Jhum farming, or cut-and-burn shift cultivation, is an ancient practice in Meghalaya. It is culturally engrained through folklores. One legend states the god of wind with the god of hail and storm shook off seeds from the celestial tree, which were picked up and sown by a bird known as do' amik. These were the seeds of rice. The god gave the human beings some of those celestial seeds, provided instruction on shift agriculture and proper rice cultivation practice, with the demand that at every harvest a portion of the first harvest must be dedicated to him. Another folktale is from the Garo Hills of Meghalaya where a man named Bone-Neripa-Jane-Nitepa harvested rice and millet from a patch of land he cleared and cultivated near the rock named misi-Kokdok. He then shared this knowledge with others, and named the different months of the year, each of which is a stage of shifting cultivation.