Recordiad o gân werin Khasi ysgrifennwyd gan Shemphang Thangkhiew, perfformiwyd gan Jewel Syngkli a Rani Marin ym mhentref Pahambir, Ri Bhoi Meghalaya. Mae'r gân yn cyd-fynd gyda'r gweithgaredd o wahanu'r cotwm o'r hadau (heislanu). Recordiwyd yn fyw, mis Tachwedd 2018, Pahambir.

A recording of a Khasi folk song written by Shemphang Thangkhiew, performed by Jewel Syngkli and Rani Marin from Pahambir Ri Bhoi, Meghalaya. The song is to accompany the process of separating cotton from the seeds (ginning). Recorded live in November 2018, Pahambir.

Ri Bhoi District is on the northern slopes of Meghalaya and borders the state of Assam. Thanks to Desmond Kharmawphlang, a professor of folklore at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) near Shillong, I have had the opportunity to visit Pahambir village several times in recent years. Desmond began visiting the village when he was researching folklore in the North East in the 1990s and has become a close member of the community there. In April 2018, I’d spent the night sitting with the craftsman and musician Rani Maring, who entertained us with his Maryngod and a variety of fiendishly difficult bamboo puzzles that he had made himself. I also sat with Prit and Jai Makri, two elders that demonstrated the difficult breathing patterns required to play the rhythms of the Muiñ, chuckling as they explained the meaning behind each one. “This one tells the man that the woman is not interested…”

When I returned in November that same year, Rani sat me down in the middle of the village as the sun was setting and put me through my paces on the Duitara. He played a version of ‘U Sier Lapalang’ (Lapalang the Stag); an extremely popular Khasi folk tune, that I did my best to follow! I was recording on a small portable recording device, which I always kept with me for reference. Gradually, more musicians came to join in; Rani handed Jewel Syngkli his Duitara and picked up the Maryngod and other villagers wrestled the weighty Ka Bom (a large base drum) and various other percussive instruments into a circle in the dust. With a nod to Jewel, Rani struck up a tune on the Maryngod and Jewel began to sing Ka Sit Tula. Finding out the history of the song has been a lengthy and incomplete process thus far. On the day, several of those present told me it was a folk tune to accompany the work of separating cotton from the sticky seeds (ginning) in the evenings. The hypnotic rhythm on the Duitara known as Lingngai or Dum Dum Lingngai, is particularly well matched to this process. Later it emerged that the composer of the tune Shemphang Thangkhiew is a resident in the same community, so this is a contemporary folk song from a living tradition. Here are Desmond Kharmawphlang’s notes on the song:

Ka Sit Tula

Phum phum I beat the cotton bolls
lulling the mynah chick
cries of other kids echo
Methinks, my baby sister's

Mother and father have
left for the swidden to till
I tend to sister (while) beating cotton
I prepare rice and leaf curry

Upon my parents' return
heap praises on me
"our grown child will be blessed
never will she lack for grains"

The sun is setting soon
close to the return of the toilers
hasten the rice and leaf curry
gather up the cotton bolls

The song composed by Shemphang Thangkhiew is the first verbal articulation of the act of threshing cotton bolls I have heard. I have heard the tune played on the muin a number of times but not the song. This does not mean that there is no song or a verbal rendering of the tune. The threshing involves the use of a bow-like instrument, the string of which is beaten with a stick. This is done to separate the fluff of the cotton bolls from the seeds for processing into and obtaining twine. This activity is performed to the accompaniment of the muin and there is a dedicated tune which is called sit tula.

Going to the text, the beginning "phum phum" denotes the sound of the stick falling on the bowstring catching, at the same time, the cotton bolls in between. It is onomatopeic. This work is done exclusively by women and even young girls are proficient in it. In this case, it is a young girl who does it while she also carries on her back her kid sister who is ensconced in a length of cloth called a jain-it. The jain-it is knotted in front which leaves the girl's both hands free to work. Mynah is a bird found in Meghalaya which is prized because of its intelligence and the fact that it can imitate, in a limited way, human speech. "Mynah chick" is a term of endearment used for infants.