'^l I- LIBRARY /'V^^-^C^ THE LUSHEI KUKI CLANS THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE KHAMLIANA, SAILO CHIKF THE LUSHEI KUKI CLANS BY Lt.-COLONEL J.^^HAKESPEAR Published under the orders of the Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1912 153 $^S Coj)yri(fht. Richard Clay and Soj^s, Limited brunswick street, stamford street, s.k., and BtlNOAY, SUFFOLK. oo to I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO "THANGLIANA" LlEUT.-COLONEL T. H. LeWIN THE FRUITS OF WHOSE LABOURS I WAS PRIVILEGED TO REAP, AND WHO, AFTER AN ABSENCE OF NEARLY FORTY YEARS, IS STILL AFFEC- TIONATELY REMEMBERED BY THE LUSH A IS. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ........ xiii Bibliography ........ xvii Glossary ......... xix PART I THE LUSHEI CLANS CHAPTER 1 PAOB General ......... 1 1. Habitat. 2. Appearance and physical characteristics. 3. History. 4. Affinities. 5. Dress. 6. Tattooing. 7. Orna- ments. 8. Weapons. CHAPTER II Domestic Life ........ 17 1. Occupation. 2. Weights and Measures. 3. Villages. 4. Houses. 5. Furniture. 6. Implements — Agricultural, Musical, Household. 7. Manufactures — Basket work, Pottery, Brass work, Iron work. Cloth manufacture, Dye- ing, Ornamentation. 8. Domestic animals. 9. Agriculture. 10. Hunting and fishing. 11. Food and drink. 12. Amuse- ments — Dances, Athletics, Games. CHAPTER III Laws and Customs ....... 41 Internal structure — Formation and constitution of the Clan, Sub-division into Families and Branches. 2. Tribal organ- isation — The Chief, Village officials, Rights of chief, Boi, Sal, &c. 3. Marriage — Bride-])rioe, Divorce, Widow re- marriage. 4. Female chastity. 5. Inheritance — Ado2)tion. 6. Ofiences regarding property. 7. Offences connected with the Ijody. 8. Decisions of disputes. 9. War and head- hunting — Ambu.shing, Raiding, Fir.st use of guns. Head- hunting. vii VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER IV PAGE Religion ......... 61 1. General form of religious beliefs — Pathian the Creator, Other spirits, The world beyond the grave, Re-incarnation. 2. Ancestor worship — Offerings to the dead, Possession by spirit of the dead. 3. Worship of natural forces and deities — Spirits of hill, vale, and stream. The Lashi. 4. Religious rites and ceremonies— Definitions of terms used. Sacrifices, Epidemics, " Ai " sacrifice. 5. Priesthood. 6. Ceremonies connected with childbirth. 7. Marriage ceremonies. 8. Funerals — Description, Disposal of corpse of infants, Lukawng, Unnatural deaths. 9. Festivals — Connected with crops, " Thangchhuah feasts," " Buh-ai." CHAPTER V FOLK-LOKE ......... 92 1. Legends — Creation and natural phenomena. Nomenclature of hills, &c., Animal tales, Mythical heroes. 2. Supersti- tions — Connected with cultivation, with animals, house building, miscellaneous. 3. Snake worship — " Rulpui," "The great snake," Other superstitions regarding snakes. 4. Omens. 5. Witchcraft — " Khuavang zawl," " Khaw- hring," Origin of. CHAPTER VI, Language ......... 113 Lushai or Dulien, Grammar, Word for word translation. APPENDIX Families and Branches of Lushei Clan .... 125 PART II THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS INTRODUCTORY Division of Clans into Five Groups .... 129 TABLE OF CONTEXTS IX CHAPTER I PACK Clais's included in the term Lushai .... 130 Chawte, Chongthu, Hnamte, Kawlni, Kawlhring, Kiangte, Ngente, Paotu, Rentlei, Vangchhia, Zawiigte. CHAPTER II Cl.os's which, thouoh not absorbed, have been jiuch in- fluenced BY the Lushais ..... 136 Fanai, Ralte, Paihte or Vuite, Rangte. CHAPTER III The old Kuki Clans ....... 148 The old Kuki Clans of Manipur, Aimol, Anal, Chawte, Chiru, Kolhen, Kom, Lamgang, Puruni, Tikhup, Yaiphei. Other old Kuki Clans, Khawtlang and Khawchhak. CHAPTER IV The Thado Clan ........ 189 CHAPTER V The Lakher or Mara Clan ...... 213 CHAPTER VI Language ......... 225 Resemblances l^etween languages of clans, Change of certain letters. Comparative vocabulary. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAOE Khasiliaxa, Sailo Chief (Coloured Plate) . . Frontispiece LusHAi Weapons, Oexaments, &c. ..... 10 LusHAi Men's Hair Ornaments . . . To face 12 Zawlbuk, or Young Men's House . . . ,, ,, 22 Plan of a Lushai's House ...... 26 A Rest by the Way — on the Way to the Jhums. Lushais AND Pois ...... To face 32 Lushais Threshing Rice (Coloured Plate) . . »» »> 33 Zataia, Sailo Chief and Family (Coloured Plate) . ,, ,, 44 LusHAi Girls ...... ,, ,, 53 Copy of a Map of the Route to Mi-thi-khua, drawn by a Lushai 63 Kh\vatlang Posts Erected to Commemorate the Slaying of Mithans at a Feast . ... To face 65 Chief's House showing "She lu Pun," the Posts Supporting the Skulls of Mithan Killed at One of the Feasts To face 90 Cane Suspension Bridge . . . . ,, ,, 110 Fanai ...... ,, ,, 136 Memorial Stone in Cha.mphai, Known as Mangkhaia, Lung- DAWR ....... To face 140 Vuite Memorial . . . . . . ,, .. ^'^'7 Rangte Grave . . . . . ,, ». 147 AiMOL Nautch Party. The Youth is Holding a Rotchem To face 152 xi XII LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Heads of Kuki Claks . .... To face 184 Memorial to a Man who has Performed the Ai of a Tiger 206 Memorial to a Woman who has Performed the Buh Ai 206 Lakher Chief and Family (Culunred Plate) , To face 215 Lakher Baskets . . . . . . ,, ,, 223 Map . . . . . , .At end of Volume INTRODUCTION This monograph was originally intended to deal only with the inhabitants of the Lnshai Hills, but on my transfer to Manipur, I found so many clans living in the hill tracts of that curious little state that I suggested that the scope of the monograph might be enlarged to include all clans of the Kuki race as well. This term Kuki, like Naga, Chin, Shendu, and many others, is not recognised by the people to whom we apply it, and I will not attempt to give its derivation, but it has come to have a fairly definite meaning, and we now understand by it certain closely allied clans, with well marked characteristics, belonging to the Tibeto-Burman stock. On the Chittagong border the term is loosely applied to most of the inhabitants of the interior hills beyond the Chittagong Hill tracts ; in Cachar it generally means some family of the Thado or Khawtlang clan, locally distinguished as New and Old Kukis. In the Lushai Hills nowadays the term is hardly ever employed, having been super- seded by Lushai. In the Chin Hills and generally on the Burma border all these clans are called Chins. The term Lushai, as we now understand it, covers a great many clans ; it is the result of incorrect transliteration of the word Lushei, which is the name of the clan, which, under various chiefs of the Thangur lamily, came into prominence in the eighteenth century and was responsible for the eruption into Cachar of Okl Kukis at the end of that century and of the New Kukis half a century later. The Lusheis, however, did not eject all the clans they came in contact with, many of them they absorbed, and these now XIV INTRODUCTION form the bulk of the subjects of the Thangur chiefy. In this monograph Lushai is used in this wider sense, Lushei being used only for the clan of that name. Among the people them- selves the Lusheis are sometimes spoken of as Dulian, at the derivation of which I will hazard no guess, and the general population of the hills is spoken of as Mi-zo. Among inhabi- tants of the Lushai Hills are found a very considerable number of immigrants, or descendants of immigrants from the Chin Hills, who are found living among the Lushais under the Thangur Chiefs or in villages under their own chiefs. I have made no attempt to deal with these, as their proper place is the Chin Hills monograph, and Messrs. Care}^ and Tuck have already described them very fully in their Chin Hills Gazetteer. I am conscious that there are many omissions in this book ; the subject is a very wide one and the difficulty of getting at the facts from so many different clans, each speaking a different dialect and scattered over an area of about 25,000 square miles is extremely great. I trust therefore that my readers will excuse all shortcomings. I have purposely avoided enunciating any theories and making deductions, considering it wiser to limit myself to as accurate a description as possible of the people, their habits, customs and beliefs. Regarding the affinities between the clans dealt with in this monograph and those described in the other books of the series, I venture to express a hope that the subject may be dealt with by some competent authority when the whole series has been published ; until this is done no finality will be reached. It would be easy to fill several pages with points of resemblance between the different clans. Major Playfair, in his account of the Garos, has pointed out many ways in which the subjects of his monogi'aph resemble the inhabitants of the Naga Hills, but reading his book I find many more in which they are like the clans I am dealing with. Sir Charles Lyall has drawn attention to the evident connection between the Mikirs and the Kuki-Chin group; I venture to think that a study of the following pages will confirm his theory. I may mention here that the main incidents of the " Tale of a Frog " given by Sir Charles are found not only in INTRODUCTION xv the folk-lore of the Aimol, as he has pointed out, but also among the Lushais, a very similar story having been recorded by Colonel Lewin in Demagri, 250 miles in an air line from the Mikir hills, and published in his Progressive Colloquial exercises in the Lushai dialect in 1874. My best thanks are due to Lt.-Colonel Cole, Major Playfair, and Mr. Little, P.W.D., for many of the photographs, and especially to my wife, my companion for many years in these hills, for the four coloured illustrations. I am also indebted to Rev. W. K. Firrainger for correcting the second proofs and making the index. I must also acknow- ledge the assistance I received from many Lushais and others, notably Hrangzora Chuprasie of Aigal and Pathong, interpreter of Manipur. J. SHAKESPEAR. Imphal, Manipur State. September 12th, 1910. BIBLIOGRAPHY McCuLLOCH, Major W. "Account of the Valley of Manipore and the Hill tribes ; with a comparative vocabulary of the Manipore and other languages." Calcutta, 1859. Selectionsfrom the Records of the Government of India (For. Dept.) XXVII This is a most valuable book, full of useful information as regards all the Hill tribes of Manipur. I have made use of it freely in Part II., but space did not allow of my extracting all that I should have liked to reproduce. It would be well worth while to reprint this book, with notes bringing it up to date. Stewart, Lieutenant R. "Notes on Northern Cachar. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," Vol. XXIV, 1855. Another most valuable book, as regard Thados and Old Kukis, which would well repay reprinting. Both tliese books contain comparative vocabularies. Lewin, Captain Thomas Herbert. "Progressive Colloquial Exercises in the Lushai Dialect of the ' Dzo ' or Kuki Language, with vocabu- laries and popular tales. (Notated.) Calcutta, 1874. One of these tales is reproduced in Part II. The tales are well ti'anslated, but the Lushai is transliterated in a manner now out of date. The notes are as excellent as one would expect from a writer who certainly knew more of the Lushai than anyone else at that time, and who was more admired by them than any other white man has ever Ijeen. By the same Author. "The Hill Tracts of Chittagong and the Dwellers therein." Calcutta, 1869. A most fascinating book, full of information, expressed in good English. Pages 98 to 118 deal with Lushais and Shendus, i.e. Lakhers. By the same Author. " A fly on the wheel : or how I heljjed to govern India." The [)ortion concerning tlie Author's life among the Lushais is full of interest, and his word pictures of the scenery and life among the people, for " Thangliana " as he was called I'eally did live among the i)eople, sharing their food even, are accurate and graphic. To few Europeans is the power given to mix tlius with such savages and yet retain their respect. 1 once heard a Lusliai's comment on a young officer who with the best of intentions tried to imitate the xvii b xvfii BIBLIOGRAPHY great " Thangliana. ' A friend asked him what he thought of So-and-So, the reply being : " I don't know what sort of man he is, all I know is, that he cannot be a sahib to live as he does." Cakey, Bertkam S. and H. N. Tuck. " The Chin hills : A History of the People, their Customs and Manners, and our Dealings with them, and a Gazetteer of their Country." Rangoon, 1896. A model of what^ such a book should be. The illustrations are particularly good. The Lushais and Thados are only touched. Much of the matter referring to the Haka and Klang-Klang Chins is applicable to the Lakhers. LoRRAiN, Herbert J., and Fred VV. Savidge. "Grammar and Dictionary of the Lushai Language." Shillong, 1898. A very complete and accurate work. Unfortunately the standard system of transliteration has not been entirely adhered to. SoppiTT, C. A. "A short account of the Kuki-Lushai tribes on the North-East Frontier Districts : Cachar, Sylhet, Naga Hills, &c., and the North Cachar Hills. Shillong, 1887. I believe this is a useful accurate work, but have not been able to obtain it. Sneyd-Hutchinson, R. "Gazetteer of the Chittagong Hill Tracts." As regards Lushais there is not much of value, as they are beyond the scope of the work, but few being found in the Hill Tracts. Besides the above there are notes in the Census Reports of 1891 and 1901, various military publications and gazetteers by Mr. A. W. Davis, I.C.S., and Mr. B. C. Allen, I.C.S., all of which contain a certain amount of useful information, but do not pretend to be more than notes giving succinctly the knowledge then obtained of what was then practically new ground. Colonel Woodthorpe's account of the Silchar columns' march to Champhai, though not professing to be an account of the people, is interesting reading. Round Champhai I met several men who had been there when the column arrived, and they all remember the little sahib who drew pictures; and would sit lonu looking at the pictures in his book and chatting to each other of the good old days. [Note. — On p. 6 of the present work the Author refers to a passage in Lewin's Hill TracU of ChittagoiKj and the Dwellers therein, in which is cited an account of " the Cucis or inhabitants of the Tipperah Mountains written by J. Rennel, Chief Engineer of Bengal in 1800." In reading through the proofs of the present work, it occurred to me that it would be important to discover whether the " J. Rennel " referred to by Lewin was or was not the famous Major James Rennell, Surveyer-General of Bengal, who is so often descrihed as "the Father of Modern Geography." Major Rennell with his wife (iiAe Jane Thackeray — a great aunt of the novelist W. M. Thackeray) left Bengal in March, 1777, and reached England in February 1778. He died on Marcli 29, 1830. It seemed to me possible that the great Reimell might liave obtained the information about the Kukis during his period of service in East Bengal, and that he might have published a memoir on the subject in 18UU. Mr. W. Foster of the Record Department of the India Office very kintlly informed me that no such a memoir could be traced at Whitehall, and drew BIBLIOGRAPHY xix mj' attention to Lewin's heading of the memoir, " From the French of ^I. Bouchesiche, who translated the original from the English of J. Rennel, Chief Engineer of Bengal .... Published at Leipsic in 1800." Mr. Edwai'd Heawood, Librarian of the Eo^'al Geographical Society, to whom I am indebted for much trouble taken in satisfying ni}^ curiosity, informed me that Bouchesiche gave what purported to be an extract, translated into French, from Renneirs Mell-known work on India, and that the Frenchman's book was printed in Paris in 1800, although there ma}' perhaps have been a Leipzig issue also. The account of the Kukis given in Bouchesiche's work, however, is not taken from any known work by James Rennell. Dalton in his Ethnology of Bengal refers to what has been supposed to be the earliest account of the Kukis— a memoir by Surgeon McCrea, which appeared in 1799 in Volume vii of Asiatic I^es'earches. Mr. Heawood most kindly hunted up McCrea's memoir, and found in it a reference to a memoir which appeared in Volume ii of Asiatic Risearches, 1790. The title of the memoir of 1790 runs "On the Manners, Religion, and Laws of the Cucis, or ^Mountaineers of Tipra .... Comnuniicated in Persian by John Rawlins, Esq." On investigation, Mr. Heawood found that the Memoir of 1790 is undoubtedly the original from which Bouchesiche drew his account in French, and of this the account, attributed to "J. Rennel"' by Colonel Lewin, is a rough paraphrase. Note by the Rev. Walter K. Firminyer.] GLOSSARY OnI>/ the terina which occur often are given. A i. - A ceremony performed to propitiate the spirit of an animal killed in the chase, or of a human being killed in war. The performer's spirit will own the spirit of person or animal killed in the next world. The term is also used for a ceremony performed to celebrate a particularly good crop — Buh-Ai, or Buh-za-ai. Boi. — Persons who have taken refuge in the chief's house. Dai-bawl. — A series of sacrifices to the demons of the hills, &c. Hlam-zuih. — Lushai. A first-born child that dies within a year of its birth and is buried without any ceremony. Hrilh. — A period during which no work must be done, after a sacrifice, closely resembling the Naga genua. Huai. — Lushai. Demons who cause sickness. Jhum. — A piece of land on which the jungle has been felled and burnt for cultivation. Kawhring.