topics: |  khasi | india | folk

The following tale underlines the khasi view of incest as a severe social
transgression, a form of ka sang.  ka sang is one of the most feared
taboos in Khasi society (literally, sang = incest), and one cannot
expiate for it in terms of paying a fine or whatever; you are
simply excommunicated.

Every culture has a legend for why the moon has its blemishes; what is
interesting here is the matriarchal inversion - the sun is female while the
moon is the male. 

Excerpt

What caused the shadows on the Moon

In the early ages there lived a family of deities, consisting of a mother and
four children — three daughters and one son. They lived very happily for many
long years, the children showing great respect to their mother and to one
another. Their names were Ka Um (Water), Ka Ding (Fire), and Ka Sngi
(the Sun), and the boy was called U Bnai (the Moon). They were all very
noble and beautiful to look upon, as became their high destiny, but it was
universally agreed that Ka Sngi and U Bnai, the two youngest, possessed
greater beauty and loveliness than the two elder sisters. In those days the
moon was equal to the sun in brightness and splendour.

When U Bnai grew up he began to show somewhat wayward tendencies; he came and
went at his own will, without consulting his mother or his sisters, and
consulted with companions far beneath him in rank. Sometimes he would absent
himself from home for many days, and none of his family knew whither he
wandered.  His mother often remonstrated with him, as is right for every
mother to do, and she and his sisters endeavoured to guide him into more
decorous habits, hut he was wilful and self-indulgent, thinking that he had a
right to more liberty than his women-folk allowed him. By degrees he
abandoned himself to a life of pleasure and wild pursuits, paying no heed to
the advice ami warnings of his 'Id.

Once he followed some of his low associates into the Qel and spent a long time
in that land of goblins and vice. After a while his thoughts came hack to his
family and his erstwhile radiant home and a longing to see them came over
him. so he quitted the aether regions, and left his evil companions, and
returned to his home and his kindred.

He had gazed so long on the hideous faces of the inhabitants of the dark
world, that he was dazzled by the beauty of his sister Ka Sngi, who came to
meet him with smiles and joy for his return. He had also lost the right
perception of duty and honour, and instead of looking at her as his sister,
he went to his mother and with unbrotherly wantonness demanded the hand of Ka
Sngi in marriage, saying that he had travelled throughout many worlds, and
had seen the sons of all nations, but there was no suitor to be found in the
whole universe whose beauty could match that of Ka Sngi, except
himself. Consequently he said that it behoved his mother to give countenance
to his suit and to arrange the marriage.

This caused the mother much grief, and she dismissed her son from her
presence in dishonour. Ka Sngi, when she heard of his design, was enraged
because of his unchaste proposal, and in anger she went forth to seek her
brother. When she found him she forgot her usual dignity and decorum, and,
lifting a handful of hot ashes, she threw it into U Bnai's face. The ashes
scorched his flesh so deeply that the marks have remained on his face to this
day. Ever since then the light of the moon has been pale, marred by dark
shadows, and that is the reason he does not show his face in the day-time.