Pleiades

It happened long ago. Six of the stars forming the constellation, the Pleiades once lived on the earth as damsels of Luwang community. They were intimate friends, inseparable from one another. One day they wanted to cook fish and have a feast together. They took permission from their parents and brothers go to a faraway lake to buy fish directly from fishermen with the hope of striking a god bargain. Their parents and brothers allowed them to go on the condition that they should return home before dusk.

Each carrying a bamboo basket, the six damsels started for the lake early in the morning and reached the lake before 'the sun reached the tips of bamboo and trees'. On the shore of the lake, they went from shack to shack built by fishermen to for weaving nets and keeping their catch. They were disappointed to find all the shacks empty. At last, in one of the shacks, they met six youths. The damsels soon struck acquaintance with the youths. Their young hearts melted; the damsels and the youths fell for each other.

As luck had it, the youths had not had a good catch that day. They pleaded the damsels to spend the night with them in their open shack. They could return next morning with the day's catch. The damsel refused – their fathers and brothers would punish and beat them blue if they did so. But, the youths insisted saying that even death would not be able to separate them. If they died they would die together.

Reluctantly, the damsels agreed. Their initial inhibitions gone, the damsels spent the night frolicking with the youths. In the morning, the damsels were quivering with fright at the thought of meeting their fathers and brothers. The youths consoled them saying, if their fathers and brothers reproved them then they would meet at Tentongyan after exactly five days and ascend heaven together. Comforted on learning that the youths, now turned their lovers, would stand for them, the damsels went home.

As expected, their fathers and brothers chastised them – they had unholy affairs with the youths belonging to a socially lower class and brought disgrace on their families. The damsels had incurred the wrath of their parents and reproof of the society. Unable to face the shame in front of their neighbours, the damsels came out of their homes and went to the appointed place. But, they could not find the youths as they had come one day too early.

Credit Khomgjong-nubi Nongkaron
(The Pleiades ascending Heaven)