This little collection of Kachári folk-stories and rhymes is intended
as a supplement to the Reverend Mr. Endle's Grammar of the language,
and as a reading-book for those who have acquired an elementary
knowledge of Kachári. I have added a rough translation, thinking
that these specimens of the folk-lore of a very simple and primitive
people may be of interest to some who do not care to learn Kachári,
and that it may stimulate others to make fuller and more successful
excursions into an unexplored field. These stories were collected
during a tour of only six weeks' duration in the Kachári mauzas of
Mangaldai, and cost only the effort of taking down the tales as they
were dictated. Not only the Kacháris, but the other hill tribes of
Assam have doubtless their stores of folk legends which have never
been exploited; and it pleases me to hope that others may find it
as pleasant as I have found it, to collect these fictions of the
savage mind over the camp fire. The text of the stories suggests a
problem which it may amuse some one with better opportunities or more
perseverance than myself to solve. It will be noticed that while the
words are for the most part Kachári words, the syntax is curiously
like the Assamese syntax. As an instance of this I have taken down
(see page 1) an accused person's statement in both Assamese and
Kachári. The Kachári version is, literally, a word-for-word translation
of the Assamese. I can think of no other two languages in which it
would be possible to translate a long statement word for word out
of one into the other and yet be idiomatic. The most characteristic
idioms are exactly reproduced. The Assamese says mor bapáy, but tor
báper. The Kachári similarly says Ângnî âfâ, but nangnî namfâ. The
Assamese says e dâl láthi; the Kachári translates gongse lauthi. The
Assamese says gai-pelay kalon; the Kachári khithâ-hùi-man. And many
more instances will occur to any one with a knowledge of Assamese
who reads these stories. Briefly, it may be said that Kachári,
as it is spoken in Darrang, has a vocabulary mostly of the Bodo
type, though it contains many words borrowed from the Assamese. Its
syntax, on the other hand, is nearly identical with the Assamese,
almost the only exception being the use of the agglutinate verb
(see page 26 of Mr. Endle's Grammar). Even the agglutinate verb is
more or less reproduced in Assamese in the use of such expressions
as gai pelay. Now it is quite possible that the Kacháris, from long
association with their Hindu neighbours, have learnt their syntax,
while retaining their own vocabulary. A more tempting theory is that
Assamese and Kachári are both survivals of the vanished speech of the
great Koch race, who, we know, ruled where Assamese and Kachári are
now spoken side by side; that Assamese has retained the Koch syntax,
while it has adopted the Hindu vocabulary of Bengal; that Kachári
has preserved both vocabulary and syntax. This theory, if it can be
defended, would at last give Assamese a valid claim to be considered
a separate tongue, and not a mere dialect of Bengali. It would also
give an explanation of the vexed question of the origin of the word
Kachári. Ârúi is a common patronymic in the Kachári speech. As Mr. Gait
has noted in his Census Report, the Kacháris have totemistic clans,
calling themselves Bâg-ârùi, sons of the tiger, and so on. What more
simple than that the Koch-ârùi are the sons of the Koches? So far,
the problem is one of mere guesswork and theory. But there are other
branches of the Bodo tongue in the Tipperah and Gáro Hills and in
North Cachar, where men of the Bodo race do not come into contact with
Assamese. Do the same idioms and the same syntax exist there? If not,
they were probably borrowed from Hindu sources. If they do, it seems
probable that these idioms and this syntax have survived not only in
them, but in the Hinduised Assamese.
I had intended to draw up a list of the agglutinate verbs found in
this little collection of stories to supplement that given at page
26 of Mr. Endle's Grammar. But anyone interested in the subject will
find them for himself in the stories, and will learn more easily
from the context than from any vocabulary what the precise shades of
meaning of the interpolated particles are. They are a very curious and
interesting feature of the language, and are probably found in richer
abundance where the well of Bodo undefiled has not been contaminated
by a mixture with other tongues.
I must not conclude without offering my hearty thanks to the Reverend
Mr. Endle for his advice and help in collecting these stories, and
to Samson, my tutor, who was in truth "the only begetter of these
ensuing" fictions. He told me most of them and corrected all. I have
no doubt he has many other primitive legends, if any one will take
the trouble to write them down.