^A person whose spirit takes possession of another's body, the spirit of such a person. Khal. — A series of sacrifices to the demons of the village site, only performed by Lushais. Khuavang. — Lushai. A powerful spirit, sometimes used for "luck." Kum-ai. — Children's sleeping platform. Kum-pui. — Parent's sleeping platform. Kut. — Lushai. Festivals connected with the crops. Lai. — Lushai. Chief. Lashi. — Lu.shai. Mythical beings Avho control wild animals. Known also to Aiinol and Vaiphei. Mi-thi-khua.— "Dead men's village." Expression used by all clans for the place of departed souls. Mi-thi-rawp-lam. — A feast in honour of the dead. Palal. — A man who receives part of the bride-price, and acts as trustee to the bride. Pathian.— Lushai. The Creator. Very similar names are used by all the clans dealt with. XXII GLOSSARY Pial-ral. — Lushai. The land beyond the Pial river, in the abode of the dead, to which the spirits of those who have acquired merit pass. Pu. — A word used in most dialects, meaning grandfather, maternal uncle, and other relations on mother's or wife's side. It is also used for a person specially chosen as a protector or guardian. Pui-thiam. — Lushai. Sorcerer, priest and medicine man. Ramhual. — Lushai. Chief's adviser as to distribution of jhums. Rem-Ar. — The cock killed on occasion of a marriage. Rotchem. — Mouth organ made of a gourd and reeds. Sakhua. — Lushai. The guardian spirit of the household and the sacrifice performed to him. Sawn-man. — Compensation payable to a father for seduction of an unmarried girl. Sherh. — Lushai. The portions of the sacrificed animal which are oftered to the demon. Also the state of a house for a period after the performing of certain sacrifices, during which the entrance of outsiders is prohibited. Thangchhuah. — Lushai. A man who has given a series (jf feasts to his village. The expression is also used for the series of feasts. Honour in this world and comfort in the next are the reward of the Thangchhuah. Thian. — A woman who receives part of the bride-price, and acts as friend or trustee to the bride. Thii'-deng. — Lushai. Blacksmith . Tlangau. — Lushai. Chief's crier. Upa. — Lushai. Chief's minister. Zawlbuk. — Bachelor's hall and guest house. THE LUSHEI KUKI CLANS THE LUSHEI CLANS PART I CHAPTER I GENERAL The Lushei chiefs now rule over the country between the i. Habitat Kurnaphuli river and its main tributary, the Tuilianpui on the west, and the Tyao and Koladyne river on the east, while their southern boundar}^ is roughly a line drawn east and west through the junction of the Mat and Koladyne rivers and their most northerly villages are found on the borders of the Silchar district. Within this area, roughly 7;500 square miles, there are only a few villages ruled over by chiefs of other clans, and outside it there are but few true Lushei villages, though I am told that there are villages of people very closely connected with the Lusheis, on the southern borders of Sylhet, in Tipperah and in the North Cachar Hills, and there are a few in the Chittagong Hill tracts. All the Lushai Kuki clans resemble each other very closely in 2. Appear- appearance and the Mongolian type of countenance prevails. pWicai One meets, however, many exceptions, which may be due to the character- foreign blood introduced by the many captives taken from the ^^ ^^^' plains and from neighbouring tribes; but these are not worth con- sidering, and the description of the Kuki written by Lt. Stewart close on 80 years ago cannot be improved on. " The Kukis are a short, sturdy race of men with a goodly development of muscle. Their legs are, generally speaking, short in comparison with the length of their bodies, and their arms long. The face is nearly as broad as it is long and is generally round or square, the B 2 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. cheek bones high, broad and prominent, eyes small and almond- shaped, the nose short and flat, with wide nostrils. The women appear more squat than the men even, but are strong and lusty." In Lushai clans both sexes are as a rule rather slighter made than among the Thado and cognate clans, whom Lt. Stewart was describing. Adopting the scale given in the handbook of the Anthropological Institute, the colour of the skin varies between dark yellow-brown, dark olive, copper- coloured and yellow olive. Beards and whiskers are almost unknown, and a Lushai, even when able to grow a moustache, which is not often, pulls out all the hairs except those at the corners of his mouth. The few persons with hairy faces may, I think, be safely said to be of impure blood. The hair is worn, by both sexes, in a knot over the nape of the neck, and carefully parted in the middle. The young folk of about the marrying age devote much care to their hair, dressing it daily with much pigs' fat. Later in life they grow careless, and widows allow their hair to hang as it chooses. Children's hair is left to grow as it likes till it is long enough to tie up. Curly hair or hair with a pronounced wave in it is uncommon, and is much objected to. The women are prolific, five to seven children being about the average, but the mortality among the children is so great that few parents can boast of more than two or three grown up children. Botli men and women are good walkers and hill-climbers, which is only natural, but for a race which lives exclusively on the hilltops the number of good swimmers is very large. Most men are not afraid of the water, and manage rafts very skilfully, making long journeys on them in the rains. Abortion is not infrequently resorted to when a widow who is living in her late husband's house, and therefore, as described later, expected to remain chaste, finds herself enceinte. Suicide is also rather common, poison being the usual means chosen. The cause is generally some painful and incurable disease, but very old persons with no one to support them sometimes prefer the unknown future to the miserable present. 3. History. The existing Lushei Chiefs all claim descent from a certain Thang-ura, who is sometimes said to 'have sprung from the I GENERAL 3 union of a Burman with a Paihte woman, but, according to the Paihtes, the Lusheis are descended from Boklua, an illegitimate son of the Paihte Chief Ngehguka. The Thados say that some hunters tracking a serao noticed the foot-marks of a child following those of the animal, and on surrounding the doe serao they found it suckling a child, who became the great Chief Thang-ura, or, as they call him, " Thangul." From Thang-ura the pedigree of all the living chiefs is fairly accurately established. The Lusheis, in common with the Thados and other Kuki tribes, attach great importance to their genealogies ; and pedigrees, given at an interval of many years, and by persons living far apart, have been found to agree in a Avonder- ful manner. From comparison of these genealogies and from careful enquiries lasting over many years, I estimate that Thang-ura must have lived early in the eighteenth century. His first village is said to have been at Tlangkua, north of Falam. It is probable that he personally ruled over only a small area. From him sprang six lines of Thang-ur chiefs : — (1) Rokum,(2) Zadeng,(3) Thangluah, (4) Pallian,(5)Rivung, and (6) Sailo. To the north the country was occupied by the Sukte, Paihte, and Thado clans. These appear to have been firmly established under regular chiefs ; but to the west the hills appear to have been inhabited by small communities formed largely of blood relations and probably each at feud with its neighbours. Therefore when Avant of good jhuming land and the aggressions of the eastern clans made it necessary for the Thang-ur to move, they naturally went westward. The Rokum, the eldest branch, are said to have passed through the hills now occupied by the Lushais, and some of their descendants are said to be found on the Tipperah-Sylhet border. The Zadeng followed the Rokum, and, passing through Champhai, moved westwards and about 1830 ruled some 1,000 houses divided into four villages situated near the banks of the Tlong or Dallesari river, round the Darlung peak. In alliance with Sailo chiefs of Lalul's family, they attacked and defeated successively the Hualgno (a Lushei family settled between Tyao and Manipur rivers) and the Pallian, who were their allies against the Hualgno. Subsequently the Zadeng quarrelled with Mangpura, then the most powerful Sailo chief, who, dying about Jj 2 4 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. that time, bequeathed the feud to his relatives, one of whom, Vutaia, prosecuted it with such vigour that the Zadeng, in spite of an alliance with the Manipur Rajah — who, however, proved but a broken reed — had to flee southwards, and their last inde- pendent village, numbering only 100 houses, broke up on the death of the chief, which occured at Chengpui, near Lungleh, about 1857. The Zadeng chiefs are reputed to have been cruel and arbitrary rulers, whose defeat was not regretted even by their own followers. Their descendants have retained these qualities, and, in spite of much assistance, have failed to regain their position in the world. The Thangluah and Rivung took a more southerly course. The latter penetrated into what is now the Chittagong Hill tracts, and a chief named Vanhnuai-Thanga had a very large village on the Longteroi hill, between the Chengri and Kassalong rivers. He died about 1850, and shortly after his death the village was destroyed by Vutaia. The remnant of the Rivungs fled to Hill Tipperah, where Liantlura, a great- grandson of Vanhnuai-Thanga, had a village up till a few years ago, and there is one small hamlet under a Rivung chief in the Aijal sub-division of the Lushai Hills. The Thangluah penetrated as far as Demagri and Barkhul, where Rothangpuia (Ruttonpoia) became known to us, first as a foe, and then as a faithful ally. Rothangpuia's son Lalchheva, fretting at our control, moved his village across our boundary, in spite of a warning that Government could on no account protect him if he did so. Very shortly after this move he was attacked by Hausata, a Chin chief, and his village totally destroyed, many persons being killed and more taken captive. All the mithan (tame bison) were driven off and the chief escaped with little more than the one cloth he was wearing, and now the once prosperous Thangluah clan is represented by only a few poverty-stricken hamlets round Demagri. The Pallian followed the same route as the Zadeng. The best known chiefs of this clan are Sibuta (Sheeboot) and Lalsuktla (Lalchokla). Sibuta is said in Mackenzie's " Eastern Frontier " to have thrown off" the Tipperah yoke with 25,000 houses. He died close to Aijal, and his memorial stone is at the first stage on the Aijal-Lungleh road. It is ' extremely I GENERAL 5 doubtful Avhether he ever was really subject to Tipperah, though it is certain that all these Lushai clans had dealings with the Tipperah Rajahs and feared them greatly. Among the tales in Chapter V. will be found one which exemplifies this. Lalsuktla (Lai chokla), captured by Captain Blackwood in 1841, was a greatgrandson of Sibuta's. Purhura is said to have been a very powerful Pallian chief and at one time to have received tribute from almost all his contemporary Thangur chiefs. He had a large village, said to contain 3,000 houses, on the Dungtlang, whence he moved as far westwards as Pukzing, where his village was destroyed by a combined force of Zadeng, Sailo, and Chuckmahs. This attack took place somewhere about 1830. Purbura rebuilt his village, but died soon after, and his descendants were attacked frequently by the chiefs of the Rolura branch of the Sailo family, and now only two small hamlets, close to Aijal, remain to remind us of this once powerful clan. The Sailo. — These chiefs are descended from Sailova, a great- grandson of Thang-ura's. They came into prominence last, but have crushed all their rivals, and have developed such a talent for governing that they hold undisputed sway over representatives of all sorts of clans, over nearly the whole of the area now known as the Lushai Hills. This great family has often come in contact with the British Government, but from the fact that our dealings with them have generally been through illiterate interpreters, they appear in our records under various names. The Howlongs, who caused much anxiety on the Chittagong frontier from 1860 to 1890, Lalul's descendants, whose doings fill the records of Silchar for nearly a century, Vonolel, Savunga, and Sangvunga, against whom the two columns of the Lushai Expedition of 1871-72 were directed — all these were Sailos. As above remarked, it seems most probable that the country into which the various Thangur chiefs moved, under pressure from the Chins, was almost entirely occupied by small communities having no power of cohesion. The greater part of these were absorbed, and now form the majority of the subjects of the Thangur chiefs ; but some fled north and west into Manipur, Silchar, Sylhet and Tipperah, where they are 6 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. known as Kiikis and where their appearance caused much trouble, as, from the very nature of the cause of their migration, much ill-feeling existed between them and the triumphant Lushais. In Stewart's notes on Northern Cachar, it is stated that the Old Kukis made their appearance in Cachar about the end of the eighteenth century. These Old Kukis include the Biate (Beteh) and Hrangchul (Rhangkol) and other cognate clans who are now known to us as Khawtlang. They claim the hills round Champhai as their place of origin, and the sites are still known by their names. We have seen that the Lusheis claim to have sprung from a village south-east of Champhai, and that the Zadeng jDassed through Champhai on their westward move, which ended so disastrously for them. The advance of such tribes would be slow, and would be largely regulated by the rate at which they exhausted the cultivable land near their village sites ; therefore the appearance of the Biate and Hrangchul in Cachar at the begimiing of the nineteenth or end of the eighteenth century fits in well with the date I had assigned for Thang-ura, the first Lushei chief, before I had read Lieutenant Stewart's book. These Khawtlang clans to this day have little power of cohesion, and they naturally gave way at once before the well-organised Lushais, and fled north and north-west into Cachar and Manipur, passing through the territory of the Thado clans and suffering considerably at their hands. When the Thangur had firmly established themselves, and the capable Sailo chiefs had come to the front, they felt equal to fighting the Thado clans, which were as highly organised as themselves. The Sailo chiefs triumphed, and hence the