Lisu Hilltribe

 
The Lisu have a legend quite similar to that of many other tribes in Southeast Asia. Long ago there

was a giant flood.  There were only two survivors: one man and one woman. These two were brothe
r and sister. They survived by living off the meat inside a giant bottle gourd. Once the water had
receded, the pair set out in search of other survivors, but to their dismay, they found no one. They
became convinced they must be the last remaining man and woman in the world. They realized that if
they did not reproduce then mankind would disappear off the face of the planet forever. Still, they
couldn't get over the fact they were brother and sister. Finally, they decided to to consult the spirits.
Seeing a grinding stone and a mortar on top of a hill, the pair determined to separate the two parts and
roll them down opposite sides of the hill. When the grinding stone reached the base of the hill it refused
to stop rolling. Instead, it persisted in rolling all the way around to the other side of the hill and reuniting
with the mortar, ending up in exactly the same position it had been when on top of the hill. It did not
matter what objects the pair used to test their fate, the results were identical each time. The older
brother and younger sister agreed that God must have given his blessing to the union. Soon they had
produced a son and a daughter which marked the new birth of the tribe.

http://lisu.hilltribe.org/english/