Once upon a time, in the valleys of the highest snow covered mountains of the world, there lived a shepherd.
To keep his goats happy on the snowy mountain side the shepherd played his flute
As he was playing his flute one evening he was shocked to see a giant female Yeti.
She had backwards feet and was covered in thick hair.
The Yeti was very interested by the sound of the flute and came closer to hear the music.
The shepherd was very frightened and stopped playing, putting his flute down, but the Yeti picked it up and put it back to his lips and made him play it again.
The Yeti continued to listen and made the shepherd play his flute for the rest of the evening and the whole night long, until she left quite suddenly, at sunrise.
The next evening the shepherd did not play his flute for fear that it would attract the Yeti.
Unfortunately he was not in luck, as the Yeti returned when the sun was going down and picking up his flute she made the shepherd play it for her again.
So it continued for many nights; the shepherd always playing his flute for the Yeti, fearing that if he stopped she would take his life.
Once when the shepherd was so tired he dropped the flute and the yeti picked it up and tried to play it herself, but she could not make it work, so she again made him play it for her.
The shepherd began to believe that his life was terrible as he could never sleep and always lived in fear.
He had to think of some-thing to do to save him or surely he would go mad or even worse be eaten by the Yeti. So he devised cunning a plan.
The next evening the shepherd built a large fire and taking a large pot of butter from the farm he began to massage his body.
As normal the Yeti arrived as the sun was dropping over the horizon and she was very curious to see what the shepherd was doing with the butter.
As normally the shepherd played his flute for the Yeti, but this time he stopped from time to time to massage himself with more butter from the large pot.
To the delight of the shepherd the Yeti began to copy him, slowly covering her whole body with lots of butter.
In time the Yeti was covered in so much butter that she was shining in the moon light, so much so that she started to admire herself.
Next the shepherd picked up a lighted branch from the fire and mimicked toasting himself. However when the Yeti copied him her thick hair caught on fire!
The Yeti jumped about and fled into the mountains covered in flames and she never returned to the valley from that day till this.
The End.
This is a Lepcha Fairy Tale of the Yeti. It was told to The Fairy Tale Hunter by the Lepcha people of Dzongu, in the ‘Māyel Lyāng’, in North Sikkim under the shadow of Kanchanjunga, which is the big rock of the Himalaya and founder of all things.
The Lepcha believe that because of the events in this story the Yeti chooses only to live high in the mountains, away from the troubles caused by shepherds, butter and fire. It is said that the Yeti always remembers the beautiful sound of the flute and thus whistles as it is out hunting for food in the twilight. Therefore it is totally forbidden for any human to do this during the dusk or dawn. It is also said that the female Yeti is the largest and most fearful of her clan and that the only way to escape her is to run down hill (I wonder if you know why?).
Discovering this fairy tale of the yeti marks the culmination of our adventure to the Himalayas. The Fairy Tale Hunter would like to express his great thanks to the other members of the Guild of Fairy Tale Hunters, imagined and ancient, young and not so young, which he has met on his adventure and pursuit. You can find them all in The Guild of Fairy Tale Hunters pages on the web-site.