eruption of the New Kukis, alias Thados, and cognate clans, into Silchar about 1848. In Colonel Lewin's "The Hill Tracts of Chittagong and the Dwellers Therein," page 109, is given an account of the " Cucis or inhabitants of the Tipperah mountains," written by J. Rennel, Chief Engineer of Bengal in 1800. With very slight alterations, this account is applicable to the Lushais of to-day, and I have no doubt that the Cucis therein described were the Rivung, the advance-guard of the great Lushai invasion. I GENERAL 7 On the Chittagong side, we find, as early as 1777, records of frontier disturbances ascribed to " Kookies, men who live far in the interior parts of the hills, who have not the use of firearms, and whose bodies go unclothed ' (Lewin's "The Hill Tracts of Chittagong and the Dwellers Therein," page 21). These Kukis were allies of the Chuckmahs, and we have seen that about fifty years later the Chuckmahs joined with the Zadeng and the Sailos in an attack on Purbura. The various branches of the Sailo family were frequently at war, the cause almost invariably being a dispute as to land. About 1856 a war, known as "The War of the North and the South," broke out and lasted about three years. The Northern combatants were the descendants of Lallula, their opponents being Cherra's family. The bone of contention was the Filer hill, and this quarrel was on the point of breaking out again in 1892, when Mr. McCabe and I, appearing on the scene from Aijal and Lungleh respectively, " frightened both the heroes so they quite forgot their quarrel." The war ended in a victory for the North, who surprised Konglung, a village on the top of a very precipitous rock, and captured the young chief and his mother, who later were ransomed for many necklaces. In 1874 the Southern Lushais fell out with the Thlantlang (Klangklang) chiefs. Vandula, head of the Lushais, had raided Vaki, a village on the Arracan border, and brought away as part of the loot a brass bowl and a big earthenware vase, which the Thlantlang chief claimed as being part of the promised price of his daughter, who had recently been married to the son of the Vaki chief. As Vandula refused to give up the articles, the Thlantlangs attacked a Lushai piquet on the Koladyne, killing some men. To revenge this insult, the Lushais attacked Bunkhua, with disastrous results, as is described in Chapter III, Para. 5, and had to make an ignominious peace. Later the Northern chiefs quarrelled among themselves, and the war of the East and West broke out and lasted several years. The cause is said to have been a girl called Tuali, for whose affections Liankhama and Khalkhama were rivals. It is unnecessary to go into the history of our dealings with the Lushais, which have ended in the whole of the Hills being 8 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. annexed, and a stop put to all such wars, but when we occupied Lungleh in 1889 we found the Fanai clan coming into pro- minence, and there is little doubt that, but for our intervention, that clan would shortly have attempted to eject the Southern Lushai chiefs. 4. Atfini- The Lushais are more or less closely allied to all the tribes ^^^" now living in their vicinity, but some who shoAv this most strongly, such as the Chiru, Kom, Aimol, are now settled in the Manipur State, while the intervening country is occupied by clans belonging to the Thado, Paihte, and Khawtlang families, which, though no doubt of the same stock, are more distantly connected. It seems certain that the former clans lived near the Lusheis when the Thangur commenced their victorious career, and it may well be that it was fear of absorption by their more powerful neighbour that drove these clans north- wards, while the Lusheis took a westerly direction. The connection between the Lusheis and their eastern neighbours is apparent both in their language and in their customs, but the eastern tribes, known to us generally as Chins, are of finer physique and, owing to their having permanent villages, the differences between clans have become more marked than among the semi-nomadic Lushais and Kukis. The feuds between different clans, which are always found where per- manent villages exist, tend to Aviden the breach between communities and to accentuate every accidental variation of custom, so that the common origin is soon lost sight of. Nevertheless there is no doubt that the Kukis, Chins, and Lushais are all of the same race. Less apparent but still quite traceable is the relationship between the Lushais and the Kabuis and Manipuris, though the latter nowadays try in every way to disown all connection with their poor relations. 5. Dress. The men's dress could not well be simpler, consisting as it does of a single cloth about 7 feet long and 5 wide. It is worn \ as follows : — One corner is grasped in the left hand, and the cloth is passed over the left shoulder, behind the back, under the right arm across the chest and the end thrown over the left shoulder. Although it would appear probable that clothing so loosely worn would be continually falling off, yet, as a matter of I GENERAL 9 fact, accidents of that sort seldom occur. In cold weather, one or more cloths are worn, one over the other, and also a white coat, reaching well down the thigh but only fastened at the throat. These coats are ornamented on the sleeves with bands of red and white of various patterns. When at work, in hot weather, the Lushai wraps his cloth round his waist, letting the ends hang down in front, and should he find the sun warm and if he is wearing two cloths, he will wear one as a puggri. Puggi'is are sometimes worn when out in the sun for long, and some affect rather a quaint style, twisting the cloth round the head so as to make an end stand up straight over each ear. All these garments are of cotton, grown locally and manu- factured by the women of the household. The cloths in general use are white, but every man likes to have two or three blue cloths ornamented with stripes of various colours. The Lushais have a very strong objection to getting their heads wet, and therefore in the rain wear hats made of strips of bamboo or cane plaited and lined with smoked leaves. The original hats were almost flat and circular, but nowadays these have been discarded in favour of very clever imitations of helmets and solar topis. In the southern portion of the district the people use, as a protection from the wet, a large shallow basket-work tray, shaped like an oyster shell, and made water- proof by being lined with smoked leaves ; the narrow end rests on the wearer's head, while the broad end reaches doA\Ti well below the waist, so that, while bending down weeding in the jhum, the head and body are kept dry. This form of water- proof is not much used in the northern portion of the Lushai Hills, but is common among the Chiru and other allied clans in Manipur. As the Lushai has no pockets, he carries, wherever he goes, a haversack made of some pretty coloured cotton cloth slung over his shoulder by a strap of the same material. In this he carries his flint and steel and his tobacco, in neatly made boxes carved out of solid pieces of wood and fitted with lids of the same material, or of leather moulded into shape by being stretched over a block. His pipe is generally in his mouth ; it consists of a bowl made out of a particularly hard kind of bamboo which is only found in the Chin hills — whence the Lushais claim to have sprung — with a long stem made of a 10 THE LUSHEI CLANS CHAP. ^ y^uu. < w X h < O O Si z < > < IV RELIGION 65 reincarnated in the form of hornets and sometimes in the form of dew, and if this falls on a person the spirit is reborn in his or her child. Though this can scarcely be said to be the religion of the 2. Lushais, yet they firmly believe that the spirits of the dead are Worship' constantly present and need to be propitiated, and one of the principal Thangchhuah feasts is in honour of the dead. This is described in para. 9 of this chapter. At every feast or sacrifice a small portion of flesh, rice, and a little zu is placed on a shelf under the eaves for the spirits of the dead members of the family. This is called " rao-chhiak." A little of the first fruits of each crop is always placed on the wall under the eaves, above the spot where the water tubes are stacked, as an offering to the cultivator's parents. This is called " Mi-thi-chhiah," but there is another more important Mi-thi- chhiah. It is supposed that the spirits of the departed are very fond of coming to watch the Kut festivities (see para. 9 of this chapter) and on such occasions the spirit of a mother will enter her daughter's body and the daughter then goes off into a trance. The Lusheis say, " Mi-thi in a thluk " (The dead has taken her place). To cause the spirit to depart and restore the girl to consciousness it is necessary to perform the ceremony called Mi-thi-chhiah. Necklaces, earrings, cloths, petticoats, rice, and zu are placed in a heap on the floor where the corpse of the deceased was seated during the funeral feast. Then the worst cloth and petticoat of the girl are burnt in the forge and she forthwith returns to life. One reason given for the behaviour of the spirit is that sufficient attention to the adornment of the corpse at the funeral feast had not been paid. The spirit is supposed to be able to brood over the slight put on its late tenement ; hence the collection of all sorts of cloths and ornaments on the spot where the corpse had been seated. The Lushais do not worship the sun or moon or any of the 3. Wor- forces of nature, though when wishing to emphasise a statement natural they frequently say, " If what I say is not true, may the sun forces and and moon desert me." But they believe the hills, streams, and ' trees are inhabited by various demons. These are known as " Huai," those inhabiting the water being called " Tui-huai," and those residing on land being known as "Ram-huai." These F 66 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. spirits are uniformly bad, and all the troubles and ills of life are attributed to them, and the sacrifices described in the next part are supposed to appease them. The following account of the doings of one of these Huai was given me by Suakhnuna, one of the most intelligent of the Lushei chiefs : — " A Ram-huai named Chongpuithanga used to live near the ford over the Sonai. He said he was the servant of the King of the Huai and was always on the look out for men along the banks of the river. He spoke through a girl called Ziki, who was often ill, and used to go into trances. He demanded a pig and professed to have caused the deaths of ten persons of the village." The following is another story which the teller fully believed. " About six years ago Hminga, of Lalbuta's village, was looking at a ngoi (fishing weir) and saw some Ram-huai. These wore the chawndawl (headdress worn by slayers of men), and round these were strings of babies' skulls. On his return home he got very ill, and all his family kept on asking him what was the matter, but when he was going to tell them the Ram- huai would seize him by the throat so that he could not tell them. If he managed to say a few words he got a pain in the head. He did not die, but recovered." Again, " A woman of Lalbuta's village went out of her house at night for purposes of nature. Her name was Mangami ; she was enceinte. The Huai of the Tuitlin precipice caught her, and forced out the immature child and then carried her off down the rocks. The young men of the village went to search for her and found her naked in the jungle at the foot of the precipice, where the Ram-huai had left her. She knew nothing about it. She recovered." The following story gives rather a different view of the Huai : — " A man called Dailova, who may be alive now, did not know that it was time for him to perform his Sakhua sacrifice. He and his son went down to fetch ' dhan ' from the jhum house, and slept there among the straw ; in the night the boy, feeling cold, went into the jhum house and slept among the paddy, but Dailova covered himself up in the straw and kept warm. Towards morning two Huais came along, one of whom was called Lianthawnga, and the other, Ram-huai, called to him, ' Where IV RELIGION 67 are you going to, Lianthawnga ? ' and he replied ' I am going to Lungzawl.' Then Dailova, from under the straw, called out, * Where are you going to, Lianthawnga ? ' Then the Ram-huai came into the straw and wrestled with Dailova. When they had finished wrestling it was daylight, so they ate their rice and came home, and Ram-huai followed them and wrestled with Dailova. Sometimes the Ram-huai appears as a tiger and sometimes as a man. Dailova kept on saying, ' I will wrestle again with him,' and at last he called out, ' I have conquered.' Then the Ram-huai told him that his Sakhua sacrifice was overdue and he performed it at once." In the last story the Ram-huai is represented in much the same aspect as Khuavang has been described to me by others, one of whom told me that once, returning from a drinking bout at the chief's house, he had found a man of huge stature sitting by his hearth, who after staring at him for a moment or two disappeared. Another, who also had been at a feast, while on his way home saw huge men with enormous heads passing through the jungle. In both these cases the narrators assured me that they were perfectly sober ; in fact, one of them alleged as a reason for being sure that the figure which he saw was Khuavang was that, in spite of having drunk a great deal, he did not feel intoxicated. In each case the vision was followed by a severe illness. There is a lake called " Dil," between the southern border of the Lushai Hills and the Arracan hill tracts, which was credited with being the abode of many savage Tui-huai. No hill man would go within sight of the water, and when I first went there I had great difficulty in getting men to accompany me. The story is that some foreigner visited the place once and climbed into a tree overhanging the water, whence he dropped his knife into the lake and sent one of his men down to fetch it. The diver returned without the knife, but with tales of wonderful beings beneath the water. The foreigner fired his gun into the lake, whereupon numbers of Tui-huai emerged and chased the whole party of intruders, catching and carrying off all except their leader, who made good his escape. Every form of sickness is attributed to the influence of some Huai or other, and all tales about Huais either begin or end, " There was much .sickness in our village." At the time of an F 2 68 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. epidemic there is probably some hysterical girl, such as Ziki appears to have been, whose mind has been imbued with tales of Huais, who works herself up into a frenzy and believes herself possessed of a devil. This theory receives confirmation from the facts recorded in the next chapter regarding Khawhring. Not every Huai is known by name, and the sacrifices about to be described are offered to all Huais of a particular class. Ldshi. — Although the liashi are not considered as demons or divinities, yet this seems an appropriate place to deal with them. A Lushai describes them thus : — " The Lashi folk are spirits which live in the Lur and Tan precipices. Formerly a Lushai young man went shooting alone. Beneath the Tan precipice a most beautiful Lashi maiden was weaving, and on seeing her the youth became love-sick and could not go away, so he stayed and courted her all day; till it began to grow dark ; then the Lashi maiden, wishing to go to her house, asked him to roll up her weaving for her, but he would not. Then she said to him, ' What animal would you most like to shoot ? ' and on his saying an elephant she at once caused him to kill one and he bore its head back in triumph, while the Lashi maiden and her mother rolled up the cloth and disappeared into the precipice." My informant assured me that had the young man rolled up the weaving he would never have escaped. In another tale a Lashi youth falls in love with the daughter of a man called Lianlunga, to whom he appeared in a dream and offered to place in his tobacco box the fur of