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Overview
In Rafy’s Shillong Peak narrative, a daughter of U ’Lei Shillong takes the likeness of a Khasi girl and appears atop an inaccessible rock near the cave of Marai. The people who discover her do not yet know her origin. U Mylliem Ngap fastens flowers to a long bamboo pole and gradually draws her down by moving them within reach. He names her Pah Syntiew, which the text explains as Lured by Flowers, and adopts her as his daughter.
Growing up, she becomes a skilled leader of dances and an adviser whose judgments attract disputes from neighboring villages. People call her Ka Siem, chiefess or queen. Her foster-father arranges her marriage to U Kongor Nongjri, and she has many sons and daughters. Only when they are grown does she reveal that she is the mountain deity’s daughter and that her allotted time among humans has ended.
She walks toward the cave of Marai and disappears from human sight; the story does not narrate a corpse, funeral or subsequent return. Rafy links her descendants with the Khairim and Mylliem chiefly families. That genealogy is presented as the collection’s sacred ancestry narrative, not an independently established claim about living individuals. Her human upbringing and adoptive father remain distinct from her disclosed divine parentage.
Origins & earliest records
Khasi tale selected and presented in English by Mrs. Rafy
Records & interpretation
Complete named chapters, title page and foreword read.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Folk-Tales of the Khasis
IV, The Goddess who came to live with Mankind, pp.18–23; Macmillan, London
Family, evolution & connections
Ka Pah Syntiew’s family — Rafy’s account
Complete chapter IV, pp. 18–24.
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- U ’Lei Shillong, stated father
- Unnamed sons and daughters, number unspecified
Explicit father revelation, adoption, marriage and children statements. Textual family, not verification of current community ancestry. Foster father U Mylliem Ngap is distinct from biological divine father. Her mother is not individually named. Children remain one unnamed collective with no exact count or invented descendants.
U ’Lei Shillong
Her later revelation identifies U ’Lei Shillong as her father. This is the named tale’s parentage, without asserting a verified genealogy of present-day communities.
U Mylliem Ngap
The rescuer adopts her as his daughter. This social parenthood is distinct from her stated divine father.
U Kongor Nongjri
The text expressly says she marries U Kongor Nongjri. He remains separate from her foster father and the mountain god.
Her unnamed sons and daughters
The narrative states that she becomes mother of many sons and daughters. It supplies no individual names or exact number; modern lineages are not inferred from those unknown children.
Primary records and illustrations
Mrs. Rafy, Folk-Tales of the Khasis (1920)
English collection. IV, The Goddess who came to live with Mankind, pp.18–23
Complete tale and foreword read. She walks toward the cave of Marai and disappears from human sight; the story does not narrate a corpse, funeral or subsequent return. Rafy links her descendants with the Khairim and Mylliem chiefly families. That genealogy is presented as the collection’s sacred ancestry narrative, not an independently established claim about living individuals. Her human upbringing and adoptive father remain distinct from her disclosed divine parentage.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical English folklore collectionRafy, Folk-Tales of the Khasis, IV, The Goddess who came to live with Mankind, pp.18–23Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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