Garo
names 18objects 14ISO 639-3 grt
Spoken in the Garo Hills, Assam (now Meghalaya).
tribal 18
See the Garo sky on the chart →
The sky in Garo
| Name | Object | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noringro-Nojingjo | 'Star' as a word | Playfair's informants held the stars to be spirits set in the heavens as rulers of the seasons and the years — a governing function, not a decorative one, and the frame on which the whole fourteen-name catalogue that follows is hung. | tribal |
| Mangripe | Cassiopeia | 'the carrying of the body' The bearing of the corpse to the funeral pyre — the opening scene of the funeral of the moon's mother, which is the single story the Garo sky tells. | tribal |
| Chapchoré-Nonje | Castor and Pollux | Two sisters who came to the funeral in very beautiful clothing; Susime was so pleased that she ordained they should remain for ever as witnesses of her mother's death and roam the heavens together. | tribal |
| Askido·me | Figures with no secure modern identification | The cocks' feathers placed with the other offerings at the head of the corpse during the lying-in-state. | tribal |
| Do·sutat | Figures with no secure modern identification | 'fighting cocks' Two cocks tied to the feet of Susime's mother during the lying-in-state, which Susime ordered to fight as bulls are made to fight at funerals. | tribal |
| Ja·tokani | Figures with no secure modern identification | 'the walking-stick' The walking-stick of Susime's mother, which wept bitterly at her death; in recognition of its affection Susime promised it should always remain in the sky near her. | tribal |
| Mengo-ripe | Figures with no secure modern identification | 'the carrying of the cat' Children who, seeing their elders carry a pig slung on a pole to the sacrifice, caught a cat and carried it the same way; Susime was pleased and ordered a constellation to commemorate them. | tribal |
| Mirontek | Figures with no secure modern identification | The basket of rice from which the mourners at the funeral were fed. | tribal |
| Do·sadil-Mingitir | Meteors and shooting stars | A star that married a clod of earth, married another star afterwards, and has never forgotten its first love — it comes down to earth from time to time to see her. | tribal |
| Wak-ripe | Orion's Belt | 'the carrying of the pig' (wak, pig) The pig brought to the funeral as food for the mourners, slung on a pole between bearers. | tribal |
| Manganchi | Pegasus | The four upright posts between which the wood for the cremation was heaped; the brightest of the four is the post to which the sacrificial buffalo was tethered. | tribal |
| Walsaldo | Sirius | The star that set fire to the funeral pyre — the brightest star in the sky given the one office in the funeral that requires a flame. | tribal |
| Matma-Ja·kol | The Milky Way | 'the foot-prints of the buffalo' The sacrificial buffalo, terrified by the horns and drums, broke away and galloped off; the band across the sky is its track and the marks of its hoofs. | tribal |
| Bire-Jitje | The Moon | Sister of the sun; her other name in this book is Susime, and it is her mother's funeral that the whole Garo star-catalogue commemorates. | tribal |
| Do·sadil | The Pleiades | The cock sacrificed at the cremation to lead the spirit of the dead to the better land. | tribal |
| Rengra-Balsa | The Sun | Brother of the moon, and the children of Asima-Dingsima. The moon was once the brighter of the two; the sun in jealousy flung mud in his sister's face, and because she waited to complain instead of washing, their mother condemned the mud to stick there for ever. | tribal |
| Atampang | Venus as evening star | It shows that it is time to shut up the fowls for the night. | tribal |
| Pringpang | Venus as morning star | It warns the cocks that day is approaching and that it is time to wake sleeping mankind — the star's duty is to the cock, and the cock's to the household. | tribal |