many wild animals and to enable him to shoot every animal the fur of which was in the box. In return for this Lianlunga agreed to the match, and both he and his wife were given the power of decoying wild animals. Lianlunga's wife would pinch her pig's ear, and if it made no noise Lianlunga would go out shooting and Chawntinleri, a younger sister of the Lashi son-in-law, would drive all the animals past him, and he shot what he liked, for the Lashi had tamed all the animals. Lianlunga, however, came to a tragic end through trying to dispense with the services of the Lashi. He enticed a wild metna under his house and then tried to spear it through the floor, but only wounded it and the animal escaped. This offended the Lashi, IV RELIGION 69 who " made the barb of an arrow come out of his heart so that he died." The Lashi seem to be only concerned with wild animals, over whom they are believed to have complete control. In this part I propose only to deal with the various sacrifices 4. Reli- which play so important a part in a Lushai's existence, but fnd^cere^^ the festivals described in para. 9 are, to a certain extent, monies, religious ceremonies, and are performed with the idea of pleasing the gods. Suakhnuna explained to me, when giving the description of the Thangchhuah feasts, that Pathian resided in the sky and that these feasts were supposed to please him. Similarly, the carrying about of the effigies of their ancestors in the " mi-thi-rawp-lam " is supposed to be acceptable to the spirits of the departed. In these feasts I think we may safely trace the rude beginnings of the magnificent pageants performed by the Manipuris and called by them "Lai-harauba" — i.e., " Pleasing the god." Before describing the various sacrifices it is necessary to explain some of the terms used. Hrilh closely approximates to the Naga " Genna." The meaning is that those to whom it applies must do no work, except necessary household tasks, and must not leave a prescribed area. The " hrilh " may apply to the whole village or only to the household of the performer of the sacrifice, and the area in which those under " hrilh " are allowed to move about may be either their own house and garden, or the village limits. Sherh. — This term is used to describe the portions of the animal sacrificed, which are reserved for the god or Huai. These portions vary slightly in different sacrifices, but, generally speaking, they are the extremities and some of the internal organs, such as the heart, liver, or entrails. In every case the extremities are included. I believe the Khasis offer these to the " thlen." ^ I have found the Manipuri iron-workers when about to work a new deposit, also offer the hair fi-om the end of the tail and from the fetlocks, and a little blood drawn from the ear of the buffalo, to the local god. Having become Hindus, they can no longer kill the animal as their forefathers did, but still make this offering of the " sherh." " Sherh " is also used in the sense of tabu. Thus a house in which a sacrifice has * Vide p. 99 of Colonel P. R. Gurdon's Monograph on the Khasi People. 70 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. been performed may be said to be " sherh," meaning that no one outside the household may enter it. Portions of the animal killed are kept for certain periods, during this time are " sherh," and cannot be touched by outsiders. A woman is " sherh," for some days after her confinement, and during that time must not go to the water supply. Thiang-lo is translated by the missionaries as " unlawful," but I think " unlucky " more exactly represents the meaning, which is that a certain act will be followed by some misfortune to the doer.^ The sacrifices made by Lushais may be divided into eight classes. 1. Sdkhua. — A sacrifice to the guardian spirit of the clan or family. 2. Khcll. — These are sacrifices to Huai supposed to frequent the village and houses. 3. Daibawl. — These are to propitiate the Huai in the jungle, streams, and mountains. 4. Various sacrifices in case of sickness. 5. Sacrifices to cure barrenness in women. 6. Nao-hri. — These sacrifices should be performed once in a lifetime in a particular order. 7. Sacrifices connected with hunting and killing animals. 8. Sacrifices connected with jhuming. 1. From the chant given below a good idea is obtained of what Sakhua. ^^^ ^^^^^ u g^khua " means to the Lushais. Each clan has a special chant or invocation, and though in almost every case the animal sacrificed is a big sow, yet the method and place of the sacrifice and the disposal of the '• sherh " vary in each clan, and uniformity in this respect is looked on as proof positive that two families belong to the same clan. Among the Lushei clans the sacrifice must be performed by a pui-thiam of the clan, and the pig is killed outside the house, but is brought in to be cooked and eaten. The legs and ribs have to be kept for three days above the rafters, and during this 1 Compare Major Playfair's The Garos, page 114, where the word " marang" is said to have the meaning of " unlucky " and " unlawful." IV RELIGION 71 time they are " .sherh," and if the}^ are touched by anyone of another family, someone of the household performing the sacrifice will suffer in some way, unless another pig is quickly killed. The skull of the animal is hung on the centre post inside the house. The sacrifice is generally made about once in four years, unless the pui-thiam advises the performance more frequently on account of sickness. The following is the chant or invocation used by the pui-thiam at this sacrifice Each invocation begins and ends with a long drawn out note. The refrain " And accept, &c.," is repeated after each line. Ah — h. Arise from the village. Aw — w. And accept our sacrifice. Ah — h. Arise from the open spaces in the village. Aw — w, And accept our sacrifice. Ah — h. Arise from your dwelling places. Aw — w. Ah — h. Arise from the paths. Aw — w. Ah — h. Arise from the gathering mists. Aw — w. Ah — h. Arise from the yam plots. Aw — w. Ah — h. Arise from Bualchuam hill. Aw — w. Ah — h. Arise from Khawkawk hill. Aw — w. Ah — h. Arise from Buhmam hill. Aw — w. Ah — h. Arise fi-om above the road. Aw — w. Ah — h. Arise from below the hill. Aw — w. Ah — h. Arise from Vahlit hill. Aw — w. Ah — h. Arise from Much hip hill. Aw — w. The spirits of three more hills are invoked. Ah — h. Arise from the new village site. Aw — w. Ah— h. Arise from the shelf over the hearth. Aw — w. Ah — h. Arise from the village. Aw — w. Ah — h. Arise from the floor. Aw — w. Ah — h. Arise from the earth. Aw — w. Ah — h. Spirits prayed to by our ancestors, Accept our sacrifice. Bless Luta's spirit (the householder's name), Bless us with sons, bless us with daughters. Bless us while in bed, bless us round the hearth. Make us to flourish like a sago palm. 72 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. Make us to flourish like a hai tree. Bless us while the sun shines, Bless us while the moon shines. May those above bless us, may those below us bless us. Guard us from our enemies, guard us from death. Favour us with flesh. (May we have success in the chase.) Favour us with the produce of the jungle. For ten, for a hundred years bless us. Bless us in killing man, bless us in shooting animals, Bless us in cultivating our j hums, bless us in cultivating the beans. Guard us in the presence of men, guard us in the presence of animals. Bless us in our old age. Bless us when our heads are bowed down. Guard us from the spear, guard us from the dah. Those whom our grandmothers worshipped guard us, Those whom our grandfathers worshipped guard us. Bless us in spite of the faults in this our chant, Bless us in spite of the faults in this our worship." Bualchuam hill is the hill in which the first men built their first village, Buhmam the hill on which the first bird's nest was built by a crow. The other hills mentioned give a clue to the village sites of the first Lushei chiefs. The omission of a prayer to be preserved from the danger of gunshots shows that the chant has remained unaltered in spite of the gun having superseded the dah and the spear. 2. There are many sorts of Khal. The following are some of the Khal. most important. Vok-te-Khdl. — A small pig killed near the head of the parents' sleeping platform, flesh cooked inside the house, and the skull hung over the sleeping place. The sherh consisting of the heart and liver and fat, are kept for the night in a pot with salt and rice and then thrown away. The day of the sacrifice and the night following are " hrilh " for the household. Ar-Khdl. — Similar to the Vok-te, but a red cock is killed, and instead of the head, the long feathers from above the tail, called " fep " by the Lushais, are strung on a cane and hung IV RELIGION 73 over the parents' sleeping place. The sherh, consisting of the head, feet, heai't and liver, and wings, are placed in a small basket and thrown away in the morning. Kel-Khdl. — A goat is killed in a place where the water tubes are kept ; its flesh is cooked inside the house. The sherh are hung on a cane in the front verandah. The hrilh lasts three days, and during that time no intercourse must be held with strangers, nor must any of the household enter the forge. These three sacrifices should always be performed soon after marriage, but poor persons postpone them till ill-health shows that the Huais will wait no longer. Dreams are also the means of notifying when a Khal should be performed. If a person dreams of a beautiful stranger of the opposite sex who laughs constantly, then the Vok-te-Khal should be performed, and if the dream is repeated often Ar-Khal must follow or the dreamer will certainly get ill. Should a tiger bite the dreamer, Kel-Khal is most urgently needed, and if not performed the dreamer will certainly die. Persons who dream this dream are so frightened that they will not leave their houses after dark, nor stir beyond the village during the day, for fear of a tiger seizing them. Vdn-chimg-Kkdl. — A white cock is killed on the hearth and the flesh cooked inside the house. The sherh are placed in a ■wdnnowing basket on the top shelf over the hearth with salt and a little rice taken from the pot before anyone has eaten. The next morning it is thrown away. Hrilh only for one night. Khdl-chuang or Mei-aivr-lo. — " Tail not worn " — because it is not obligatory for the performer to wear the tail on a string round his neck as is is done in Kel-Khal. A goat is killed as in Kel-Khal and the sherh are treated in the same way, but the flesh must not be cooked till the next day, and it is " thiang-lo " to eat "thei-hai" fruit. Though this sacrifice is so very similar to the Kel-Khal, yet it is considered more efficacious. The commonest of these is " Tui-leh-ram " (water and land). 3. This sacrifice has to be performed at the outskirts of the village. "^^°*W'- It is to appease the demons inhabiting the woods and the streams. 74 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. A cock and hen are killed. Three bamboos are brought ; of these " theibial " are made, which are pieces of bamboo about four inches long stuck into the gi-ound. A small basket called "maicham" is also made, and some small square mats called "lengleh " made of a thin strip of bamboo bent round and round itself and kept in position by lacings of black and red threads. These are hung from small pieces of bamboo stuck into the theibial. The fowls' throats are cut and the blood allowed to flow on the maicham and theibial. Then three small stones are brought from the nearest stream and a shallow hole is dug at the place of sacrifice and lined with a wild plantain leaf. In this some water is poured and the stones and the sherh are placed in the water. The fowls' flesh may be cooked and eaten either on the spot or in the house. Bawl-piti. — This is a very important sacrifice, which is seldom performed and only after all others have been tried. Two small clay figures are made, one to represent a man and the other a woman. These are called " ram-chawm." The female figure has a petticoat of "hnahtial" (a plant which has tough leaves used for wrapping up food to be taken on a journey), and is made to bite the pig's liver. The male figure is provided with a pipe and a necklace of the liver of the pig which is sacrificed. A small bamboo platform is made, and on it is put a clay model of a gong and other household utensils, and sometimes of mithan. The pig's throat is cut and the blood allowed to flow over the platform, &c. The pig's flesh is cooked on the spot. To take it into the house is " thianglo." Many persons come and eat it with the puithiam. If the patient does not die during the performance of the sacrifice or during the subsequent feast he will undoubtedly recover. 4. Kdngpuizdm. — This is a very important and efiicacious sacrifice, and can only be performed by a certain wise man of fices in the Khawtlang or Vuite clans. It costs Rs. 40/- besides the sSmess. ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ animals killed and zu drunk. In front of the house a sort of arbour is made of grass and boughs supported on four sticks. All round this are hung little balls made of split cane rolled up tight. This split cane is said to be much liked by Various sacpi- IV RELIGION 75 the devils. All round the house strands of cane are stretched, the ends being tied to the arbour. The devils are supposed to be unable to pass these canes, so that the sorcerer has no fear of the devils who are already inside the house being assisted by recruits from the outside. Drinking of zu and reciting of charms goes on during the day, and after dark the sorcerer and his assistants get up on the roof of the sick man's house and commence marching up and down reciting charms and ordering the devils to leave the man, and offering them asylum in the bodies of a goat, pig, and dog which they carry with them. After some shouting and firing of a gun the party sit down on the roof over the front entrance of the house, and the sorcerer commences a long incantation over each of the animals in turn, beating them and stamping on them. Then some of the party come down and the rest retire to the back of the house, and each of the animals is brought in turn from the far end of the house, being made to walk on its hind legs to the front, and then is thrown down on to the entrance platform. Lastly a big bough is carried from the back of the house along the roof and fixed in a hole through the roof over the entrance. From this bough a cane is stretched to the arbour. Then all the rest of the party come down, and after many incantations and much shouting the animals are sacrificed and eaten by the sorcerer and his assistants, the usual useless portions being hung up in the arbour for the devils, who are supposed to have been driven either into the animal or along the cane into the arbour. Vi-hring. — A full-grown dog or bitch is killed on the entrance platform and its flesh is cooked in front of the house. Blood is put on the sick man's wrist, inside his elbow joint, on his forehead, on his chest, at the back of the knee and ankle. Sherh and head are hung up on a post. Hring-ai-tdn. — Similar, but a different charm is muttered and the heart is roasted and eaten. The house is " sherh " for one day, leaves being hung in front of the door to warn outsiders. One day's hrilh is observed. Kftuavang-hring. — Puithiam decides what animal shall be killed, and the sacrifice takes place on a platform before the house, the flesh being cooked in the street. Sherh and head are hung on a post in a small basket. 