Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman. And when they
were quite old, the old woman said to her husband "How shall these our
children get food when we are gone?" So the old man travelled afar to
the great god Kuvera, [26] the god of riches, and, taking from him
seedlings of paddy, pulse, mustard, and gourds, journeyed for eight
days and so reached his home. And after staying a couple of days,
he set forth to cultivate, taking dry food with him. And first he
marked out a piece of rich land by placing boundaries on all four
sides of it, and so came home. And again he set out another day with
hoe and axe, and cut and burned the jungle, and cleaned the soil,
and after worshipping on each side of his field--on the east and on
the west, on the north and on the south--he struck one blow with his
hoe on each side.
And when all was ready, the old man planted his seedlings of various
sorts, and finally went home and rested. And so, as time went by,
the old woman desired vehemently to see how the crops were getting
on. But the old man said "There is no water on the road, and if you
grow athirst, you will get no relief." But she persisted and prevailed,
and made her husband take her along. And as they went, and were now
quite close to her husband's field, behold, the old woman began to
be very thirsty. And the old man, being enraged, cried "What did I
tell you? There is no water, and yet you would come." But she, being
a woman, said "If you do not give me to drink, I shall die. So, water
you must procure as best you can." So the old man, seeing no other
way, went to seek for water. And after long search, seeing a tank,
he bound the old woman's eyes with a cloth and dragged her to the
water's edge and said to her "Drink if you will, but look not upon
the tank." Now the ducks and other water fowls were playing in the
water, and were making a merry noise, clacking and quacking. And,
the old woman, being curious, like all her sex, peeped at them. And,
seeing them at their play, she too desired to be happy in her husband's
society, and, though he was very loth, prevailed with him. And so in
due course there were born to them many sons and daughters. And then,
in order to provide for their food, he journeyed to the Himalayas
and digged a great tank, stocked with many kinds of fishes.
Now, one day the god Sri, the god of good luck, came that way with
his white dog, ahunting for deer and hares and tortoises. And when
he came to the margin of the tank, behold he was very thirsty. But
when he stooped to drink, the fishes said to him eagerly that he must
grant them a boon in return for their water. To which he assented,
and when he had satisfied his thirst, the fishes said "Take us to the
great river, the Brahmaputra (or Lohit)." So the god Sri tied them
to his staff, and drew them after him, making runnels of water. And
that is how the rivers were made. And the fishes in return gave him a
pumpkin and a gourd. And, taking these with him to a friend's house,
his friend regaled him with rice beer and pig's flesh, and in the
morning he gave his friend the pumpkin. But when his friend cut open
the pumpkin, it contained nothing but pure silver. So he bade the
god Sri stay another day, and brewed fresh beer and killed another
pig, and when he was going away gave him a flitch of bacon to take
with him. So the god Sri gave him also the gourd. But when he cut
open the gourd, it contained nothing but pure gold. And so the god
Sri journeyed to his home. And when he got there, he found that his
little daughter was very ill. And that was because he had given away
the presents which the fishes had made him. But the fishes took pity
on him, and came to him in the guise of physicians, and told him
that if he would worship and do sacrifice on the banks of rivers,
then his daughter would be healed, which he did. And that is why we
Kacharis worship rivers. And that is all.