The Orphan and the Pond

A long time ago, there was a young man, named Johpokae (meaning an orphan), living with his grandmother. One day, the people in his village were gathering and discussing about draining a pond in the forest in order to catch fish and other aquatic animals for food. When Johpokae heard about this upcoming event, he became interested in joining other villagers. He then went home and asked permission from his grandmother, begging her to allow him to go pond-draining and fishing with other people in the community. His grandmother then said to him, "Johpokae, you have never gone hunting for food in the wilderness like this before, especially with other people. Are you sure you can do it?" Johpokae replied, "It's all right Grandma. This is a community event. The people will help one another and I’m sure they will teach me how to do this." After talking to his grandmother, Johpokae grabbed his bag, carried it on his shoulder and walked out of the house to join other villagers for the pond-draining and fishing activities. 

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When Johpokae and other villagers arrived at the destination, all of them helped one another to remove water from the pond. After a while, the water level gradually decreased and they found a large number of fish in the pond. However, no matter how hard they were working, the water in the pond was not low enough for them to catch fish. To solve this problem, the villagers were gathering and looking for a way to drain the pond completely dry. Not long after that, they reached the conclusion that it was necessary for them to perform a human sacrifice, so that the water level would go down and the pond could become completely dry. And the person they all chose for a human sacrifice was Johpokae. Straight away, the villagers killed Johpokae, cut his body in half and used it as offerings to spirits. Immediately after the villagers had finished the offering ritual, the water level in the pond decreased and the pond became completely dry. Full of thrill and happiness, the villagers started to help one another to catch fish, shrimp, clams, eels, and many other aquatic animals, storing them inside their bags. Eventually, there was nothing left inside the drained pond for them to catch. The villagers finally walked back to the village with joy because they had plenty of food in their bags. 

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In the evening of that day, the grandmother was waiting for her grandchild to come home from the pond-draining and fishing activities. She saw the villagers starting to show up, walking back to the village, one after another, but she had not yet seen her grandson. After some time, it was clear that all of the villagers had returned home, but she still did not see her grandson. She decided to leave the house and asked some of the villagers walking past, "Have you seen my grandson? Where is he? All of you have come back, except him. Do you know where he is?" The grandmother received the same answer from several villagers, "Oh, I had seen Johpokae leave. But he might have been the last one who had left. Or he hasn't arrived yet. I don’t know." The grandmother asked other villagers about her grandson, and all of them gave her the same answer. She then thought to herself, "This is so strange. My only grandson had gone pond-draining and fishing with these people. All of them have returned, except him. I wonder where he is or what has happened to him." 

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With so much concern and worry, the grandmother decided to look for her grandchild, walking around to many areas in the village searching for me. Finally, she reached the location where the pond-draining and fishing had taken place. There, the grandmother discovered the truth. Her only grandchild had been brutally murdered by the villagers. His body had been cut in half, and used as offerings to spirits to ensure the success of the pond-draining and fishing activities. The grandmother was extremely furious at the villagers for viciously killing her only grandson, who had attended their activities with pure intention and determination. 

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Full of wrath, the grandmother walked back to the village from the place where she had seen her grandson's sacrificed body. During the trip, she caught two grasshoppers, one from different species. On arriving at the village, she tied the grasshoppers to the end of her headwrap, put some paddy in a rice mortar, and began pounding the paddy. While she was pounding the paddy, she said this verse three times, “Long brown grasshoppers are helping each other to pound paddy, making a loud noise.” She then walked upstairs of her house, covered herself with a coat and a blanket. Out of the blue, the whole sky became completely dark, from the north to the south, and from the east to the west. There was a thunderstorm with heavily pouring rain, which caused a deadly flash flood hitting the whole village. From the upstairs of her house, the grandmother watched everything that was happening to the village, until the sky was slowly becoming brighter. It appeared that all of the villagers who had performed the human sacrifice by using her only grandson's body were swept away and killed in the flash flood. Every single one of them.