76 THE LUSHEI CLANS CHAP. 5. Saepi- fiees to remove barren- ness in women. Thlaho {The Calling of the Spirit). — Sometimes a Lushai returning from a shooting expedition experiences a sudden feeling of fear near the water supply, and on reaching his house feels ill and out of sorts. He then realises that he has lost one of his " thlarau," or souls, in the jungle. So he calls in the puithiam and requests him to call back the wanderer. The puithiam then hangs the head of a hoe on to the shaft of a spear and goes down to the water spring chanting a charm and calling on the spirit to return. As he goes the iron hoe head jingles against the iron butt of the spear and the spirit hears the noise and listens. The puithiam returns from the spring to the house still chanting and calling, and the spirit follows him, but should the puithiam laugh or look back the spirit is afraid and flies back to the jungle. Epidemics. — The appearance of cholera, or any similar disease, is the signal for the evacuation of the village. The sick are abandoned and the people scatter, some families taking up their abode in the jhum huts, others building huts in the jungle. The neighbouring villages close their gates to all coming from the infected neighbourhood, and to terrify the Huai, who is supposed to be responsible for the epidemic, a gateway is built across the road leading to the stricken villages, on the sides and arch of which rude figures of armed men made of straw with wooden spears and dahs are placed. A dog is sacrificed and the sherh are hung on the gateway.^ Chhim. — This is generally performed if a woman does not become enceinte in the first year of married life. A white hen has to be caught just as it has laid an eg^, but as this is a somewhat difficult feat, and as the demons, though malevolent, are supposed to be easily imposed upon, a white hen is often caught and put into a nest basket with an egg and fastened there till the puithiam arrives and says, " Oh, ho ! so your hen has laid an egg ! " Then the hen is killed at the head of the sleeping platform (khumpi), under which the sherh are placed in a basket till sunrise next morning, when they are thrown away. The flesh is cooked on the hearth and eaten. 1 For a somewhat similar instance of trying to ward off cholera, vide Khasi Monograph, p. 35. — P. R. G. IV RELIGION 17 Nu-hrih. — A black fowl is killed and eaten as in the " Chhim " sacrifice. The sherh are wrapped in a wild plantain before being placed under the bed in a basket. They are thrown away in the morning. The feathers are bound with the thread used for tying the woman's hair and hung on the wall opposite the fireplace. Whether the couple cohabit on this night or not is immaterial. The following sacrifices are performed some time during 6. life, whenever a person is unwell. If a person keeps well they will not be made. Rich people often go through the whole course for their children as a precautionary measure. The sacrifices are done in the following order : — 1. Hmar-pMr. — Cock and hen killed on entrance ladder. 2. Hmarchung. — Cock killed on entrance ladder. 3. Hmarkhat. — Hen killed on entrance ladder. 4. Vavjh-te-luilam. — Small pig killed outside house. 5. Ui-te-luilam. — Puppy killed outside house. 6. Zinhncaun. — Puppy killed outside house. 7. Zin-thiang. — Puppy killed outside house. 8. Ui-ha-awr. — Dog killed in front of platform, tooth worn round neck. Kongpui Shiam {Making a Big Road). — This ceremony is 7. supposed to make successful hunting probable ; it also foretells flgescon the result. It is performed before a large hunting party starts neeted and also annually about April. hunting and Translation of Lushai Account. killing animals. " As soon as it gets dusk two men and the puithiam go a short way down the road which leads out of the village southwards taking a small pig with them, and there they make a fire, and kill the pig and cook its flesh. They drink some zu which they have brought with them in a gourd and also eat the flesh of the pig. Presently they say no one is to come this way, and the puithiam sweeps a place in the middle of the road and places some of the ashes from the fire there, and sings this magic chant : — " ' Animals come, animals of the Hi lake come, animals of the Champhai come, animals from the village come, animals of Ai- 78 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. zawl come, you with the white tusks, you with the standing manes (bears), you with the branching horns come.' " Then, picking up some small stones and putting them in their haversacks, -they return. As they are about to enter the chiefs house, they say, ' We are bringing men's and animals' heads.' The upas who are collected in the chiefs house ask, ' Are you friends or enemies ? ' ' We are friends,' they reply. Then they open the door and put the stones which they have brought into a basket, and as they enter they are given zu." The next day is " hrilh " for the whole village. In the morning, early, they go to look at the ashes, and are supposed to be able to see the likeness to footmarks in them, and thus to what animals mil be killed in the chase. If a man's foot marks are seen, it is unfortunate, and a man will be killed. Ai. — In order that a person after death may gain possession of the spirits of the men or wild animals he has killed here below, it is necessary for him to sacrifice a mithan, goat, or pig. This is called " Ai." After this feast, before the skull can be placed in the front verandah, a religious ceremony has to be performed by the puithiam. This is called " Sa-lu-an-chhuang " — i.e., " Hoist the head of the wild animal." A small white fowl is given to him and the skull of the animal is placed in front of him. He then takes some zu in his mouth and spits it out over the skull, and, after muttering a charm in so low a tone that no one can hear him, he strikes the skull with the head of the chicken. If some of the feathers stick on the skull it is very lucky. After this the skull can be put up. As is stated further on, the Lushais believe that the spirit of a dead man cannot pass to Mi-thi-khua unless some animals are killed. These have to be provided by the heir, and no greater objection can be urged against a claim to inherit than a failure to provide the funeral sacrifice. This explains the reason of the Ai ceremony; the performer thereby enables the spirit of the dead animal to pass to Mi-thi-khua and in return acquires power over it. No Ai has to be performed for tame animals, presum- ably because they are the property of the slayer already. The word " Ai " has many meanings — among them are " to fascinate," " to obtain power over" ; and there is also a plant of that name, IV RELIGION 79 which in one of the folk tales is said to have the magical property of driving away any evil spirit at which it is pointed. The Ai of a man requires the sacrifice of a mithan and a small pig. If an enemy is killed and no Ai performed the slayer is very likely to go mad. If you perform the Ai you can take your enemy with you (as a slave) when you die ; if you do not perform the Ai you cannot do so, and the spirit of your deceased enemy will haunt you in this life. Translation of a Lushai Account of the Sakei-Ai. " When Bengkhawia's village was at Thenzawl, a tiger beset the village and in one day killed a mithan and two goats. The crier called on the people to surround it, and they did so. Thangbawnga shot it and performed the Ai ceremony ; the night before he must not sleep. A young man cut its tail off ; he also must keep awake all night. The next day he performed the Ai ceremony, sacrificing a mithan. Thang- bawnga, who was performing the Ai, dressed himself up as a woman, smoked a woman's pipe, wore a woman's petticoat and cloth, carried a small basket, spun a cotton spindle, wore ivory earrings, let his hair down, and wrapped a mottled cloth, which was said to be of an ancient pattern, round his head as a turban. A crowd watched him and yelled with laughter, but it would have been ' thianglo ' for him to laugh. Presently he took off his turban and carried it in the basket. Then he took off his woman's disguise and dressed himself as a man, and strapped on a fighting dah and carried a gun. He also took ' sailungvar ' (white flints) and put them into the tiger's mouth while he ate eggs. ' You eat the sailungvar,' he said ; ' who will swallow them the quicker ? ' 'I have out-swallowed you, you have not swallowed yours ; I have swallowed mine. You go by the lower road; I will go by the upper. You will be like the lower southern hills ; I shall be like the high northern ones. You are the brave man of the south ; I am the brave man of the north,' he said, and cut the tiger's head three times with his dao. Then the men buried the body of the tiger outside the village." If the tiger has killed men, his eyes are gouged out with skewers or needles and thrown away ; it is " thianglo " 8o THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. for the performer to laugh, so he holds a porcupine in his arms, and if he laughs by accident they say, " The porcupine laughed." The idea of the performer disguising himself as a woman is that the spirit of the dead tiger may be humbled, thinking that it has been shot by a woman ; and the giving of the flints while the performer eats eggs is to show the power of the performer over the the tiger, as he eats the eggs easily, while the tiger is unable to chew the flints. Haohick Ai. — The Ai of a " haohuk," or gibbon, means a feast given to all who care to attend. Twenty pots of zu are required, but they are of a small size. A pig has to be killed and eaten. This Ai is especially necessary because of the superstition connected with the killing of these animals, which will be found in Chapter V. 8. Lohnan. — When the jhum house has been completed, the Saeri- sacrifice has to be performed by the owner of the jhum. The neeted puithiam has to be called and two fowls killed by him. A ^^^^ small hole is dug in the ground under the house and lined ing. with plantain leaves and then filled with water, and three small stones are dropped in. The puithiam cuts the throats of the fowls, allowing the blood to fall into the hole. The sherh are then cut off and hung under the house, and the rest of the flesh is cooked and eaten in the jungle. The next day is hrilh. The first day after this on which they work, some rice and vegetables are placed on the top of one of the posts of the house platform as an offering to the Ram-huai. Fdnodawi. — The chief prepares zu in his house. Puithiam and two upas go just outside the village on the road to the jhum and sacrifice a cock, and its wings are hung on either side of the road and the sherh are placed in the middle of the road. Next day is hrilh ; no one goes out of the village except to carry water. This is to make grain fill in the ear, and is performed in July. 5. Priest- There is no regular priesthood ; the nearest approach to hood. priests are the puithiam (great knowers). These men pretend to be able, by feeling a sick man's pulse, to tell which sacrifice is needed. The only training necessary is to commit to memory the various " hla," or charms, which have to be muttered while performing the sacrifices. Any man who thinks he has a call IV RELIGION 8i can acquire these from a puithiam on payment of a fee of a few- rupees. His success in his calling appears largely to depend on luck. There is generally one puithiam appointed by the chief, but there is no limit to the number there may be in a village. As has been said, the important Sakhua sacrifice requires the presence of a puithiam of the clan concerned, but other sacrifices can be performed by a puithiam of any clan. The services of a puithiam are not given gratis. For performing those connected with cultivation he receives a basket of rice ; for other sacrifices he receives sums varying from a rupee up to ten rupees, but for some it is not customary to take payment, and the fees depend chiefly on the position of the person who has to pay them, as the puithiam, on the principle that half a loaf is better than no bread, will generally perform a sacrifice and take what he can get rather than get nothing. For the more important sacrifices, the fees, however, are always higher. The particular sacrifices to be performed in connection with 6. Cere- a child's birth vary considerably in different clans and families, connected Within seven days of the birth, the sacrifice known as the with child " Arte-luilam," consisting of a cock and a hen killed just outside the house, must be made ; till this is done the woman cannot go to the spring and is " sherh," and had better not leave the house. Should the woman not observe the custom the child will suffer in health. Three days after the birth of a child a small chicken and seven small packets of rice and vegetables are suspended under the edge of the front verandah. This is called " arte-hring-ban " or " khaw-hring-tir." The object is to satisfy the " khawhring" (see Chapter V, para 12) and prevent it entering the child. If a woman has difficulty in bringing forth, a fowl is killed and divided equally. The portion with the head is put at the upper end of the village with seven pieces of cane rolled into bundles, the other half at the lower end of the village with five rolls of cane, and the woman is given a little water to drink. This is called " arte-pum-phelna " — i.e., " to open the stomach with a fowl." For seven days after a child's birth its spirit is supposed not G 82 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. to be quite at home in the little body and to spend some of its time perched like a bird on the parents' bodies and clothes, and therefore, for fear of injuring it, the parents keep as quiet as possible for these seven days. If either of the parents works during these seven days and a red rash appears on the child, the illness is called " borh," and the cure, which is called "borh keo," is as follows : — A certain creeper called "vomhrui" is brought and coiled round and round, forming a sort of cylinder, and into this the child is dipped three times. This is done at night after the fire is out, and no fire can be lit again till morning. Two days after the birth of a child its parents give a big drink to their friends and relatives — this is called " nau " — and seven days later another big feast is given. Some families give the name at the first feast, some at the second. The proper custom is for the " pu " to name the child, but nowadays parents generally do this. Should several children have died young, the parents will carry the next baby and deposit it in a friend's house, and then come and ask, " Have you a slave to sell," and purchase it for a small sum. This is supposed to deceive the Huais. Such children's names always begin with Suak,^ and, judging from the frequency with which such names are met, the custom must be a very common one. It is thought good to appoint a "pu." The pu kills a pig and a fowl and eats it with his friends. Some of the " fep " of the fowl are tied round the child's neck. The pu is a general protector, and he only can get the "pushum" of a girl. He also receives the " lukawng " (see Part 8). Should a woman die in childbirth, it was considered unlucky for another woman to rear the child, which was buried alive with its mother. There are no ceremonies connected with attaining the age of puberty. A boy simply joins the young men in the zawlbuk. After this it is considered unlucky to cut the hair. 7. Mar- A young Lushai as a rule chooses his own bride, but the momeT"^^ arrangements are made by the parents. The would-be bride- groom's parents select two male friends, called " palai," who go to the parents of the selected girl and arrange matters. If the 1 " Suak " or " Suok " in most old Kuki dialects and in Thado means a slave. IV RELIGION Ss parents are agreeable the palai go on another day with zu, and the girl's parents brew zu. The price to be paid is fixed by custom, as before explained, but the amount to be paid down has to be settled by negotiation, and this is often a long business, the palai urging the poverty of the bridegroom's family, while the bride's parents try to fix the sum as high as possible. When this difficulty has been overcome the palai go again with zu, and the girl's parents also provide zu. On that day the girl is escorted by her friends to the house of the bridegroom's parents. This is called "Loi." As they pass through the village all the children pelt them with dirt, but on arrival they are welcomed with brimming cups of zu, and the bridegroom says to the bride, " Oh ! your cloth is dirty," and gives her a new one. After some time the bride- ^oom produces a fowl, and this is killed by the puithiam, who says certain charms while doing so. This fowl is called "rem ar" — i.e.," the