigress and were even more determined to kill it so that once and for all they would put an end to all the name-calling.
Their mother prepared food and packed all they needed for their mission and wished them luck.
The two boys set out into the deep forest and following the footsteps of the tigress, came to a big tree where they found three cubs fast asleep. They quietly crept up towards the cubs and without any sympathy slit their throats with their dao. (A doa is a big naga knife).
They then cut some bamboo, sharpened the ends and made long spikes and planted them in bundles of three – fours around the tree. Then they cut the bark into strips and pulled it upwards along the trunk leaving it to hang midway, making the base of the tree very slippery. Both the brothers climbed the tree, taking with them all their tools, weapons and some bamboo spikes.
On the tree were lots of fruits which had hard shells and were the size of a peeled coconut. They picked a bag full of these fruits to throw at the tiger, and left one ripe fruit aside to take home for their mother.
As they were keeping watch, they spotted the tigress approaching with a woman in her mouth as food. When she got to her cubs, she tore the human flesh to feed them but the meat would just fall out through their slit throats. When she realized her cubs were dead she began roaring in rage and scratching the ground. The younger brother found it very amusing and began to giggle. Hearing this she spotted the brothers on the tree. This made her even angrier and she tried to jump up to reach them but slipped on the trunk. She held onto the bark hanging midway but the older brother would cut it off making her fall to the ground. Again and again the tigress tried to attack them and the boys kept throwing the fruits and wooden spikes at her. This went till the tigress was hurt and became exhausted after a long struggle. Even the boys had used up all their weapons and fruits. Out of desperation the younger brother plucked the fruit they had kept for their mother and hurled it into the tigress wide open mouth. She choked and struggled, fell on the bamboo spikes and died.
The brothers then climbed down the tree and cut off the tigress head, limbs and tail. They also cut off the heads of the three cubs. Putting all these in a basket they proudly returned home shouting out victory war cries.
When their mother saw them she was thrilled to see her sons safe and could not believe they could do such a heroic feat.
After they had washed up and had their food the brothers decided to go to the boys’ dormitory to scare them. That night when everyone was asleep they tiptoed into the dorm kitchen. The stove area is made up of three stones of equal height placed in a triangle for the cooking pot. They replaced the three stones with the heads of cubs and the big pot with the head of the tigress. The boys went into the hall, hanged the tails and limbs on the front and back doors, then waited and kept watch from a distance.
Early next dawn, the warden woke up some of the students to light the fire. Still very sleepy, two students went into the kitchen to light the fire but did not notice that the stones and pot had been replaced. Only when they lit the firewood they suddenly saw the tigress head, perched on the heads of the three cubs, staring straight at them. One boy fainted right away and the other ran out screaming brushing his forehead on the tail making him scream even louder. This woke up the others and wondering what had happened, they ran towards the doorways. They all tried to run out of the front door but bumped into the tail and limbs that were hung on the doorway, so they all rushed towards the back door where again they bumped into the remaining limbs that were hung. Terrified they found a small opening in the bamboo wall from where they all managed to squeeze out.
After having a good laugh the brothers went home and told their mother, “Oja(Mother), we have avenged Oba’s (Father) death and taken sweet revenge for our insults. Is there is anything else you want us to take care of?”
The mother joyfully exclaimed, “I am so proud of the both of you and I don’t have to worry because you can take care of yourselves. The only thing I am scared of now is the Wind storm”.
At once the older brother courageously responded and said, “Don’t worry Oja, we will go to fight and chase it away, so that it can never scare or harm you.” So once again the brothers set out to fight the Wind storm.
This time they never returned. It is believed that even till this day the thunder and lightning is said to be the battle between the brothers and the wind. The Lightning is the clashing/slashing of the swords (daos) and the thunder is their blocking the wind.

how do i put up videos?

I have one million videos of my grandma telling stories but none of them are uploading.
I even tried uploading them on you tube then link it here but even that doesn't work. checked the size even.