Mizo Myths

This book of fifteen mythological tales from the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram includes a creation myth and a voyage to the Land of the Dead. There are also many supernatural love affairs: one between a weretigress and a human hunter, another between a man and a Phungpuinu (a very ugly sort of goblin), and one in which the King of the Lasi, or hidden folk, takes the beautiful human woman Chawngtinleri to be his bride.

Meet Hmuichukchuriduninu, the bird-beaked child-eating witch of the forest; Rulpui, the demonic love child of a python and a farmer's daughter; and Sichangneii, a woman from the sky, whose wings are stolen from her by her husband in a Mizo parallel to the famous story of the selkie.