fowl of agreement" — and directly it is killed the bride and bridegroom pledge each other in zu. Then the bride and her young friends retire, while the rest of the party remain and have a great feast, consuming the " rem ar," and also the fowls and zu, which the bridegroom receives from the bride's aunt, pu, thian, and palai. The next day towards evening, the bridegroom's mother or other elderly female relative goes to the bride's house accompanied by two or three young girls, and they escort the bride to her husband's house and hand her over to him. The young companions of the bridegroom sometimes amuse themselves by collecting a number of fowls under the house, tying she-goats up in the verandah, while the kids are tied at the far end of the village, and throw stones at the house throughout the night, so that the happy couple get but little sleep. This is called " In- ngaithlak." On the following morning the bride returns to her mother's house, and for some time, occasionally for several weeks, the bride will spend her days at her mother's house, only going to her husband's after dark. Different clans have different methods of disposing of their 8. dead. The following is the custom of all true Lusheis, whenever ""^'^'^ ^• the means of the deceased's family are sufficient to meet the expenses. G 2 84 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. Directly after death the corpse is washed, the hair dressed carefully, and then the body is attached to a bamboo frame, placed in a sitting position, and adorned with fine raiment, necklaces, &c. ; if the deceased was a man his gun, dao, &c., are put near him. In Lushei families the corpse is put on the floor at the head of the kumpui. In other clans it is placed against the wall on one side. If the family be rich a mithan, a pig, a dog, and a goat are killed, but at least one of these must be killed. The flesh is then cooked in anticipation of the arrival of the friends and neighbours who are invited to a funeral feast, " Ral," which is kept up with singing and drinking till the evening of the next day. Food and drink are offered at intervals to the corpse. The spirits of the animals killed are supposed to accompany the soul of the deceased to Mi-thi- khua. If these animals are not killed the soul of the deceased will either not reach Mi-thi-khua, or if it does will be very poorly off there. So far there is not much difference between the Lushei custom and that of other clans. The other clans, on the evening of the day after the death, bury the deceased outside the house, without any particular ceremony. The nearest male relative makes a short farewell speech wishing the deceased a pleasant journey and asking him to prepare things for those who have to follow him. With a man are buried his pipe, haversack, and flint and steel ; with a woman only the two first. As regards the burying of food and drink and weapons the custom varies, but it is generally done. The Lusheis, however, prefer not to bury their dead. The body is placed in a box made by hollowing out a log, a slab of wood is placed over the opening, and the joint plastered up with mud. This rough sort of coffin is placed in the deceased's house near to the wall. A bamboo tube is passed up through the floor and through a hole in the bottom of the coffin and into the stomach of the corpse. The other end is buried in the ground. A special hearth is made close to the coffin and a fire is kept burning day and night on this for three months, and during the whole of this time the widow of the deceased, if he leaves one, must sit alongside the coffin, over which are hung any valuables owned by the deceased. About six weeks after placing the corpse in the coffin, the latter is opened to see if the IV RELIGION 8s destruction of the corpse is proceeding properly, and if necessary the coffin is turned round so as to present the other side to the fire. The opening of the coffin is celebrated by the killing of a pig and the usual drink, and is known either as " en-la\vk " or looking, examining. When it is thought that everything but the bones has been destroyed, the coffin is opened and the bones removed. The skull and the larger bones are removed and kept in a basket, which is placed on a special shelf opposite the hearth. The remainder of the bones are collected and buried generally in an earthenware pot. On the occasion of the final opening of the coffin — " khuang pai," " throwing away coffin " — it is customary for chiefs to kill a mithan ; lesser people are content with the usual drink. Few Lusheis, except chiefs, can afford the expense incurred in this method of disposing of their dead, and in such cases the body is simply buried. It is customary for relations and friends of the deceased to send animals to be killed in his honour, and the spirits of these are supposed to belong to the spirit of the deceased in the Mi-thi-khua. The skulls of all animals killed on such occasions are placed on poles round the grave if the body has been buried. If the body has not been buried, the heads will be placed on poles round the " lung dawh," or platform erected in memory of the deceased. These " lung dawh," in most cases, are merely a rough platform of logs placed beside the road just outside the village, but in the case of chiefs and of men who have killed men in war, the platform is built of stones. A big upright stone is placed in the centre, and on this various figures are roughly outlined, representing the deceased and sometimes his wife and children and the various animals he has killed. An indiarubbcr-tree is very often planted by a chief's grave. Sometimes a person who either has no near relatives, or who mistrusts those he or she has, will get the young men of the village to build the lung dawh during his or her lifetime. An aged couple with no relatives expended all they had on a feast to the young men who brought and set up a big stone. The old people were carried in sitting on the stone and cheer- 86 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. fully superintended the feast, and a month later peacefully departed this life.^ Hlamzuih. — If the first child in a family dies shortly after birth, it is buried without any ceremony under the house, and it is called " hlamzuih " (hlam = after birth, zuih = to follow). Should other children subsequently die, however young they be, they will be honoured with a complete funeral. It will be remembered that the hlamzuih are exempt from being shot b}' Pupawla. (See above, page 62). Lnkawng. — On a person's death a sum, varpng from Rs. 2/- to Rs. 20/- according to family custom, has to be paid by his heir to the pu of the deceased (see para. 6). A chief generally claims the " lukawng " of all his boi. Sdr-thi. — Deaths from accidents, in childbirth, or those caused by wild animals, or in war are termed " sar-thi," and the corpse must not be buried within the village ; in some cases the corpse must not even be brought into the village, if the death occurred outside. Even if the corpse is brought into the village, it is often not allowed into a house, but deposited in the forge. In such cases no lukawng can be demanded. Should the injured person survive for any considerable time, the death will not be called sar-thi unless the person has been wounded by a tiger. The fact that tigers eat men is given as the reason for this. The graves of persons killed by tigers are watched by the young men of the village for several nights, lest the tigers, or their elder brothers the wild cats, should come and dig up the body. In-thian, Thi-thin. — Three months after a death a small chicken is killed and placed with some rice on the shelf which runs along the wall. The family indulge in zu. This is apparently a sort of farewell to the soul. 9. There are three feasts connected with the crops. They are Festivals. ^|| \^^q^^ as " Kut." The first is called " Chap-char-kut " ; it is the most important of the three, and is held after the jhums are burnt, about the time of sowing, and is never omitted. It lasts three or four days. On the first day a pig is killed by each ^ Can the fear of hia heirs neglecting to put up a memorial stone have originated the "stone hauling" customs so distinctive of Maram and Angami Nagas ? IV RELIGION 87 householder who can afford it and zu is drunk. On the second day, about 4 p.m., the whole population gathers in the open space in the village, dressed in its best. Everyone brings platters of rice, eggs, and flesh, and tries to force the food down the throats of their friends. After dark the young men and girls collect in houses of well-to-do people with several daughters and dance " Chai " till daylight. The Chai consists in all the young men sitting with their backs to the walls, each with a girl sitting between his knees with her back to him. Individual performers dance in the middle, the remainder singing and clapping hands. On the third day the young men and girls collect in the centre of the village and form a circle, every girl being between two youths, whose arms cross over her neck, holding in their hands cloths which hang down behind like a curtain. Inside the circle is a drummer or gong- beater, who chants continuously, the young people taking up the refrain, and treading a slow measure in time with the song, while cups of zu are brought to them in rotation. Fourth day, " Zuting-ni." The performance is repeated again if the liquor holds out. In villages where there are many Ralte,^ they kill their pigs the next day after the Lusheis and the other ceremonies are postponed one day. Mim-hut. — Named after the maize, as it takes place when the crop ripens. It is of but little importance and seems likely to die out. Cakes of Job's tears are eaten and the next day is " hrilh." Pmvl-kut. — Held at harvest time. Fowls are killed and children, dressed in their finest clothes, are fed with the flesh mixed with rice and eggs. The next day is " hrilh." The correct performance of the Chap-char-kut is thought to go far towards insuring a good crop for the year. Thang-chhuah Feasts. — The feasts which an aspirant for the honours of Thang-chhuah must give are five in number and have to be given in the order named, as they involve considerable expenditure, but not within any specified time. 1. Chong. — The feast lasts four days, the first of which is called " In-chhia-shem-ni," (day for repairing the house). The floor in 1 The Ralte clan is described in Part II, Chap. II. 88 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. the house is strengthened to make it safe for the large number of guests. The labourers receive a liberal allowance of zu in payment for their trouble. The second day is called " Zu-pui- ni," from the large amount of zu that is drunk. The next day — "Rawi-ni" — two boars and a sow are killed and there is a great feast. The last day is known as " Chang-do-ni," and on it the remains of the feast are finished up. 2. She-doi — The feast only lasts three days. The first day is "In-chhia-shem-ni," the second is known as "She-shun-ni" (mithan slaughter day), and a mithan is killed and eaten. The third day, known as " Sa-ru-che-u-ni," is similar to Chong-do-ni. 3. Mi-thi-rawp-ldm. — Three months before the day fixed for the feast all the young men and girls of the village start cutting firewood, for cooking the flesh of the animal to be killed. A cane is stretched along from tree to tree beside one of the main approaches to the village for some 500 yards, and against this on alternate sides are rested the billets so that they may be thoroughly dry by the time they are needed. As a reward the young people receive a he-goat and a sow, which they consume with much merry-making, the skulls being placed on posts at each end of the line of billets. This collection of wood is called "sa-thing-zar" (flesh-wood-hangout). The actual feast lasts four days, which are known by the same names as in the " Chong " and are spent in much the same way, but on the Rawi-ni, besides the slaying and eating of mithan, effigies, supposed to represent their deceased relatives, are made and attired in the finest cloths and adorned with the best necklaces. These are strapped on a square bamboo framework, in the centre of which on a tall pole is an effigy supposed to represent the progenitor of the clan. The oldest living member of the clan then comes slowly from his house, bringing with him a gourd of zu, and gives each effigy in turn a little zu, muttering a charm as he does so ; he arranges his tour so as to reach his own father's effigy last, and when he has muttered his charm and given it the zu he dashes the gourd down on the ground and, bursting into tears, rushes into his house, whence he must not emerge for a month. The effigies are then carried about the village with much shouting. IV RELIGION 89 This carrying about of their effigies is supposed to be very pleasing to the spirits of the ancestors, and it is evident that the people consider that these spirits are able to influence them for good or for bad, though I have never had this view of the matter clearly explained to me. This carrying about of persons on a platform is considered an honour, and an instance of it will be found in the description of the Fa-nai. It also appears among the Aimol and Tikhup. Among the Manipuris or Meitheis the right to be carried in a " dolai," or litter, is much valued and is the prerogative of certain officials, but is sometimes granted by the Rajah as a personal distinc- tion. The last day of the feast resembles the same day in the Chong. 4. She-doi as before. 5. Khuang-choi. — This is the greatest feast. Wood is collected three months before, as in the Mi-thi-rawp-lam,but the collectors get a mithan and a goat as their reward. The feast lasts four days, the names being the same as in the Chong. On the Rawi-ni at least three mithan must be killed. The Khuang-choi really completes the series, and the giver can now proudly wear the Thang-chhuah cloth and have a window in his side wall, but it is considered unlucky to stop, and after some time the She-doi is performed again under the name of " Tlip," followed in the course of a year or so by " Zankhuan," a four days' feast similar to the Chong, but one or two mithan are killed. If the fortunate man's life is prolonged he will con- tinue repeating these two feasts alternately. A man who has twice celebrated a Khuang-choi is allowed to build a raised summer house called " zao " a short distance in front of his living house. After slaying a mithan in any of these feasts the giver of the feast is subject to various restrictions. Till he has per- formed the " In-thian " ceremony, he may not leave the house nor talk to anyone from another village. In some cases his movements are not so closely restricted, but he must in no case cross running water. I am told that should he infringe these rules his Sakhua would be offended and he or his family would get ill. The "In-thian" ceremony is performed some forty or fifty days after the killing of the mithan, and consists 90 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. in the sacrificing of a cock. The prohibition of conversing with strangers is generally enforced only for three or four days, but on no account must they be allowed inside the house. The skulls of mithan killed on these occasions are placed on posts to one side of the entrance to the house of the giver of the feast, and it is the highest ambition of the Lushai to have a long line of such posts in front of his house. Each post is cut out of a tree of considerable size, which is dressed until the lower 7 or 8 feet are only some 8 or 9 inches thick. Above this the tree is roughly cut into a plank some 8 or 9 inches thick, forming an irregular quadrilateral, the lower side being a foot or so long and the upper from 2 to 3 feet, while one side may be 18 inches and the other 2 feet or a little more ; at each of the upper corners there is a perpendicular projec- tion some 12 inches long terminating in a spike, a short distance below which a ring of wood is left. The skull is placed on the higher spike, while on the lower an egg is affixed by a thin peg of fir wood. This use of fir may be a survival of the time when the clan