legend of the Sundarban (2)

Continued from part (1)

Read part (1) before you read this

The Guardians

Two hours later, they came back with an old yogi who dressed in yellow robe. Adam knew that yogis were not respected like they used to in the predominantly Muslims Bangladesh. Nevertheless, they were not unusual in this part of the country where animism and traditional beliefs had their deep roots in the rural communities.

Mahmood whispered softly in the old man’s ear and pointed to the victims, who were already cleaned and wrapped in white cloth by their family members. Abdullah’s mother came to the yogi, closed her palm to show respect. She kneeled and touched the yogi’s feet.

“Please Gurujhi. You have to help us to destroy the devil.”
Muni’s widowed mother joined her and kneeled before the yogi.
Many other villagers turned towards the yogi and closed their palms too.

The old yogi touched the heads of the women kneeling before him, spoke softly to them and went to sit down under the shed of a big tree.
He closed his eyes and started to chant softly. After a while, the faint scent of sandal wood filled the village. There were movements in the bushes behind him. Anil and Adam instinctively raised their gun but was stopped by Mahmood who signaled them not to move.

A huge king cobra emerged from the bush. It was completely white and looked almost shinny in the morning sun. It raised its head tall and faced the yogi. Adam estimated it was at least 20 feet long and had enough venom to kill 10 adults. A second king cobra emerged from the bushes; it was a black one and smaller. It stopped next to the white cobra and it too raised its head.
The old yogi kept chanting softly as if he was communicating with the cobras that were swaying in front of him.

Very slowly, the two women approached them with a tray in their hands. On the tray, there were a bowl of buffalo milk and 2 eggs. They put the trays in front of the yogi and the cobras, kneeled and touched their heads on the ground. The cobras turned and approached the trays, heads raised all the time.
They drank the milk and gracefully went over to the victims’ body, which they circled them a few times. After that, they went back to the trays, swallowed the eggs and disappeared in the bushes.

The old yogi stood up and walked over to the women. He placed his hands on their shoulders, chanted some short mantras and left with Mahmood.
“He said the demon will be taken care of” Amesh told Adam and Anil later.

Anil stayed for 3 more days in the village but there weren’t any more incidents. Life was almost back to normal in the village.

The final battle

Two weeks later, a villager found a sensor camera on a river bank and handed it back to Adam.
“Thanks. I believe this is one of the cameras that I lost the other day”.

The videos were all 2-minute footages recorded after the motion sensor was triggered by movements.

He was speechless when he checked through the video footages on his laptop computer.

In one of the footages, a huge tiger was drinking by the river. Adam saw the broken tail and knew it must be the demon Asyoitan.
It suddenly paused and stepped away quickly from the river, as if it was stung by a wasp. Step by step, it retreated but never took its eyes away from the water. A few second later, the white king cobra emerged from the river. As the white cobra advanced aggressively, Asyoitan retreated to keep a safe distance from it. It lowered its body and snarled angrily at the advancing king cobra while moving in a circle.

“The cobra was trying to push it back into the jungle where it would disadvantage Asyoitan. Asyoitan knew it and wanted to remain in the clear so its movements were not hindered by trees and undergrowth.” Adam thought.

The next 2-minute footage showed Asyoitan was circling around the defensive white king cobra. It moved in swiftly and took a swipe at the cobra. The king cobra stroke immediately but Asyoitan leaped to the side and avoided the deadly fangs. With another swipe, it hit the white king cobra on the neck and sent it rolling on the ground. Defeated, the king cobra tried to escape into the bushes with Asyoitan pursuing cautiously from behind.

Suddenly, the black king cobra appeared from behind the root of a tree and stroke at Asyoitan’s hind leg with its large venomous fangs.
It was there all the time, waiting for the chance to strike.

Asyoitan roared angrily and turned to face the black cobra. Bite marks were clearly seen on its hind leg.
It lunged forward and was bitten again but his big paw held the black cobra down by its neck. It seemed all over.

Before it could sink its deadly fangs on the black cobra, the white cobra came from behind and bit it twice.
Asyoitan leaped away to avoid further assults. It turned to face the cobra and roared angrily, baring its white fangs.

