.svg)
Long long ago, there was a time when all living creatures spoke the same language. There was a bird (who) named Tokpahtu, who could predict the life of birds and animals. This bird used to sing what it foresaw.
One day the bird sang a song that there would be drought on earth. No creature believes what it sang. Every creature didn’t care about it and didn’t give a thought of any precaution measures to conserve water.
Drought is a condition when there are no rains for a long period of time. It is one of the most disastrous natural calamities. Day by day many lives were lost because of this famine. It has created havoc in all forms of life on earth. The only thing that could be heard was hue and cry all around the world for a drop of water. The disaster had spared none from microorganism to mammals all were affected. Trees were getting dried, mass destruction of crops can be seen everywhere, the temperature soars day by day. Soon the quarters of life started to disappear. Every nook and corner was shaken badly with hunger.
Now the time has come to find a solution for this unwanted disaster. Therefore, a meeting was conducted to solve the problem. After a prolonged discussion they came to a conclusion to construct a big well. They dig the ground for consecutive days and nights till they find water level under. Finally, they succeeded in making a well big enough for every creature. But they found one of the birds folk, i.e. the hen-cocks group being absent in the work of digging the well.
They again conducted a meeting to decide whether to allow the hens, the cocks and their chicks to quench their thirst from the well. They came to the solution that as they cannot prevent them from drinking “water” being the essential thing for living. As a punishment, they ask the hen-cocks' group to make all other living creatures early in the morning ( Chichuni a new rangkha doh thaa naam theng ngey ah), cock(wohpong) being the male member who took the punishment on its shoulder. Thus, it is said that since then the cocks (wohpong) are believed to wake others till date.
Likewise, after days passed the bird (Tokpathu) again sang a song “Mina khoi o khak khok” which means may the human being have the capacity to renew their old skin and “ pu khoi onak khok nak khok” which means may the snakes family possess the same old skin.
Hearing this the snakes got angry climbed the tree immediately and bit the bird(Tokpahtu) on its legs. Tokpahtu got scared and changed its statement as “pu khoi o khok khok” which means may the snakes have the capacity to renew their old skin and “ Mina khoi o nak khok nak khok” which means that may human being possess the same old skin.
Therefore, it is said that Tokpahtu birds have red legs as a result of snake bite and snakes can renew their old skin by leaving off their old skin whereas human beings cannot renew their skin and live with wrinkled skin as they grow older.