As there was no enough catch on that particular evening, the youths requested to the Luwang girls to spend the night in the open shed together with them so that they might take away the fish the next day.
The ladies were badly treated by their mothers at home, scolding and beating them for committing the sins of physical relationship before marriage and that too with men of community that was socially inferior to theirs.
So she requested to allow her fetch the basketful load of paddy from the distant barn the next morning when the sun just shoots up with his brilliant rays, which the ill-natured and acid-tongued step-mother did not take kindly, and fiercely insisted on carrying out the task as enjoined.
There was no means of escape for the poor girl, but on her return hardly had she stepped into the house and unloaded the heavy weight, when the termagant woman, always disquieting like boiling water, again bade her to perform household chores like husking the paddy with the pestle on the mortar and toil for fine grained rice.
Unable to bear any further, the hapless girl made a retort against her saucy step-mother who, instantly flying into a rage, hit her head with a laddle.