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MAY, 1903.) GRAMMAR AND SPECIMENS OF THE MIKIR LANGUAGE.
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Tenton answered, If you will treat me kindly, I will stay with you : I have no place to live in and am a wanderer.'
*Very well; we have neither son nor grandson, so that when I go to the field to plough there is no one to pick a mote out of my eye; if you stay with us, I shall have company when I go to the field,' the Brahman said.
• Very good, I will stay with you,' Tenton replied ; and he took up his abode with them.
Two or three nights passed, when the Brahman said, Let us go and plough in the field,' and Tenton went with him. After ploughing for a certain time, Tenton rubbed some mud on the back of the bullock with which he was ploughing, and said to the Brahman, 'I am very thirsty, Grandfather.'
The Brahman said, "Go to the house and get a drink.'
But what if Granny does not give me to drink ?' said Tenton.
• If she does not, then call out to me,' said the Brabman. Then Tenton went to the house and said to the old woman, O Granny, Granny, my grandfather says, " bring out the bamboo-joint with the rupees in it, I want to buy a bullock." The old woman said, I won't give it you; we have a bullock already, why should we buy another P'
Tenton answered, look there in the ploughing place, do you see the white ballock ?' The old woman said, I cannot give it you.' Then Tenton called out to the Brahman, She won't give me the bamboo-joint.'
The Brahman called to the old woman bidding her give it. Then the old woman brought the bamboo-joint with the money in it and gave it to Tenton, who, when he had got hold of it, did not go back to the field, but ran away.
Then, about noon, when Tenton did not return to the field, the Brahman came home and asked his old woman where Tenton was. She angwered -
•You told me to give him the bamboo-joint with the ropees in it, and I sent it by him ; long ago I sent it.'
Then the Brahman said, So then he has run away with it; I must follow after him.' After taking his food he accordingly pursued Tenton.
Now Tenton, after getting hold of the Brahman's money, went to the King's town, and began to gamble with the King's sons. The King's sons asked him his name. Tenton said that his name was Ong ('maternal uncle') and the King's sons called him by that name. Then the Brabman, in the course of his search after Tenton, arrived at the place where they were gambling. Tenton, as though he did not know the Brahman, went on gambling. The King's sons said to Tenton, 'It is Ong's tarn to play.'
The Brahman, hearing the King's sons call him Ong,' thonght that he was perhaps really their maternal uncle, and not daring to say anything, lay down quietly and went to sleep in the place where they were gambling.
When Tenton and his campanions had finished their play, Tenton said to the King's sons - just give me a hundred rupees, and I will leave with you this slave of mine.'
Then the King's sons paid over to Tenton a hundred rupees as the price of the Brahman, and Tenton, when he had got the money, ran away again. Then the Brahman, awaking from his sleep, asked the King's sons, "Where is that lad who was gambling with you with cowries?'