The white king cobra was not backing down and raised its head high, ready to attack again. The black cobra was lying still on the ground.
Asyoitan learnt its lesson and kept a safe distance between itself and the white cobra.
The venom that could have killed an elephant seemed not affecting Asyoitan too much, although it was clearly limping and was moving slower.
Suddenly the white cobra opened its mouth and spat venom at Asyoitan. It hit it in the forehead and splashed over its eyes.
Asyoitan gave out a roar in pain, turned and vanished in the thick bushes.

The next footage was recorded 2 hours later triggered by a wild boar coming to the river bank. Neither the tiger nor the king cobras were seen in the video. Adam checked through all the remaining footages but didn’t find them again.
The battle between the demon tiger and two guardian king cobras lasted for less than 5 or 6 minutes. Nobody knew what the final ending was.
Did Asyoitan die from the venom?
Did the black cobra survive?
Adam didn’t know. All he knew was he had witnessed something that nobody had ever seen.
He left the swamp and joined Anil to become an English teacher in Chittagong and never went back again.

No more tiger attacks in that part of the sundarban were reported for many years.

Legend of the Sundarban (1)

Yes. Another short story about tiger of chinese myth but brought to live in sundarban region, Bangladesh. Also to highlight the harsh lives of the honey gatherers and fishermen living in that part of the country. completed on 12 Feb 2009 (Goulburn NSW). Took me more than 3 months to finally typed it out on a computer.

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The Village

It's evening after sunset. The sky around the set sun turned to a splendid reddish orange above the distant mountainous terrain. Adam was sitting on the river bank watching the sunset and the equally splendid reflection on the flowing water. This was a rare occasion in the raining season. Twilight was approaching and soon darkness would cover the swamp. He had to go back to the village before it was completely dark; especially the warning had been given.

"Mr. Adam. Thank god you are back. We were starting to worry about you." Adam was greeted by Arshad when he was back at wooden hut he was boarding.
"Mahmood, our elder, has already warned us against going out of the village alone at night. Asyoitan is back. We should all stick close together at night."

"I m OK, Arshad. I know my way and it's not dark yet." said Adam. He was a bit annoyed being told off like a young boy. He had experience in living in the rain forest. He had lived in the deepest jungle of Sabah for 2 months while shooting the documentary on the elusive and rare Javan Rhinoceros for BBC. Not to mention the 3 months with the National Geographic team in Royal Chitwan National Park in Nepal.

"No. No. Asyoitan has lived too long and is too cunning to predict. If you had seen what I saw, you would understand why I m scare." Arshad's voice was a bit loud but the fear in it was obvious. The bad memory was still haunting him.

"Thanks. I will be careful next time." Adam wanted to end this conversation. He has a lot to do and needed to rest early.

"Very well. Mr Adam, good night. Please let me know if you need anything"

Meanwhile, the villagers had lighted a dozen or more fire surrounding the huts they lived in. The shadows cast by the flickering flames looked as if they were some black creatures moving silently in the dimly lighted village.
Children were all back in the huts while their parents were making dinner outside. Fear was obvious on everyone's face.

"How easy it is to control a group of uneducated people with fear and myths. All you need to do is to scare them and you'd have them like a flock of sheep." Adam thought.

He came to this remote village in the swampy country of Bangladesh to do a documentary of the honey gatherers, as well as to install sensor-triggered cameras to capture the wildlife in this part of sundarban. He had a working partner but he had gone back to Dhaka for malaria treatment. To make things worse, the delivery of sensor cameras didn't arrive as scheduled. He had to wait for 2 long weeks before they finally arrived 2 days ago. His frustration was compounded by the rain that came almost everyday. And now, he was confronted by the mythical Asyoitan.
"The sunset here is just beautiful. Can one asks for more?" he sighed. Being cynical helped to reduce the frustration.

From his hut, Adam saw Muni sitting by the fire and drawing picture on a paper pad quietly. Muni was a young boy of about 9 years old and was almost completely deaf and mute. He had bright eyes and Adam knew he was very smart too. The villagers nick-named him “buffalo boy” because he seemed to be able to communicate with the buffalos in the village. They simply came to him whenever he approached them and he seemed to know what they want or need, as if he could understand them.

