| Story |
Friendship Between Risamo and The Tiger
Risamo was handsome, rich and also a good sportsman. Thus, many women became fans of him. Taking advantage of his popularity, he began to commit illicit relationships, not only with girls, but also with wives of many men. Ultimately, he became a public nuisance. The villagers therefore had him ex-communicated and banished him from the village. Thereafter, he could not find a place to live in since no other village was ready to accept him. As he went on meditating, a thought came to him, “I will go to the tiger, offer him my friendship and then avenge the villagers.” He then sharpened his spear, dao, packed his meal and went to the thick forest in search of the tiger. He went on calling out the tiger, “Ekhu-o , ekhu-o”, whenever he reached the peak of any hill. At last, the tiger responded him, “We-y” from a distant area. “I want to develop a friendship with you, that is why I was in search of you. Will you be my friend?” asked Risamo. “Okay!” agreed the tiger. Risamo then proceeded towards the direction where the tiger responded him and reached a very secured cave where he found the tiger waiting for him.
Risamo and the tiger began to chat, relating their grievances, miseries and other experiences in life; shared the food, and thus became good friends. Each day they would go out hunting and when they killed an animal, the tiger would eat raw meat, while Risamo would cook them and then eat. Once the tiger tasted the meat cooked by Risamo and said, “Oh, My friend, your preparation is very tasty.”
One morning, Risamo challenged the tiger for a game. “My friend (Athra-o), shall we have a competition today?” he asked. The tiger agreed. “We will try to break this rope (known as tehtrorho, a variety of very tough rope) that is reaching from the cave to the top of the tree,” challenged Risamo. “Okay! You try first,” replied the tiger. “No, you try first,” said Risamo. With his utmost strength the tiger bit the rope again and again till he was completely exhausted. As he went on biting the rope with all his might, his lips also began bleeding owing to the rubbing of the rope. Finally, the tiger surrendered. “Oh, My friend, its very tough, I could not succeed, you try,” said the tiger. As he was fully exhausted, the tiger went and sat down watching his friend imaging how he would succeed (a somewhat underestimating his friend). Risamo then took out his dao and chopped it off with one stroke. The tiger was amazed and at the time same time felt depressed as he realized that he was no match for his friend.
After that, they began to discus about taking revenge for each other. “Athra-o, what are you afraid of most?” asked Risamo. The tiger replied, “What I am actually afraid of are those two boars, the husband and the wife. Both of them would come and attack me as soon as they heard my sound.” So the tiger and Risamo began scheming to take revenge on them. “Let us go to a place where we can see each surrounding. You climb up on a tree! I will be below you with my spears ready. You could then begin making noises.” Risamo suggested. “Okay!” replied the tiger. The plan was put into action. Risamo and the tiger thus positioned themselves. As the tiger made noises, the two boars came rushing and surrounded the tree. Risamo threw a spear and hit one of the boars. He then took out another spear and hit the other one, too, straight on the target. Likewise, both the boars were killed at the spot without much effort. The tiger was so relieved and was grateful to his great friend.
Now, it was the turn of the tiger to help his friend take revenge. So he asked his friend if there were any problems with him. Risamo then related the story of how he was banished by his villagers from the village and the reason of why he went in search of him for friendship. The tiger assured him of executing the task within whatever his capacity was. They then marched to the village. When they reached the village, they heard some boys and girls singing and pounding zathobe `paddies of zatho ’ as per the tradition in a house. So they crept towards that direction and finally reached the location. There, they saw a large pig sleeping under the eaves of the host’s house. Risamo said, “Athra-o, I will be watching here, you go and grab that pig!” As the tiger grabbed the pig, it squealed loudly and all the boys who heard the pig squealing went out and attacked the tiger with their pounding-sticks. Risamo then jumped in making the war cry, “kuku” took position with his spear and defended the tiger. The boys and all those who were there ran away hither and thither out of fear and shock.
After that, the entire village gathered and discussed what the consequence would be saying; “Now the great tiger and Risamo have become friends. There is thus no way for us to live in peace any more. The best option is to reconcile and request Risamo to come back to the village and live with us.” Accordingly, the village elders went to the forest and requested Risamo to come back to the village. Initially, Risamo was unwilling to reconcile because the humiliation matted upon him by the village was too much for him to bear with. Moreover, it was too difficult for him to part away from his friend. But due to unrelenting requests of the villagers he could not resist any further. So finally he agreed to go back home.
Since it was too much for both the tiger and Risamo to part away from each other, they made a vow. “We will never die unnoticed from each other. Therefore, if one of us is going to die, we would send a message to each other before we die.” One day Risamo became seriously sick and was about to die. So he sent a message to the tiger. As soon as he received the message, the tiger went to the village and met Risamo under the eaves of his house. Both of them wept and as they wept, they let their tears drop on to the paw of each other. Finally, they separated.