Rengma Naga
names 16objects 10ISO 639-3 nre
Spoken in the Rengma country, Naga Hills (now Nagaland), and the Mikir Hills.
tribal 16
See the Rengma Naga sky on the chart →
The sky in Rengma Naga
| Name | Object | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| shenyü (A); awachi (B); awachi (C) | 'Star' as a word | Stars are sometimes thought to be the souls of people who for some unknown reason have gone to the sky instead of to the Land of the Dead. | tribal |
| Letung (A); Wachi ala puzya (B); Aochi (C) | Castor and Pollux | A girl and her lover who ran away together. The Western Rengmas say he is cutting a stick for her. | tribal |
| — | Eclipses | When the sun is eclipsed it is believed that some very great man has died somewhere; the moon is eclipsed when a tiger eats it. | tribal |
| shenyü keche (A); awachi keshenchowa (B); awachi kopruwa (C) | Meteors and shooting stars | 'falling stars' | tribal |
| Apo kesowa (C) | Orion | 'first attacker' | tribal |
| Asi kekewa (C) | Orion | 'the followers' | tribal |
| Byenyu (A) | Orion | 'the strangers' The travellers going up to the village in single file, whom the sentries are waiting to kill. | tribal |
| Wachi asükuwa (B) | Orion | 'ambush stars' | tribal |
| Arrhi (C) | Orion's Belt | 'enemies' | tribal |
| Terrhisonkeyenyu (A) | Orion's Belt | 'the sentries' The whole constellation represents the sentries of a village waiting to kill travellers who are going up to it in single file. | tribal |
| Aniza 'Wikhu | The Milky Way | 'the spirits' morung' The spirits meet in it to talk. A morung is the bachelors' hall of a Naga village, where the men of the village gather. | tribal |
| Serizü, Papvü Ayeng | The Milky Way | the Tulo river; 'Diyung image' The boastful one of the two men of old, parted from Züle for boasting over a sambhur he had killed. | tribal |
| Züle | The Milky Way | the Diyung river Züle and Serizü were men of old. Serizü killed a sambhur and boasted over-much, at which Züle was angry and parted from him — which is why the Milky Way has two branches. | tribal |
| Shenyü pembi kepenyu (A); Amui asăm kepuwa (B); Horechu (C) | The Pleiades | 'star pounding-table carriers' (A); '"in-law" pounding-table carriers' (B) Souls carrying a large pounding-table. There are believed to be seven, but the ordinary man can see only six; anyone who can see seven will live very happily with his wife. | tribal |
| zengokesü (A, Tsetninyu group); ani khowu (B); amuthe kecha (C) | The Sun | 'sun circle' (B); 'round circle' (C) It is believed to occur when great men die. In the Tsetninyu group the same word is used for the rainbow. | tribal |
| Shepfu (A); Wachi ketsuwa (B); Ngaratsü (C) | Venus | The same star both as morning and as evening star, and believed to influence the crops. | tribal |