A Santal man playing sakwa. Source: santhaledisom.com.
Like a bone
looked the first-born child
the white ants ate it
oh my love, don't cry
don't grieve
the two of us are here
and the white ants ate it
You go through the village
I'll walk through the garden
we will take the child away
to the right is a crooked tree
to the left is a stump
oh my love
we will bury it between them.
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The Santal, or Santhal, are an ethnic group native to India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan in South Asia. The Santals mostly speak Santali, an Austroasiatic language and that is the most widely-spoken of the Munda languages.