Adam went over and sat next to Muni who gave him a warm smile. His bright eyes glittered as he showed Adam his work. Adam looked at the pictures of buffalos drawn on the paper pad he had given to Muni and put his thumb up. He said “very good”. He liked the boy very much since the first time they met two weeks ago.

Adam had made a plan to start installing the sensor-cameras the next day. The cameras had a motion sensor that if triggered by movement, would record a 2 minutes video and had enough storage for 10 hours of recording. He had to find some strategic locations where the wildlife would pass through, such as river bank.

He was thinking about the warning from Arshad about Asyoitan.

“When a tiger has killed and eaten human flesh, it acquires special power and becomes a demon. The victims are under its spell and become its slaves forever. They become the ‘hinapa’ – ghost slaves who can’t escape and have no chance of reborn. They will lure other human to the demon tiger as a service to their master, thus making the demon stronger. Asyoitan is the worst of all. According to the legend, it has lived more than 100 years and had claimed hundreds of human lives. There was a tiger attack in the neighbor village. They saw the tiger and an old man recognized the bullet wound marks on it. The rangers have been trying to kill it for many years but it escaped every time.”

“Do you think it will come here?”

“Nobody knows for sure. It is cunning and unpredictable. I hope it has gone back to the deep forest and leave us alone. But we have to be very careful, especially at night”

“The honey gatherers are now going out in big groups and come back to the village before sunset. Everyone will go inside and lock their door after dinner. You too have to take extra care, Mr. Adam.”

“It’s just a tiger. Human just needs myths to spice up their lives” Adam thought. He gave Muni a pat on the shoulder and went in to sleep.

ASYOITAN

The next day, Adam and his guide Amesh went into the swamp to install the sensor-cameras. Before they took off, Amesh handed Adam a mask with human face on it.
“Mr. Adam, wear this behind your head. Tiger usually likes to ambush from behind. If it sees the mask, hopefully, it will think you are facing it and won’t attack.” Explained Amesh.

It was a hot and humid day in the swamp. To locate, install, test and record was actually real hard work and they were soaked in their own sweat by late aftenoon. They stopped by a small river to rest and to have a cigarette break.

Suddenly, Adam stood up and dropped his cigarette.
“Did you hear it? There is a girl calling for help.”

Amesh face turned pale. He had heard it too.

“It’s from across the river. We have to go help her.” Adam said.
“No. No. Mr. Adam. This is the work of hinapa. Asyoitan must be not far from here. Let’s get back to the village now.”
“IT’S A GIRL. She is probably hurt and needs help. We can’t walk away.”
“Why is a girl doing alone in the forest? No girls will enter the forest. It’s the hinapa. Please leave now.”

“I will go and help her.” Adam said with a firm voice.

“Please don’t go. Mr. Adam. It’s a trap”

Adam was angry with what he saw as cowardice of Amesh. He put down his backpack containing the sensor camera and started to cross the river.

“Please don’t go. Please come back” Amesh pleaded.

When he saw that Adam had already crossed the river, he turned and ran back towards the village.
“I have to get help” he said to himself.

Adam was trying to go faster but the terrain and the thick bushes were slowing him down. As he went deeper into the forest, the girl’s voice seemed nearer. With his mind pre-occupied, he failed to notice that the forest was completely silent except for the voice of the girl’s calling for help.
Suddenly, something hard hit his head. He looked up and saw to his surprise, Muni was up in a tall tree. He smiled at Adam and gestured him to climb the tree.
The tree had no low branches but with the help of the hanging vines, Adam managed to reach where Muni was. He looked down and found himself at least 15m above ground and could see the forest below clearly.
“what are you doing here, boy?”
Muni signed to him to be quiet and pointed forward.
Adam saw a big wild boar searching for food in the bushes about 100m from where he was just now.
From his rough estimate, the boar weighted more than 100kg. With formidable curved tusks, it was certainly a dangerous wild thing.
Suddenly, the boar paused and lifted its head. It was alerted by something in the air. Seconds later, Adam smelt it too.
It was like a mixture of urine and rotting meat.
Adam knew at once what it was. The smell that you would get when you were near the big cats enclosure in a zoo.

“Tiger!” He said to himself.

The boar was moving in circle as it didn’t know which direction was safe. The odor was getting stronger and it filled the air in the forest.
Adam realized that the forest was completely silent. Even the birds and insects were not making any sound; except for the soft grunts of the boar.

