Introduction.

This is another story of a young woman being abducted by a tiger, but we are not told whether she was enticed away or whether she had been kidnapped. Quite clearly she was not an ordinary girl, for throughout the story she is called "ngao-kha" which means a bride, and she was carrying a dowry of gold and silver with her.

The leggings mentioned in the narrative were pieces of thick felt wide enough to reach from the ankle to just below the knee, and long enough to wrap once around the leg with a small overlap. They were held in place with a length of cord. They corresponded to the leg bands worn by the women, and the same word "a ntrao" was used for both.

It is possible that the passage about the elder brother being eaten by the tiger as he went to collect the deer he had shot, does not really belong to this story. It is identical with the fate of Ndrao-dyu in the previous tale, and it is not to be found in the alternative account (M485).

The money, which the bride was carrying, was contained in the girdle around her waist. To get it out, it would be necessary to hold the girdle up by one end so that the money would drop out into the basket, helped with a little shaking.

Translation
Literal Transcription
Notes

You can see the original documents for this song.

You can also see these pages as Word97 documents

Word97 Introduction
Word97 Translation
Word97 Transcription
Word97 Notes

Return to Index of Songs
Return to First Page of the Archive