Cucumber baby

So I'm spending a few days in Kohima, the state capital of Nagaland. I'm in town mainly for the Hornbill Festival, but also to meet with one of the linguistics professors at Nagaland University, as well as to sort out some other 'administrative' things like an extenstion to my current permit *fingers crossed* and Tata mobile internet for when I'm in Dimapur and Assam (I'm not sure if the Tata Photon Plus will work in Zunheboto, *fingers crossed*).

I'm staying with B., who's organised both my permits to enter Nagaland, and her husband. They live next to the original Kohima village site known as Tsütuonuomia Khel or more commonly, T-Khel. The term khel refers to a village sub-division - nowadays it almost corresponds to the local term 'colony' (or 'suburb' to most Anglophones).



In Angami tradition, villages (and khels) were generally named after their founders. Hence the name Tsütuonuomia, the founder of this khel, whose name translates as 'cucumber baby'.

Now the story goes that there was once a cowherd who would take her cattle down to where the road between Kohima and Dimapur now runs. She got pregnant out of wedlock, which I assume was the guy's fault, but women always get the blame. Ashamed, she covered up the pregnancy until the time came to give birth. She then ran away to the fields to have the child in secret (most certainly without a midwife). On her way back and still ashamed, she covered the child in a blanket. When people asked what she was carrying, she told them it was cucumber.

And so the child was named 'cucumber baby' and grew up to found this khel.