By Hazellyne Tariang
Oral history has evolved to rely heavily on the memory of a group of individuals, irrespective of whether that memory is reliable or otherwise.
For most pre-literate societies, transmitting wisdom, information, stories, myths, legends, songs, and teachings of their religious rites and ceremonies depended on memory. This “oral testimony” of numerous people actually forms the foundation of many historical documents.
Much of the past’s unrecorded information has been transmitted orally through intricately woven storytelling and collective cultural memory. Most stories are told to the younger generation by an elder in the family to continue the legacy that forms oral tradition.
Myth is a “vital source of history”. If we go by this theory, different accounts of U Thlen’s ancestry have been passed down through oral traditions and are still being told now.
The Legend of U Thlen
According to one version, the narration of the living legend of U Thlen ran thus.
That long ago, Ka Ngaid, a very attractive young woman, lived in one of the villages close to Sohra. She eventually became pregnant and gave birth to a boy. She would not, however, reveal the father’s identity. As a result, she was shunned by society. The child was known as U Thlen in that village because she was known for lying (Thok) and hiding the truth (Len). He was psychologically impacted as a young lad and developed into a rude, unyielding, and unreasonable adult. Through gaming, he amassed a large fortune. He violated the Khasi people’s sacred code, Kamai ia ka hok or to earn righteously because he obtained his wealth by deception.
Later, he met a lady who was an orphan and married her but neglected his wife and son. The lady’s neighbour instigated her to leave her husband and kill her son, for he might turn into his father. Finding difficulty in committing such an act, she ran away and left her son to be butchered by her neighbour.
On the husband’s arrival, he was struck with hunger and ate supper right away. While munching, he saw a tiny finger by the side of the hearth and realised that he had eaten the corpse of his own son. Having committed such a treacherous act, U Thlen hid in a cave near Rangjyrteh, wherein, after a while, he manifested himself as a huge snake.
The disappearance of people who moved in odd numbers – one, three and five and so on started happening. It was later found out that the snake was the reason.
A blacksmith then suggested that U Thlen needed to be killed, by using an iron.
They succeeded in doing so. Thereafter, a great feast was held with a warning that no person should leave a single piece of meat or bone of the serpent, and it should not be taken home. Unfortunately, an old woman secretly kept a small piece of meat for her grandson since he could not partake in the feast and forgot about it.
This little piece of flesh came to form again and requested the old woman to take care of it, adding it would give her riches unknown to man. Out of fright that the people would be angry with her for disobeying the warning, she took care of U Thlen. In this fashion, it came into power as an evil spirit that lives on human blood only.
As time passed by, the lady became rich, as promised by the creature. It gave her an ultimatum that she should feed him a human being, or else he would take the life of her family.
Scared that such a thing would happen, she hired U Nongshohnoh, roughly translated as paid assassins, out to murder people. It was said that they were cast into a kind of spell and to them, humans were nothing but butterflies. So, killing a butterfly does not prick the conscience.
It is believed that the nongshohnoh pierces the nostrils of the victim and cuts their fingers and toes. Then they drain the blood of the latter into a golden plate or ka pliang ksiar. Post this, the keepers of U Thlen beat the singthlen kyndong shi kyndong, to call forth the beast from hiding. They also sing and pray at the same time (ka dwai ka kyrpad, ka rwai ka kynud).
The serpent then reveals itself and passes through ka salu saw, a coarse red cloth, which is a path for U Thlen to walk through to the golden plate.
This ritual lasts till the creature sucks up all the blood of the victim from the golden plate. It cannot tolerate any form of iron, since it was the lump of iron that almost put an end to it.
Therefore, whatever is used in its feeding or killing its victims is either made of silver or gold.
Metamorphoses of U Thlen
The Khasis believe that the serpent has various forms – a snake (bsein), a fish (dohthli), a cat (miaw), and sometimes even a lizard (niang bahshah).
One cannot reason whether it exists, given it’s a shared belief. Though man is rational and scientific, he still holds beliefs that may be considered as an illusion or a superstition by other societies.
These metamorphoses of U Thlen usually take place when he wants to pynkhlemrain or shame the keepers… in other words, to inform the world of its existence. In order to shame, it transforms itself either into a snake, a fish or a black cat, usually appearing on the rooftops of the keepers when they fail to feed human blood.
Those who have witnessed such metamorphoses have narrated incidents – stories were passed on to the other members of the society – the reason the keepers are very careful in feeding U Thlen – to keep it from revealing itself and shame the family keeping it.
In order to destroy it, they (the keepers) have to leave all their wealth behind, including the attire that they possess. It is the Syiem (King) who buys new clothing for them when they wish to repent and give up their worship of U Thlen. In this manner, they live a new life by working and toiling for their daily needs, thus upholding the Khasi law of earning honestly and not be corrupted by cheating, lying, killing or stealing. It is also said that the property of the keepers of the creature can be ‘appropriated’ only by the Syiems, since U Thlen can never touch or enter their households.
Given there are many versions and narrations of U Thlen, a few questions may pique the inquisitive reader.
How does a society that has solely survived through the spoken word not believe in the stories of U Thlen? Does it really exist? Is it a myth or a reality? This question can only be answered by those who have really been affected by the serpent. There is no solid proof and we can only hear and not see.