Dombe Wari

There was once a lady named Dombe, who was the epitome of beauty. The year Dombe came of age, her parents set up a marriage with a young man.

The man was so proud of Dombe’s beauty, he would boast about her to every single person he met. While spending time with other men, while working or going to the weekly market, he would find a way to broach the topic of his wife’s beauty. Even in the middle of the forest while gathering wood, he would stare at all the tall and sturdy trees and woods and exclaim, “They don’t hold a candle to my wife’s beauty.”

One day, Dombe’s husband was walking along the banks of a river while comparing her beauty to the beauty of the forest. A young merman, unseen by human eyes, heard the man and thought to himself, “Just how beautiful is this man’s wife? He’s even boasting to nature about her.” So, he decided to find out for himself.

A couple of days later, the merman made a nice pair of gold bangles and arrived at Dombe’s village. He came across a large open field where a group of women were husking wheat together. He went up to them and said, “If these bangles perfectly fit any one of you ladies, you can have them forever.” The women left their pestles and scrambled over to try the bangles out. However, they fit none of them.

Later, when Dombe tried them out, they fit her perfectly. “These are yours to keep now,” said the merman before leaving. Dombe’s husband had left for the market and was unaware of these events transpiring.

The couple had two children; one was a bit older while the other was still an infant. Even after giving birth to two children, Dombe had the appearance of a young maiden.

After her work was done, Dombe took her children to the river to wash up. After she was done bathing the two, she left them on the sandy riverbanks and ventured out onto the deeper end to take a bath of her own. The merman slyly swam underwater towards her and snatched her away.

Unable to find her, the older daughter cried out, “Mother! Mother!”

Seeing her older sister cry, the younger one also started crying. Hearing the children cry, Dombe surfaced along with the merman.

She swam up to the banks and started nursing the child. The merman was waiting for her at a distance. Dombe told her eldest, “I can’t come home with you. I’m being taken to the merman’s home. Tell your father when he comes back. Please, take care of your sister; when she gets hungry, bring her back here.”

Crying her eyes out, Dombe kissed her daughters goodbye and left with the merman. After witnessing that, the teary-eyed eldest daughter took her sister home. “A man took my mother underwater,” she told the other kids.

Dombe’s husband, having returned home from the market, searched for his wife and children. The daughter told her father about what had happened. He took them to the riverbank where Dombe had told them to come. He left them there while he hid behind some bushes so the merman would not be alerted to his presence.

Having heard the baby’s cries, Dombe came up with the merman. She started feeding the baby while the merman waited with his back turned to them.

Dombe’s husband took this chance and jumped out of the bushes; he grabbed ahold of his wife’s ankle with one hand while swinging the axe towards the merman with the other. However, it did not hit the merman, and he disappeared underwater.

The family went back home and lived a peaceful life for a few months. However, paranoia had taken hold of the husband’s mind. He was living with the fear that something might go wrong.

He took his family and went to stay at a remote plateau which was surrounded by mountains. The place was home to a huge banyan tree. The husband made a cosy borang nok (treehouse) for his family and convinced himself that they were safe here.

Months passed, and the merman finally found their hiding place. He destroyed the whole plateau, which eventually collapsed into itself. The banyan tree, the borang and the entire family fell inside. A deep pool formed where the plateau had once stood.

This pool, which is called Dombe Wari, still stands in Emanigiri Adok.