How did Misings lose their script

The Mising god of knowledge is Do:ying ba:bu. According to the Misings, it was Do:ying ba:bu who gave different scripts to different peoples. At the beginning, Do:ying ba:bu gave voice to all human beings. To convert this voice into written words, he called representatives from different peoples to his abode. Everyone went and chose the scripts they liked. The Misings were expert in hunting. Every day they killed many deer’s and wild boars. The Mising person who went to Do:ying ba:bu took a deer hide with him. He wrote down the scripts that Do:ying ba:bu gave on the deer hide. Everyone went home once they got their scripts. The Mising person went to his home and put the deer-hide on the dhuwa-sang as it would stay dry there.

Many a day’s went and the Mising person forgot all about the deer hide. One day, he couldn’t catch anything while hunting. So, he lay back in his sang-ghar and was thinking of what he could eat when he saw the deer-hide on the dhuwa-sang. He totally forgot about the script that he had written on that hide. All he could think was that the hide would still be quite juicy, so he should have his meal with that hide. So, he immediately took down the hide from the dhuwa￾sang and roasted it in the fire and ate it. Later on he remembered that he had written the script on the deer-hide but he could not recall all that he had written. From then onwards, Misings don’t have a script of their own and use the English script instead.

According to our grandparents/ ancestors this kind of folk tales are told to the small children for entertainment and giving amusement.

The moral of this particular tale is that Greed leads to misfortune. Greediness can lead anybody whether man or animal to adversity. We should have self-control and fortitude in ourselves. We should able to control our emotion, desires, greediness etc. In this particular tale, the man of the Mising tribe had consumed the script which was written on the hide deer. The valuable script which was given by Do:ying Ba:bu was eaten by the man out of greed. If he could control his tongue for the sake of greater Mising society, today the people of the Mising would not face such a scarcity of written script. He added that, therefore, we should control our desires for the sake of others as greediness is always harmful. Greediness can destroy our honesty and nobleness.

Source~ Book- Role of mising folk tales and folk songs in developing moral values among children a critical study.

Researcher: Doley Pritilata Pegu

Guide: Boro Anil Kumar Link- http://hdl.handle.net/10603/72266