Finally overcome by panic, it dashed into the thick bushes and disappeared. The bush was covered densely with tall undergrowth and the shadows casted by the setting sun had made it very difficult to see what was inside it.
Adam heard a sharp cry from an animal in pain and saw movements in the bush. The head of the boar emerged; covered in blood. One of its eyes had been ripped out and part of the face was gone. Before it was fully out of the bush, something caught it from behind and dragged it back into the bush.
Adam could only see movements in the bush and heard the last few helpless cries of the boar, which sent shivers down his spine.

Everything went back to silent again but the distinct odor was growing stronger and stronger.

To his horror, Adam started to feel weak as if the odor had become a thick fluid that filled up his lungs and he could barely breathe.
He knew what or who was waiting for him down in the bush.

There were soft voices all around him, male and female.
“Come down here, my friend.”
“Let go and come with us.”
“Jump now and you will be free forever.”

Adam was shaking in cold sweat and had to hold on tightly on the branch with all his strength in order not to fall.
“Hold on. Hold on. Don’t fall.” He said to himself. His legs felt weak and he would have fallen had he not put his arms around a big branch.
He saw lights spinning around him and felt so weak that he wanted to close his eyes.
His last bit of consciousness knew that he would lose his balance and fall if he closed his eyes. With all his mental strength, he forced himself to focus on the branch right in front of him. It was like someone fighting to wake up from a bad dream.
He had heard tales of monkeys falling from the tree when a tiger roared below it. Now he understood why.

It could be a few minutes or maybe one hour. Adam had lost the sense of time. He couldn’t feel his legs. All he could do was to hold on to the branch as hard as he could.
Gradually, sounds of birds and insects were again heard.
Adam gave a sigh of relieve. The voices were not heard anymore.
He turned around. Muni was also gone.

“Mr. Adam. Mr. Adam. Where are you?”
He heard Amesh’s voice. He had come back with another 5 villagers. They had spears and axes with them.

“Thanks for coming back for me. It was Asyoitan”
“You were smart to safe yourself up in the tree.”
“It was Muni who helped me …”
“Stop joking. Mr. Adam. It’s not nice to joke about the deceased.” One of the villagers said sadly.
“What do you mean?”
“Muni was found seriously injured this morning. Mauled by a tiger. He would had been dragged away and eaten had it not for the buffalos. We think they drove the tiger away. We heard their bellows and found Muni lying on the ground surrounded by buffalos. Tiger prints were all over the ground. Muni died one hour later. His widow mother was devastated.”
“I swear to God. He was up in the tree with me just now”
“You were under the spell of the hinapa. Muni came to help you my friend. “ Amesh said slowly.
Back in the village, while the women were comforting Muni’s widow mother, the men gathered to discuss.

The Hunter and the hunted

“Why didn’t Muni become a hinapa?” Adam asked Amesh.
“I think it was because he died in his mother’s arm. A mother’s love is much powerful than any spell of a demon. His soul is safe”
Adam nodded and walked away quietly.

“Thank you for saving me. I shall revenge your death, Muni. I shall end it. Asyoitan will be hunted down and killed. I promise you.” Adam made a vow after he laid down Muni’s drawing pad next to the boy motionless body. He made his proposal to the villagers and they agreed.

Three days later, Adam was in Chittagong, the biggest port city in Bangladesh. He came to see his friend Anil. Anil worked as a school teacher but he used to be a hunter.
He had shot a monkey and found a baby clinging on the dead mother. It was wailing and holding on so tightly that they couldn’t separate them with the strength of two grown men. Anil dropped his gun on the spot and made a vow never to shoot any innocent creature again.

Adam told Anil about Asyoitan and the villagers.

