Aonglemla - An Ao Naga Folk Story
As the tale goes, once upon a time, a man and his wife lived in an Ao village. The wife died early leaving her husband with a son and a daughter. Shortly after his wife’s death, the man remarried and his new wife came to live with him and his children. The new wife became pregnant and she gave birth to a baby boy, the newest member of the family.
As time passed, the village where they had settled down decided to abandon its present site and move to a new location. The entire village became busy with this endeavour, and there were many meetings and activities for this huge transition. As a senior member of the village, the husband was occupied with the activities of the village council leaving his wife in charge of the children as well as preparing for the relocation. She had to make an inventory of all the household items and sort out and pack everything in the house.
On the fateful day selected by the village council for the entire village’s moving, the wife sent the siblings to fetch water from the watering well. As it was going to be a busy day, she sternly instructed them not to wait for one another. The sister quickly filled her bamboo cylinders with water and returned home as instructed, but the boy could not complete his task as quickly. Unbeknownst to him, his step mother had pierced the base of his bamboo cylinders. His cylinders kept leaking water from the base and they never filled. But the poor boy could not figure this out. He was so terrified of his step mother’s wrath that he chose not to return home.
Meanwhile as planned, the entire village commenced the journey to the new village site. There was excitement and anticipation as everyone carried their belongings and travelled to their new homes. The villagers sang and shared jokes on the way. All the villagers were present except for the young boy. On being questioned about his absence, the mother nonchalantly replied that he was a defiant boy who was probably wandering somewhere in the crowd with his friends. The father located his friends but even they were clueless about his whereabouts. He was nowhere in the crowd and when they finally arrived at the new site, he was still missing.
As it was already dark, the father returned to the old village the next morning at day break to find his son. Worried that he might have lost his way, he went looking for him in the forest and reached the watering well. From a distance, he noticed a boy sitting on a rock. Although the boy’s back was turned to him, he recognized him as his son and was overcome with joy and relief. But as the father drew closer to give his son the bundle of food that he had wrapped for him in plantain leaves, the boy suddenly disappeared and reappeared on another rock. Perplexed by this and assuming that his son was angry with him for neglecting him, he pleaded with his son to come with him but he vanished again. Despite pleading continually, the son did not turn around. Extremely dejected, the father returned home with a broken heart. The next day and in the days to come, he returned to the spot to beg his son to return but his son refused to talk to him, vanishing every time he tried to come closer to him.
One night, the son appeared to him in a dream. Overjoyed to see him, the father pledged that from now on he would not let the step mother mistreat them ever again. He also promised that he would be a better father and they will have the final say in matters of the household. The son replied that he did not doubt his love for him, but he was unfortunately not human any more, and was now in a different space. He told his father that he had transformed, and although he did love his father, they could not live under one roof any more. With these words, he walked out from the house, and the dream ended before the father could succeed in stopping his son.
Before the break of dawn, the father rushed back to the forest to see his son and he found him at the same spot, sitting alone on a rock near the water. He told his son that he was aware that they now inhabited different worlds, so he would not request him to return to the human world again. He told him that he understood the message in the dream. The father promised that he won’t disturb his son’s territory and would leave him alone as he wished. The son nodded in agreement and vanished. After bidding farewell to his son, the father returned home with a heavy heart. As he had vowed, he never returned to that spot but in the years to come, villagers passing by that spot in the forest would often see a lonely figure sitting on the rock. They somehow felt comforted seeing a human-like figure in the forest and thus they started calling this figure Aonglemla.
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