The Apatani people of Arunachal Pradesh have a legend explaining how they migrated to the Ziro Valley, where they are now settled. When they first arrived, they say, the valley was a vast swamp; and in the swamp there lived dangerous giant reptiles called Burus.

Descriptions of the Buru vary. One report says an adult was around 4 metres long, bluish-white, with four stumpy legs and a powerful tail. Its triangular head ended in a snout, and its mouth was full of sharp teeth. There was a row of spines along its back. In the winters, they were said to hibernate in mountain caves.

Buru mothers were fiercely protective of their young. Once, an Apatani hunter killed a baby Buru. Not long afterwards, he was hunted down in turn by the mother, who crushed him to death with one blow of her mighty tail.

Eventually the Apatani drained the swamp, and most of the Burus died. But the last one dug a deep hole in the centre of the swamp so that it could hide in the water. The people were afraid that it might attack.

To the people’s rescue came two large brass plates, called Mwamwa, that were being kept in a nearby house. These were sacred plates, sometimes used as shields, and they were sentient. One was male and one was female. They ventured out together to the swamp to challenge the last Buru.

The female Mwamwa died fighting the monster, but the male Mwamwa managed to chop off the Buru’s head, killing it.

The male Mwamwa came back to the house to find that the son of the man who owned it was home. The Mwamwa was still full of battle-lust and so furious at the death of its companion that it chopped off the boy’s head as well. When the boy’s father came back and discovered that his son was dead, he howled with despair and angrily chased the Mwamwa away. It flew off into a bamboo grove, where it poked out its eye on a bamboo stump.