The Python's Promise

"The Python's Promise / Lairen na washak ngakpa"

.........short folk tales of Meitei's.

Once upon a time there used to live a clever fox in a bushes. One day he was walking along a river singing in a very loud voice.

So loud and melodious was his voice that it woke up the Python King of the river.

The Python thought that it was such a good voice and surely he could teach my two kids singing lesson. He was very delighted.

So he came out of the river in search of the singer. After following the voice, he met the old fox.

He said, "You have such an enchanting voice, so I came searching for you. Please tell me where do you stay and what is your name?"

The fox replied, "My name is Kundopa, I stay nearby the river bank."

After a formal introduction, the Python told him his proposal.

The fox couldn't help imagining how tasty the baby python would be, and didn't want to lose the God sent opportunity. Both agreed to the idea of teaching singing lessons to the python babies.

The next morning, the Python King brought the babies to the old fox. As soon as he left, the fox killed the babies and ate them.

After ten days, the Python King came to visit his kids but nobody was there at the fox's place.

He search for a long period of time but couldn't find them so he returned home heartbroken. He wanted to know what had happen to his babies.

For days he searches for the fox and the fox hide from the python. Now he assumes that his babies must have been killed by the fox, so he took a vow to kill the fox the moment he sees him.

One day, the fox came out in search for food as he has not eaten properly for a while. Unfortunately, he met the Python. Seeing the python he ran away.

The python now believes that the fox must have killed his babies, so he ran after the fox to kill him.

As the fox ran, he stumbles and falls but fortunately he fell into a closed natural structure.

The python saw him there but couldn't reach him because he was big.

As he waited for days for the fox to come out, the fox was busing digging a way out.

The fox after finding a way out escapes by fooling the python and the python died out of starvation.

Moral: We should not just trust someone without knowing who they really are.