“I had heard similar stories. These creatures are vey elusive and cunning. It’s almost impossible and dangerous to track them down and have a clear shot. They may hunt us down instead. Furthermore, one or two bullets won’t finish them off.”
“What do you suggest? Hold it down and point the gun at its head?”
“Exactly. That’s what we need to do. We shall use traps to clam it.”
“You mean using baits?”
“No. It’s too smart to be tricked by food. We shall use something even demon can’t resist.”
“What?”
“Sex”

Back in the village, Anil asked help from the villagers to set up the traps. He had brought with him a few big iron clawed clams used by bear hunters.
“We have the ultimate lure for Asyoitan. These bottles contain fresh urine of a big male tiger and a tigress in heat. I got them from a friend who works in a tiger sanctuary park. No male tiger can resist the scent of a female in heat. A challenge from another male in his territory will anger him and distort his awareness.”
“Very smart, Anil” said Adam.
“Now all we need to do is to setup a few traps and wait. It’s insane to go into the jungle at night with a man eater lurking in the dark. He can definitely smell the scent. We will only go to check the traps in day time.”
“Yea. Once it’s held by the clams. You can get close and BANG BANG BANG on its head.”

Two days later, they went back to check the traps. Anil handed Adam one of his guns and showed him how to use it.
“I hope you don’t have to use it. Having a face-to-face encounter with a tiger is NOT what you saw in movies. Tigers are NOT game.” He said seriously
Adam nodded. He knew after the narrow escape from Asyoitan.

One by one they checked the traps that they had set up but none was touched. With the scent of tigers around the traps, no other wild animals would even get close to them.
Just as they were approaching the last one, Anil paused and whispered softly to Adam “Stop. Something’s here. Wait here while I check it out”. He pointed to a big tree.
Adam tensed up and gripped the gun firmly. A faint odor was in the air. A smell that Adam would never, ever forget.
Anil walked cautiously towards the traps, gun raised and finger on the trigger.
After a while which seemed like a long time to Adam, Anil motioned him to come forward and pointed to ground.
“Oh My God. He broke the chain!”
There were blood stains on the forest floor and the iron chain was still fastened on a big tree trunk, only the end that was attached to the clawed clam was broken and the clam was missing.
“The clam got it but the chain could hold it. A demon, indeed. The claws must be tearing through its flesh. Imagine the pain.”
Anil signaled him to be quiet and checked the prints on the ground. He motioned Adam to come along as he followed the foot print.
Adam’s heart was pounding hard.
“Is he insane? Following an injured beast?”
They walked for about twenty minutes and Anil spotted something shinny between the roots of a huge strangler fig tree.
It was the missing clawed clam with a large piece of flesh still firmly gripped between the iron claws. Flies were swamping over it.
“The trap got its tail and severed it so much that when it was again caught between the roots, Asyoitan pulled so hard that it just torn off its body. Dang. We almost got it and it got away.”
“Let’s get back to the village. It’s getting dark soon” Adam was not comfortable facing an injured tiger in the dark, even with Anil and his gun around him. He knew the speed and power of Asyoitan.

When the villagers saw the severed tiger tail, they were worried.
“We have angered the demon. He will come back for revenge.” Mahmood the elder shook his head and said.

“We shall build fire around the village and put a few on guard tonight. The rest of us should stay inside and lock our doors and windows”

“I shall do it.” Anil raised his hand and said.

Adam couldn’t sleep. He imagined Asyoitan would bust through the flimsy wooden door and pound on him. The distinct odor, the powerful paws, the huge jaws, the deadly fangs and the broken tail of Asyoitan filled his head. But the night past without any incident.

At dawn, he opened the door and found Anil sitting on a log, gun in his hand, cat napping.
Anil opened his eye and said tiredly, “It didn’t come last night.”

Just then, they heard a scream.

A man was lying inside his hut. Neck broken and dis-bowelled. His belly was ripped open exposing the internal organs. The things in his hut were almost undisturbed.
“It’s Abdullah. The demon came through the back window. Swift and silent like a ghost” said Mahmood.
There was another scream. Arshad’s wife was the second victim. Her body was found outside their hut with her neck snapped and throat slashed. Arshad was crying.

“Why did she get out in the dark?”
“It’s the hinapa. They lured her out.”

Anil’s head hanged low. He felt defeated. Asyoitan came, killed someone and slipped away while he was on guard and he didn’t even know.

Nobody had seen it but three innocent lives were taken.

The commotion woke up everyone in the village. They gathered around the victims’ hut but nobody spoke. Adam could see the fear and sorrow in their eyes.
Amesh whispered something to Mahmood. He thought for a while then nodded. Both of them left quietly.

(TO BE CONTINUED)