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.