lived east of the Tyao, where fir forests are still found. Posts are erected on similar occasions by many of the Kuki- Lushai clans. Among the Khawtlang the quadrilateral portion is only two or three feet from the ground, while the projections are far longer. Among the Vuite the custom is to put a thin straight post slightly carved on one side of the house and to plant a number of branches in a clump on the other. The Tangkhul Nagas, to commemorate the slaying of cattle, plant lines of dead trees in front of their houses. The method of killing the mithan at these feasts is strictly laid down. After the puithiam has said a prayer, the giver of the feast stabs the animal behind the shoulder in the region of the heart, but only sufficient to draw blood. The poor beast is then despatched by other men with sharp bamboos or clubs ; it must on no account be shot. Buh-ai. — This is a feast given by a wealthy person who has had an exceptionally good harvest. It is not one of the feasts which a would-be Thangchhuah has to give, nor is there any idea of obtaining advantage in the next world, as there is in Q D U Si c/: cr. _-x G IV RELIGION 91 the Ai ceremonies performed after the killing of animals or men, but it is a thank-offering for a good harvest. It is not worth performing Ai for a crop of less than 100 baskets. An old red cock and a pig are killed and much zu prepared. There is a special pot of zu prepared on the platform in front of the house of which no one who has not performed the Buh-ai can drink, for others to drink of it is " thianglo." The person who gave the last Buh-ai feast is entitled to the first drink at this zu, which is called the " Buhza-zu " (the 100 baskets of rice zu). There is ordinary zu for the others to drink, and if it is not all finished the first day the guests return on the morrow. The flesh of the animals killed is eaten by the guests. At night the girls and lads dance the Chai, as in the Chap-char- kut. To give such a feast reflects great glory on the giver and improves his standing in the village. The Buh-ai is celebrated by nearly all the Lushai-Kuki clans and in some replaces the Thangchhuah feasts. Full particulars will be found in Part II. CHAPTER V FOLK-LORE 1. There are many tales common to all the Kuki-Lushai clans, Legends, ^j^^^g^^ ^j^e names under which the various personages figure in them are not always the same. A numerous class of legends deals with the creation of the world and the first appearance of mankind thereon and other natural phenomena ; another class accounts for the names of hills and rivers; a third class reminds one of Uncle Remus's tales of the doings of Brer Rabbit ; but there are also a great many which are simply tales and which are generally a trifle obscene. The following are instances of the first class : — Chhura is said to have shaped the world, beating it out fla with his mallet. There are many tales connected with Chhura some of which will be found further on. The following trans- lation gives a Lushai's idea of an eclipse of the sun or moon : — "Formerly the Hauhul chief swallowed the moon, having been changed during his dream into an awk, and many people were watching and said, 'The awk is swallowing the moon.' Then he awoke and his mouth was bleeding. A year later he died and his ghost was turned into an awk and went up into the sky, and the moon was full and big, and the ghost, which had been changed into an awk, could not swallow the moon, but the next day the moon was smaller and he swallowed it. Thus men knew for the first time that there was an awk." When an eclipse occurs there is much excitement an beating of drums, &c. This is to frighten the awk, for the Lushais believe that once the awk swallowed the sun so effectu- ally that general darkness prevailed. This awful time is 92 CH. V FOLK-LORE 93 called " Thimzing " — i.e., the gathering of the darkness — and many awful things happened. Everything except the skulls of animals killed in the chase became alive, dry wood revived, even stones became alive and produced leaves, and so men had nothing to burn. The successful hunters who had accumulated large stocks of the trophies of their skill were able to keep alive usinof them as fuel, and some of their descendants still survive among the Thados, under which heading they will be found in Part II. As it was pitch dax'k, neither animals nor men could see at all, and tigers went about biting wildly at trees, stones, and people. A general transformation took place, men being all changed into animals. Those who were going merrily to the jhum were changed into " satbhai " (laughing thrushes), as can be known by their white heads, vvhich represent the turbans worn by the men, and their cheery chat- terings. People wearing striped cloths became tigers, the chiefs of those days being represented by the hornbills of to-day, whose bills represent the bamboo rods for stirring rice while cooking ; but another version is that the chiefs became king-crows, whose long tail-feathers the chiefs value much and wear as plumes. The black hands of the gibbon prove clearly that his ancestors were dyeing thread when the Thimzing occurred. Another version ascribes the same origin to the crows. Similarly those who were carrying torches finding their way down stream beds were changed into fireflies. The Chongthu family are sometimes said to have been turned into monkeys, the Vangchhia into elephants ; but another version says the elephants were old women who were wearing their " puanpui " — i.e., cotton quilts — with the tufts of cotton outside. Wrestlers were suddenly transformed into bears, who to this day grapple with their foes. The Paihte or Vuite clan became a species of squirrel, while the Ralte's ancestor was just saying, " Vaibel kan chep te ang nge ? " " Shall we suck our pipes ? " and was therefore changed into a sort of squirrel called" chep chepa," from the sound it is always making. The domestic animals were changed into wild ones, but a number of large boulders in the Van-laiphai are said to repre- sent Chhura's mithan which were grazing there at the Thim- zing. After this terrible catastrophe the world was again 94 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. repeopled by men and women issuing from a hole in the earth called the " Chhinglung;' which appeared to me to be a disused " cache " in which some long forgotten chief used to hide his valuables on the approach of danger. Mithan reappeared from gourd seeds, as is shown by their bellow " um mu " — i.e., gourd seed. Pigs issued from the Rih-lake, wherefore they come to their food when called " rih rih." Fowls were re-created from the mud, so to this day they answer to the call " chirih chirih," i.e., " chir mud." It is not quite clear how, if representatives of the different clans were changed into various animals, these same clans again issued from the Chhinglung, but our own legends are not always quite easy to follow. The following is a translation of a Lushai account of the repeopling of the world and of a feast which is said to have taken place soon after : — " The place whence all people sprang is called Chhinglung. All the clans came out of that place. Then two Ralte came out together, and began at once chattering, and this made Pathian think there were too many men, and so he shut down the stone. After a short time Thlandropa was going to hold a Khuangchoi, and told them to call together all the people of the world, and when this had been done he held his Khuangchoi. They said to the sun, ' Do not shine, because we want our leader the Sa-huai (Loris) to lead us in the dance,' and the sun said, ' All right.' At that time the Sa-huai and all the animals could talk, and the bamboo rat was beating the drum, and they all danced, and in the middle of their fun the sun said, ' Oh, how I do want to look,' and shone out, and all the animals got hot, and could not dance any more, so the Sa-huai got angry and quarrelled with the sun, and won't even look at it nowadays. There was a great feast of flesh, but the owl got no meat, so he got angry, and went and sat on the bough of a tree, and Zuhrei, the big rat, chaffed him and said, ' Buka has eaten his fill.' Then the owl being still hungry, got angry and bit Zuhrei. Since that day they have been at war, and if the owl sees Zuhrei he assuredly bites him." The point of the allusion to the Ralte is that this clan is famed throughout the Hills for the loquacity of its members. V FOLK-LORE 95 Another story connected with this feast is that Thlandropa gave a number of presents : to the ancestor of the Poi or Chin tribes he gave a fighting dao, while the ancestor of the Lushais only received a cloth, which is the reason that the Poi tribes are braver than the Lushais. On my asking what the ancestor of the white man had received, I was told he had received the knowledge of reading and writing — a curious instance of the pen being considered mightier than the sword. Thlandropa appears to have been a great person in his day, for he is supposed to have received Khuavang's daughter in marriage, giving in exchange a gun, the report of which we call thunder. This legend puts Khuavang on a par with Pathian, and supports the theory that the differentiation is of com- paratively recent growth. There is a legend that the king of the Water Huai fell in love with Ngai-ti (loved one) and, as she rejected his addresses and ran away, he pursued her and surrounded the whole human race on the top of a hill called Phun-lu-buk, said to be far away to the north-east. As the water kept on rising, to save themselves the people threw Ngai-ti into the flood, which thereupon receded. It was the running off of this water which cut up the surface of the world, which Chhura had levelled, into the deep valleys and high hill ranges of which the whole world as known to the ancestors of the Lushais con- sisted. As a sample of the second class of tale, the following story regarding the origin of the Tui-chong river, which joins the Kurnaphuli, near Demagri, may be taken : — Nine miles from Demagri, on the Lungleh road, the traveller has to cross the Tui-chong river, one of the largest tributaries of the Kurnaphuli, on which Chittagong stands. This river, according to the Lushais, owes its origin to the self-denial of a girl called Tui-chongi, who, with her little sister Nuengi, was walking on the hills whence the river rises. It was April, and the sun blazed down on them. Nuengi began to cry for water. " How can I get you water on the top of a hill ? Don't you know that all the springs are dry, for are not the jhums ready to be burnt ? " " Water, water, or I shall die," wailed Nuengi. " Would you rather have water than me ? " asked Tui-chongi. 96 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. " If I don't get water, I shall die, and then of what use would you be to me ? " replied the spoilt child. So Tui-chongi, to satisfy her youngest sister's thirst, changed herself into a river, and Nuengi drank and was satisfied. But the water flowed down among the hills and burst its way into the country of the Bengalis. The king of the Bengalis was astonished to see so mighty a river flowing past his palace, and sent some of his people to find out whence it came. They journeyed many days, till at length they reached the source of the stream, and there sat Nuengi, who, now that her thirst was satisfied, would gladly have had her sister back again to show her the way home. The explorers were astonished to find so beautiful a maiden sitting thus in the middle of the jungle, and decided that it would be wise to take her back to their master, who liked pretty girls. So Nuengi was added to the harem of the king of Chittagong, and in time became the mother of a most lovely boy. The king's chief wife, on seeing the child, thought to herself, " If my lord sees this jungle woman's brat, he will assuredly love her more than me who am childless." So she had the child thrown into the river, which flowed under the palace windows, and frightened Nuengi into keeping silence on the matter. Tui-chongi, however, in spite of the change in her circumstances, remembered her little sister, and cherished the child so that he grew and throve. In the same way six more children were born and thrown into Tui-chongi's fostering arms. When they were grown up Tui- chongi told them the circumstances of their birth, and sent them to dance on the roof of their father's palace, who, hearing the noise, came out to see the cause of the disturbance. When he saw seven handsome young men he was much astonished, and asked them who they were. " We are your sons," they replied. " Why do you lie to me ? " said the king ; " liars have short lives in my kingdom." "Nay, O king, we lie not; we are Nuengi's sons " ; and they told him their story. So the king smote off the head of the bad queen, and installed Nuengi in her place. Of the third class the following are good examples, and admirers of Uncle Remus will be reminded of the doings of " Brer Rabbit and the other animals." V FOLK-LORE 97 The Tale of Granddaddy Bear and the Moiikey. The Monkey made a swing and was always swinging in it. One day Granddaddy Bear saw him and said, " Oh, Monkey, let me have a swing." The Monkey replied, " Wait a minute till I have hung it more securely." Then he climbed up and bit the cane nearly through and jumped down again crying out, " Come on, Granddaddy Bear, have a swing." The bear got in and swung, the cane broke, and he fell down. The Monkey, intending to eat him, had gone and fetched some cooked rice (to eat with the bear's flesh). But though Grand- daddy Bear fell down he was not killed. The Monkey, being terribly afraid, said, " Oh, Granddaddy Bear, hearing you had fallen I brought some rice for you," and gave him all he had brought. The Bears Water Hole. The Bear made a dam to collect water, and put the Monkey to watch it. Every sort of animal came crying, " I am dry. Who has water which he does not want ? I am dry." The Monkey always said, " The water belongs to Granddaddy Bear. If you dare to drink, drink ; if you dare to suck, suck it up." Then the Tiger came along, saying, " I am dry. Who has water which he does not want ? I am dry." The Monkey replied, " It is my Grand- daddy Bear's water. If you dare to drink, drink ; if you dare to suck, suck it up." The Tiger drank it all ; he sucked the place dry. Then the Monkey went to the Bear and said, " Oh, Grand- daddy Bear, the Tiger has drunk your water 1 " So the Bear rushed up and began to fight with the Tiger. They fought a long time and both died, and the Monkey took their bones. " Whose ever bones will sound, whether my Granddaddy the Tiger's or Granddaddy the Bear's," he said, and so, taking the bones which would sound, he made a rotchhem (see Chapter II, para. 6) out of them and he sat in the fork of a tree and played on it. The Quail, hearing the sound, came up. '' Hallo, Monkey ! let mo play for a bit," he said. " Oh, ho ! " said the Monkey, " you will fly off with the rotchhem." " If you fear that," said the Quail, " hold me by the tail." So the Monkey held him tight by the tail, and off he flew, but the Monkey pulled his tail clean out. Then the Quail came and begged for his tail, H 98 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. saying, " Do give me back my tail." But the Monkey replied, " You can ransom it by paying eight mithan." " Oh," said the Quail, " if I have to pay eight mithan for it, I'll just remain tail- less," and flew away. The following tale is interesting as showing the great prestige the Tipperah chief enjoyed among the Lushais, who call him " Rengpui." There are many versions of this tale, some of which are very long. I have been obliged to abridge it con-, siderably. Rimenhoiyi married Zawlthlia. Their house was of iron. They had an eight-fold iron door. They beautified the inside with iron and brass things. They also had a window (i.e., Zawlthlia was Thangchhuah^) and a platform to sit on — in fact they wanted for nothing. Rimenhoiyi planted flowers, but there was one flower she had not, called " nipuipar " (bright sun flower — a creeper with scarlet flowers). When her husband was about to go in search of it he said to her, " Please don't