Mehouviu and Morusa

Get here the summary and solutions of the chapter Mehouviu and Morusa of NBSE Class 10 English. However, the given notes/solutions should only be used for references and should be modified/changed according to needs.

SUMMARY: Mehouviu and Morusa is a Naga folktale from the times of head-hunting retold by writer Easterine Kire (lralu). The story is about two people named Mehouviu and Morusa. Mehouviu was a young girl and Morusa was a young warrior. They lived in different villages. Mehouviu was the most beautiful girl in her village and many people wanted to marry her but she always refused them all because she wanted to marry Morusa.

Morusa was a famous warrior from the village Kidima and everybody knew him. He was tall and strong and had taken many heads. One day Morusa’s uncle asked him to get married to Mehouviu and he agreed. Mehouviu was also happy when her relatives asked her to marry Morusa. The marriage was fixed.

Few weeks before the marriage, Mehouviu started seeing a strange dream again and again. She would see in the dreams that she was sitting in Morusa’s house and there was a heaped plate of rice and meat in front of her. Few days before the wedding, Morusa decided to impress Mehouviu by doing something great. So he got out of his house in search of an enemy who he could kill. But he could not find anyone.

Finally, he reached a village where there weren’t many people as everyone was working in the fields. He saw that in the porch of one house a woman was weaving. He quickly went near her and killed her with a spear through her heart. After that, he took her head and went back home happily.

Soon, the news reached Morusa’s house that a warrior had killed Mehouviu. Morusa realized that the woman he had killed was actually Mehouviu whom he was going to get married to.

This Naga folktale is told so that head-hunting is discouraged.

A. Reference to Context

1. The rumours were confirmed when Morasa’s relatives came to ask for her hand and they were readily accepted.
a) What are the rumours mentioned in this line?
b) Who was Morusa?
c) Why were they readily accepted?
d) Give the noun form of: confirmed.

Ans: a) The rumours mentioned in this line was that warrior Morusa could possibly become a suitor of Mehouviu.

b) Morusa was a famous warrior of Kidima. There were few who had not heard about him. Morusa also had taken many heads already.

c) They readily accepted the proposal because Morusa was a famous, tall, and strong warrior of Kidima and he had taken many heads already. They must have thought he would be a perfect partner for Mehouviu who was the most winsome lady in her village.

d) Confirmation.

3. Morusau was grief-stricken at this news. But the circumstances of her death sounded suspiciously familiar.
a) What news had caused grief to Morusa?
b) Why was he grief-stricken?
c) Why did it sound suspiciously familiar?
d) Give the adjective form of: circumstances.

Ans: a) The news of the death of Mehouviu caused grief to Morusa.

b) He was grief-stricken because he was betrothed to Mehouviu.

c) It sounded suspiciously familiar because the head Morusa took of the woman and the circumstances under which Mehouviu died were the same.

d) Circumstantial.

B. Read and Write

1. What were the qualities that Mehouviu and Morusa were known for?

Ans: Mehouviu was the most charming Maiden of her village. She possessed a very pleasing personality for which many young men wanted to marry her.  Morusa was a very famous warrior of Kidima. He was tall and strong. He was greatly known for taking many heads.

2. Why was Mehouviu reluctant to marry?

Ans: Mehouviu was reluctant to marry any man of her village because she heard about great deeds of Morusa and wished to marry him.

5. How did people learn about Mehouviu’s death?

Ans: When Mehouviu’s relatives sent the news of her death to Morusa’s parents, the wedding preparations were stopped and people learnt about Mehouviu’s death and also realised that Morusa had mistakenly killed his own beloved.

6. What was the tragedy that struck Morusa?

Ans: The tragedy that struck Morusa was that he had killed his own beloved unknowingly.
In order to impress his bride, he decided to encounter an enemy and place his head before Mehouviu as a wedding gift. He went to a village where he saw a woman weaving at her porch. Morusa took the weaving loom off her hands and drew his spear into her heart. After some time Morusa got the news of Mehouviu’s death and that she was killed by a warrior. He was dumbstruck because of her death and his encounter sounded almost similar. He started to dig every bit of information that related to Mehouviu’s death and concluded that his encountered woman was his own beloved whom he killed unknowingly.

Extra questions and answers

1. Why was Morusa grief-stricken?

Ans: Morusa was grief-stricken because he had killed his own beloved unknowingly.

2. Why did Mehouviu reject all marriage proposals?

Ans: Mehouviu rejected all marriage proposals because she had heard about the great deeds of Morusa and wished to marry him.

3. What did Morusa’s uncle advise him?

Ans: Morusa’s uncle advised him to take a wife and when someone suggested the virtuous Mehouviu, Morusa agreed to the proposal.

4. How did Morusa decide to impress his bride?

Ans: Morusa decided to impress his bride by doing something of note and prove himself to be a worthy suitor.

11. How did Morusa discover that he had unknowingly killed his own beloved?

Ans: Morusa was suspicious of Mehouviü’s death because the circumstances surrounding her death sounded familiar. He and his family eventually pieced together the information they had on the whereabouts of the two and Morusa came to the sad realisation that he had unknowingly killed his own beloved.

12. How did Morusa try to impress his bride?

Ans: To impress his bride, Morusa tried to do something noteworthy, such as capturing the head of an enemy to use as a trophy.

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