The Hornbill Dance

My childhood memories of late 60s and early 70s were sweet and remarkable.  A bedtime story was a compulsory item of the day for me . I pestered my grandma late. J Makatunla to tell me stories though she was too tired from her days work in the field. Yet, I never let her retire until she told me one.

The Hornbill Dance is a collection of short stories by journalist, author and documentary filmmaker Ngathingkhui Jagoi from his first volume of the series Grandma’s Treasure. This volume contains 12 folktales of the Tangkhul Nagas that talks about man and animal spirits, creation myths, the underworld, mythical heroes, marriage with angels and animals, how tattoos came into existence among the Nagas, and so on.

The book will serve as a resource material for researchers of oral and folk literature while at the same time be a set of interesting bedtime stories for children.