Long long ago, two sisters together were searching for larger cucumbers in a field. The younger sister picked up a good number of cucumbers but the other sister seemed unsuccessful even after a long search. So, the elder asked the younger to give her some, but the younger said she wished to take them home so that they could eat them with their own parents.
This greatly upset the elder sister who thereupon called on a clay in the soil to swallow her up.
Swallow me up, O strong clay mount,
My little sister no cucumber can give,
swallow me up, O strong clay mount.
Then gradually she actually did sink until at last only the top of her head could be seen.
Shortly after when the other sister returned home and her parents came home from the fields, they asked her, ‘Where is your sister?’
The younger sister replied truthfully that she had allowed herself to be swallowed up in the ground because she had refused to give a cucumber.
The parents were of course very distressed and told her to go at once to try to call her to return. So she went calling :
Sister, sister, please do come back,
Mother will buy you rich amber beads,
Father will buy you great brazen bells.
Her sister then came out rising higher and higher till only her knees remained.
So, unhappily just at this stage a cry was raised that the head hunters were coming. So they wrenched at the elder sister but this caused her to lose her legs which were left in the ground, turning into mushrooms which grow in this way to this day.
And believe it or not, it is said, that was how mushroom came into existence.
Illustration by Amrapali
Folktale Source: Mizoclan Blog
