This a traditional story about an elderly couple with a dog; the wife dies and the dog takes the husband to Chom arong (i.e., the village of the dead); the wife does not want to leave, but the husband forces her; upon return to their village, soon somebody else in the village dies, and the wife has to die and go back to Chom arong with the other person.

This is a monologue on the (traditional) everyday situation of a mother having a baby to take care of while having to perform other chores such as getting firewood and cooking (not considered a true folk story by language consultants).

This is a traditional story about a couple, in which the husband tricks his wife in order to get her to give him meat to eat. He carves a hole into a tree and pretends to be a scary big black bird and tells his wife to feed the big black bird. After the wife has fed the big black bird (i.e., her husband) all of their chickens, the husband himself tells her to look inside the hole the next time around, which she does. Upon recognizing her husband, the wife is angry and tells him she will separate from him and go to stay with her parents. She collects all her things into a big basket. The husband sneaks himself into the basket, and as the wife is on the way carrying the basket, the husband urinates. As if it had not been enough already before, the wife now leaves him with even angrier than before.

This is a description of the important status of cleanliness in Karbi culture.

This is a description of cooking alkaline food by burning jhum fields and using the ashes.

This is a description of cooking alkaline food by burning jhum fields and using the ashes.

This a traditional story about an orphan who encounters a tiger; by using a container with a mirror on top, he manages to convince the tiger that he (the orphan) has caught a large tiger in that container; the tiger is scared and the orphan ends up managing to steal gold from the tigers’ Rongker (= the name of a ceremony in Karbi traditional culture) due to his trick with the mirror container. Chikari Tisso was an active listener during the recording of this text. All of his backchanneling as well as clarification questions and other remarks are included in this transcription, signaled by{curly brackets}.

This is a monologue on the (traditional) everyday situation of a mother having a baby to take care of while having to perform other chores such as getting firewood and cooking (not considered a true folk story by language consultants).

This a traditional story about an elderly couple with a dog; the wife dies and the dog takes the husband to Chom arong (i.e., the village of the dead); the wife does not want to leave, but the husband forces her; upon return to their village, soon somebody else in the village dies, and the wife has to die and go back to Chom arong with the other person.

This is a traditional story about a couple, in which the husband tricks his wife in order to get her to give him meat to eat. He carves a hole into a tree and pretends to be a scary big black bird and tells his wife to feed the big black bird. After the wife has fed the big black bird (i.e., her husband) all of their chickens, the husband himself tells her to look inside the hole the next time around, which she does. Upon recognizing her husband, the wife is angry and tells him she will separate from him and go to stay with her parents. She collects all her things into a big basket. The husband sneaks himself into the basket, and as the wife is on the way carrying the basket, the husband urinates. As if it had not been enough already before, the wife now leaves him with even angrier than before.

This a traditional story about a common fool character, who does stupid things (bokolapo); in this story, he wants to go to the market but by switching sides of the basket he is carrying also accidentally switches the direction in which he is walking; he ends up walking back to his own house without realizing it.

This a traditional story about a common fool character, who does stupid things (bokolapo); in this story, he wants to go to the market but by switching sides of the basket he is carrying also accidentally switches the direction in which he is walking; he ends up walking back to his own house without realizing it.

This is a description of the important status of cleanliness in Karbi culture.

This a traditional story about an orphan who encounters a tiger; by using a container with a mirror on top, he manages to convince the tiger that he (the orphan) has caught a large tiger in that container; the tiger is scared and the orphan ends up managing to steal gold from the tigers’ Rongker (= the name of a ceremony in Karbi traditional culture) due to his trick with the mirror container. Chikari Tisso was an active listener during the recording of this text. All of his backchanneling as well as clarification questions and other remarks are included in this transcription, signaled by{curly brackets}.

This a traditional story about a chain reaction of events that sets off when a frog blocks the road and sits down on an ant that in turn bites the frog. From there on, one animal suffers from being disturbed or hurt by another animal, and as a consequence accidentally disturbs or hurts another animal, and so on: the ant disturbs the frog, the frog disturbs the squirrel, the squirrel disturbs the pig, the pig disturbs the bird, the bird disturbs the elephant, the elephant kicks a rock, which then kills the daughter of the king. The king traces back the chain reaction to the frog and the ant, and punishes both of them. This folk story, in a variety of versions, appears to be very common in the extended Eastern Himalayan region. Note also that a late 19th century telling of this story can be found in the Linguistic Survey of India (Grierson 1904).

This a traditional story about a chain reaction of events that sets off when a frog blocks the road and sits down on an ant that in turn bites the frog. From there on, one animal suffers from being disturbed or hurt by another animal, and as a consequence accidentally disturbs or hurts another animal, and so on: the ant disturbs the frog, the frog disturbs the squirrel, the squirrel disturbs the pig, the pig disturbs the bird, the bird disturbs the elephant, the elephant kicks a rock, which then kills the daughter of the king. The king traces back the chain reaction to the frog and the ant, and punishes both of them. This folk story, in a variety of versions, appears to be very common in the extended Eastern Himalayan region. Note also that a late 19th century telling of this story can be found in the Linguistic Survey of India (Grierson 1904).

This is a description of how traditional clothing items are woven, and colors are applied on them.

This is a description of how traditional clothing items are woven, and colors are applied on them.

This is a description of cooking alkaline food by burning jhum fields and using the ashes.