Tapta

Tapta is a fictious evil spirit. Troubled mothers used to mention his name to calm their children when they cry or troublesome babies. He is a bug-ear to most children. Once upon a time it was in the advanced time of the night. A baby in a house was crying and would not stop. The mother tried all she could to pacify it but failed. She had said the names of many fearful things like, thief, lion, tiger, fox, ghost etc. But the baby went on crying still.
The family had a stable near the house. And there were many beautiful horses inside the stable. They were talked for having the most beautiful collection of horses in the neighbourhood. Not only human but also even animals wanted to have a piece of the beautiful horses. That very same moment when the baby was crying inconsolably, a tiger came to steal a horse. Suddenly he heard the talk of the mother coming from the house. He understood that the mother was trying to quite her baby from crying and was taking all kinds of names to scare the baby so that the baby will stop crying. Failing all means to the crying baby, the mother at last said to the baby, “ if you do not stop crying now Tapta is coming.” At it the baby suddenly stopped crying. Meanwhile the tiger was listening to all the talks going on inside the house and also heard it and thought, “what a being this tapta would be? He started imagining many ferocious things, but still he is also a tiger he thought. There cannot be any more ferocious animal than him. He failed to imagine a face, which can be so dangerous enough to stop a child from crying immediately. The child is not afraid of any other things. But he fears tapta very much? That he means he should also be careful while running away from this house with the booty, maybe the tapta might run after him. So thinking and wondering he went into the stable and begun to choose the horse to take.  At the very same moment a cattle lifter also came to steal a horse. He entered into the stable and begun to select the fattest horse. He started feeling the hips of the horse one after another. In so choosing instead of touching hips of the horse in the darkness, he touched the hip of the tiger in the dark stable. That moment the tiger got startled and was very afraid. The touch was unusual he started imagining. The tiger thought;” this must surely be tapta’s touch”. He was seized with fear and stood still. At the other side the thief thought okay a healthy horse with log tail and put a bridle to the tiger and drew it out of the stable. He was in a hurry as he was afraid of the owners might wake up so he mounted on it and rode away. All this while the tiger took the rider to be tapta an obeyed him in utter fear.
 It was dawning and twilight. In the faint light the thief to his horror came to know that the animal he was riding was not a horse but a tiger. He was also terror-stricken. He began to think out a way to dismount and get rid of the man-eater before the tiger finds out that the rider is a human being. Thus thinking he rode into the jungle. There he found a bough of a tree extending downwards low. He caught hold of the branch and got rid of the tiger, knowing that the rider had dismounted; the tiger ran at fast canter for life. When he came after he shook off the bridle. He thought he was out of danger and began to walk slowly and leisurely still imagining all kind of faces of the rider and also surprised why the rider did not do any harm. He was panting and sweating. There he met a bear, the bear stopped him and asked the cause of his weariness and fear. He narrated the incident to his friend; the bear was quite surprised, as he also has not heard of such name. So he told the tiger to take him to the place where the rider dismounted so that they both can search and try to find out the real identity of the rider.

The tiger was reluctant but followed the bear out of modesty, otherwise the bear will get to know that the tiger is not as brave as they are said to be.  After sometime they reached the spot and looked around, they could not see any one. Afterwards they found a big tree with large hole in it. They doubted if tapta was hiding inside it, the bear said, “let us have a look into it.” But the tiger would not go near it out of sheer fright. He told his friend to do it himself alone. The bear chided him for being cowardice and started looking. He could not see anyone, as the hole was deep. He inserted his tail into the hole to feel the presence of the man with his tail. The man seized the tail with a strong grip and pulled it very hard inwards. The bear was taken by surprise and followed the pull. He felt it like the grip of death. The man would not let it off. The bear thought that he would surely be killed by tapta. As a last effort to free himself, he gave a might kick on the trunk of the tree with his hind legs and a powerful thrust foreword, and the man was also strong and his grip was vice like. In the tug-o-war between the mighty powers, the tail snapped at the root, at the sudden release the bear fell headlong and rolled over. He did not dare to look back, he got to his feet and fled away leaving the tiger behind, and thenceforth the bear lost its tail. Before that they had tails.