Khasi
legend
The Syiem
of Shillong is a very great and powerful Chief in the Khasi Hills[1].
He is generally known throughout the Khasi Hills as the ‘god king’. By the term
‘god king’ is meant that god has been pleased to give over to him the largest
portion of the Khasi country, i.e. the Kingdom of Shillong, to rule. There is
great uncertainty about the origin of these ‘god kings’.
According to Khasi tradition, in the olden
days a rumour got around that there was a woman in a cave called Marai, which
was situated near the present village of Pomlakrai, at the source of the river
Umiew or Umiam. She was young and very beautiful and many tried to catch her,
but they could not, owing to the narrowness of the cave. There came, however, a
certain rather clever man who went to entice her by showing her a flower called
‘u tiew-jalyngkteng’. The damsel came
out to snatch the flower, but the man went on holding back his hand until she
came out into a more open place, when he seized her. He then brought her to his
house and carefully tended her, and afterwards he married her.
That damsel was called ‘Ka Pah Syntiew’ (the flower-lured one) because that man caught her
by coaxing and enticing her with a flower. After she had children, she
returned, to the same place where she had been captured, and from that time onwards
she never came out again, however much her husband and children called and implored
her. Her children increased in stature and in wisdom and the people hearing of
the wonderful origin of their mother, came from all parts of the country to
look at them.
The children also were very
clever at showing their humility and good manners in the presence of the
elders. All the people loved them and considered them to be the children of the
gods and paid homage to them. It occurred to the nobles and leaders of the
Shillong Raj to appoint them Syiems, because the children had been born
of a wonderful woman, who was the daughter of the ‘god Shillong’. Therefore
they gladly decided to appoint them Syiems
in the country of Shillong, (i.e., the present Khyrim and Mylliem States). The
children thus became Syiems, and they
were called ‘Ki Siem-Blei’ (the god
kings) of Shillong.
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