go outside the house," and having filled the brass vessels with enough water to last her many days, he went off. However, the supply ran short and the lady went to the stream to wash, and one of her hairs was carried down and swallowed by a fish, which was caught by the cook of the king near the mouth of the river ; and from out of the fish the cook pulled this immensely long hair, and it filled a winnowing basket. The king sent for the owner of the hair, and after many episodes she was brought to him. Zawlthlia returning found his wife gone, but with the help of the domestic animals he traced her, and, on arriving at the foreign king's village he saw slaves fetching water ; and, ascertaining that it was for the new queen, he put one of the nipuipar into the vessel, so Rimenhoiyi knew he had arrived. According to one version, they resorted to the same subterfuge that Abraham and Sarah employed when entering Egypt and lived happily till, the king's suspicion being aroused, Zawlthlia was summarily slain. According to another, Rimenhoiyi married them both, but as she showed a preference for Zawlthlia the king killed him. With the help of a wise woman learned in charms Zawlthlia was brought to life in a more beautiful form, and the king was ^ See above as to windows, page 27. V FOLK-LORE 99 so struck by the improvement in his appearance that he asked to be allowed to undergo the same treatment, and was duly killed, but, unfortunately for him, was by some accident restored to life in the shape of a dog; but in this shape he seems to have found more favour in the fickle fair one's eyes, and a child called Uithovi was born, who, being very poor, begged for some land of Zawlthlia, who had become king of the Tipperahs, and was told to take as much as a buffalo hide measured. By cutting the hide into a very thin strip he was able to measure a con- siderable area of ground, but, not content with this, he voyaged far till he reached the place where money was to be found, and he became very prosperous. " Nevertheless it was said that to the present day Kumpinu (the Company's Mother — i.e., the late Queen), who is a descendant of Uithovi's, cannot get the better of Rengpui (the Rajah of Tipperah). If the Sahibs fight against Rengpui, all their crops fail, and much sickness occurs among them. Pathian once threw down a cannon from the sky, and a great number of Kumpinu's sepoys tried to move it, but could not, while a few of Rengpui's men were able to drag it away." Chhura is represented as a man of immense strength and stature, of an easy-going disposition, but not much blessed with brains. Thus one story tells of how, being on a visit, he was regaled with a crab stew, which he had not tasted before, and liked greatly. He inquired of what animal it was made. On his way home he forgot the name and commenced searching. Someone seeing him looking about asked what he had lost. "Stupid," replied Chhura; "if I knew, would I be looking?" The passer-by remarked that he smelt strongly of crab. " That's it ! That's what I was searching for," cried Chhura much pleased, and went on his way. His mallet head, a roughly dressed cylinder of stone, about 30 inches long and 18 in diameter, is pointed out to the curious, lying beside the path between Leng and Lingvum, where it is said to have fallen when it flew off the handle while Chhura was flattening the earth in the Van- lai-phai valley some five miles away. A large spherical stone in the same neighbourhood is pointed out as one of the pellets shot from his pellet bow when he was at Thenzawl, many miles distant. h2 loo THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. There ai'e many tales of this hero, who is especially honoured by the Khawtlang. Muahavata is another mythical hero of immense stature. The smoke from his pipe was like that of a jhum burning. His whetstone, some 18 inches long, lies beside the road near Chongthleng, where it fell from his haversack, which his wife had neglected to mend. I have given so many tales in other parts of the monograph that I shall only add one more here. The Tale, of Him who Demanded His Sister's Price. He went to the west to demand his sister's price. The debtor gave him a bamboo stirring rod. If you stirred an empty pot with this rod it was at once filled with rice. He returned towards his village. On the way he stayed the night in the house of a widow, and placed his stirring rod on the shelf over the hearth saying, " Granny, please don't stir your pot with my stirring rod." " All right," said she, but, while he was walking about the village, she stirred her pot just to see what sort of a stirring rod it was, and, behold, her pot was full of rice. " It is a very good stirring rod," she said ; " I will just exchange mine for it" — which she did secretly. And the owner of the magic rod went on to his village, and on arrival there he called to his children, " Set the water boiling to cook the rice." His children replied, " We have nothing to cook. What is the use of boiling water alone ? " "I have got rice, I've got rice," he said. So they boiled the water, and he stirred it hard with his rod, but nothing came. " If we stir more it will come," he said, but nevertheless nothing came. Then he went off to demand the price from the debtor again, who gave him a goat which passed nothing but amber and cornelian beads, and said, "Take it carefully home." "All right," said he. He stayed the night at the same widow's house, and when he was going out to stroll through the village he said, " Granny, you will be careful not to kick my goat on the rump, won't you ? " " All right," said she, but directly he was out of sight she kicked the goat and he passed many beads. " It is a good goat," she said, and secretly substituted her own goat for it. Her guest went off and directly he reached his house he V FOLK-LORE loi called out, " Prepare strings for necklaces. Prepare strings for necklaces." His children replied, " Father, we have nothing to put on the strings. What is the good of the strings alone ? " " I have got beads, I have got beads," he cried. So they prepared a winnowing basket full of threads. Then he gave the goat several good kicks on the rump, but it only passed filth and bleated loudly. Then he went again to demand payment and was given a mallet and a piece of cane. " The name of this piece of cane is ' Ramdia,' " they said. He set off for home and again stayed in the same old woman's house and put Ramdia and his mallet down among the firewood, and as he started for his stroll he said, " Granny, don't touch this cane, will you <* It is called Ramdia — and you won't touch the mallet either, will you ? " " All right," she said, but no sooner was he gone than, saying, '• They are valuable things," she touched them both. The cane wound round and round her and the mallet began to beat her. She was in terrible trouble and shouted to her neighbours ; wherever she went the mallet beat her and beat her till she died. The Lushais are an extremely superstitious race ; any 2. Super- unusual occurrence is considered as portending some evil ^titions. results. The meaning of the word " thianglo " has been already explained in Chapter I V, para. 4. Certain acts, dreams, or sights are universally considered " thianglo," or unlucky, but should a Lushai see any unusual sight or hear an unusual sound he would at once consider that some misfortune was imminent and take advice from the puithiam as to how it could be avoided. The following are some of the superstitions connected with cultivation. It is " thianglo " to find, in the proposed jhum, a gibbon's skull stuck on a tree stump. If in burning the jhum the flames make a peculiar huk-huk sound ; if the khatchhat (nightjar) calls by day, the jhum had better be abandoned. Should the jhum cutter after his first day's work dream of water or rice all will be well, but should he dream of a mithan chasing him or tigers springing on him, he must not continue cutting the jhum, or he will certainly get very ill and probably will die. If on the site of the proposed jhum a " thing-lu-bul " is found, death will certainly claim the cultivator should he persist in jhiiming 102 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. anywhere near the unlucky object, which is a kind of abortive tree growth without boughs or shoots, but covered with bulbous excrescences, which sometimes remotely resemble the human form, and if cut exude a blood-red juice. Should a tree have a pendant protuberance, called " thingzang," the jungle near must not be cut. The rubbing together of two tree boughs is thought to denote the presence of a Huai, who must be appeased by the sacrifice of a cock and hen, the sherh being hung under the jhum house with some chips of the tree. Brackish springs, known as " sa-khi-shi " (barking deer springs), are supposed to be the abodes of Huai, who are generally satisfied with the sacrifice of a fowl, the sherh being hung in a basket over the spring, but if the Huai be greedy the jhumer will fall ill, and then a pig and a dog must be sacrificed in the same manner. The following are some of the superstitions about animals : — A Lushai named Kela visited Aijal : on the road he met a rat, which stood up in the middle of the road and held its paws to its head. " What a curious rat ! " he said. Two days after he reached his home he died. To see such a rat is certainly " thianglo." This incident happened a short time ago ; no one had ever heard of such a rat having been seen before, and the unusualness of the occurrence, coupled with the death of Kela, was, to the Lushais, proof positive of its being the cause of his death. The Lushais tell me that some- times a muskrat will be followed by her whole family, each holding in its mouth the tail of the one in front ; this they call " In tir mei kai," and whoever sees it will certainly die. Should a bear on being shot fall on its back, and lie with its legs in the air, the shooter will die. If a bird enters the house prompt measures have to be taken to avert misfortune. The puithiam is called and the bird captured. The house is festooned within with the leaves of a certain tree, and the bird is thrown out of the house by the puithiam, who, muttering various charms, advises it to take itself off and carry its witch- craft with it. I came across, in an old number of the Outlook, a translation of a Chinese poem said to be dated about 100 B.C. in which the following occurs : — " When a wild bird enters a dwelling it portends that the human occupant must go forth." The coincidence is curious. V FOLK-LORE 103 The following translation of a Lushai's reason for considering the sight of an atlas moth " thianglo " shows the origin of such superstitions. Atlas moths are rare in the Lushai hills. The " keptuam " (atlas moth) was the letter bearer between Pathian and the Vai (foreigner) ; and once when he was carrying Pathian's letter to the Vai chief the keptuam made the letter into wings, and flew away and disappeared, and Pathian was much disturbed at the loss of his letter and at the disappearance of his messenger, and he made mankind hunt for the missing keptuam. Now the keptuam did not wish to be caught, so he said, " Whoever sees me will die " ; but as mankind did not know this they hunted and hunted till at last one saw the fugitive and died, and so they learnt that to see a keptuam is " thianglo," and ever since if anyone sees a male keptuam he will probably die. Should the fowls at midnight become terrified and make an unusual sound like " i-ak, i-ak " someone wdll die. Should gibbons be heard hooting during the night, they have seen the corpse of someone who will fall from a tree or be drowned. As the gibbon retires to rest even before the sun sets, it must be very seldom that their shouts are heard at night. It is " thianglo " to shoot a gibbon, because at the Thimzing a man and a wife were changed into those animals. The woman at the time was dyeing blue thread, and therefore the palms of the hands of the female gibbon are black, though the rest of the body is light coloured. The rhinoceros is also safe from attack on account of a similar belief, the folds of his skin being supposed to be derived from the folds of the cloths of persons who were transmogrified. The natural result of killing one of these animals is that all members of the slayer's family sicken and die, but this can be avoided if the successful huntsman on his return to the village goes straight to the zawlbuk or forge and remains there a whole day and night, after which it is safe for him to enter his house, provided that he leaves his gun and haversack behind and has changed all his clothes. It is, however, worth noticing that, though monkeys, elephants, fcicfers, bears, &c., are also said to have been men before the Thimzing, there is no reluctance shown to kill them, and in I04 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. fact the chiefs wear plumes of the king crow's feathers, and hornbills' beaks decorate many a chiefs verandah. When building his house the Lushai must be careful that he does not put his hearth on the side of the house next to that on which his neighbour has his. To do so is " thianglo " and illness will follow. It is not difficult to guess how this idea has arisen. Lushai houses are generally built in lines one above the other on the sides of a hill, and therefore it is more convenient to place the heavy earthen hearth on the upper side Avhere the posts are shorter. This causes the hearths of all the houses in one row to be on the same side, and, the custom once formed, any deviation from it is considered unlucky. To dream of the auction of a " hlang " — i.e., the bamboo frame to which the corpse is strapped during the funeral feast — is unlucky, and the person seen by the dreamer to purchase it will certainly die. The following translation of a Lushai account of " tualsumsu " is interesting : — " There are ' tualsumsu ' in dreams and also while people are in a trance ; the latter are the worst. If two friends are sleeping and in their dreams one says to the other, " Go as '' tualsumsu " ' — i.e., ' beating your head on the ground' — nothing will happen to the one who goes, but the man who sends him will die. If anyone goes without being told to go, and likes it, he will die, but if he says, ' Oh, how it hurts my head ! ' he will not die. Sometimes a person will go beating his head on the ground and when roused from the trance know nothing of it." The following is another curious belief: — " If a man dreams that with his friend they are going to fly like ' Chawifa,' and they, both carrying burning maize cobs wrapped in old cloths in baskets, intend flying from inside the house, and having come outside, his friend flies away, while he himself stands on the end of the roof and cannot fly, his friend who flew away will die quickly, Avhile he who could not fly will live. And he that flew away knew nothing of it, and the corn cobs wrapped in old cloth were thrown up, and the people saw them blazing like fire. This is extremely ' thianglo.' " V FOLKLORE 105 The Lushais speak confidently of " Chawifa," and many say they have seen it. They describe it as a kind of meteor, which flies through the village blazing brightly, and if it alights on a house the owner must die. Compare the Lakher idea of " Chawifa," given in Part II., and the Manipuri " Sangaisel," in Mr. Hodson's book on the Meitheis, page 121. The Lushais do not worship snakes, but ther« are many 3. Snake tales of " rulpui " (the big snake). Colonel Lewin in his ^"^^hip. " Progressive Exercises " has written as follows : — " Throughout the Lushai Hills, among all the tribes with whom I have come in contact, Avhether ' Toung-tha ' or ' Khyoung-tha,' sons of the hill or sons of the river, I have always found that special attributes have been assigned to a certain description of snake or serpent that is found in these forests. I remember once we were camped peacefully beside the border of a small hill stream ; the shanties of leaves and grass which form our te7ites cVctbri in this part of the world had been erected, and all the world (our world some 30 persons) was either smoking the pipe of peace or stirring the pot of rice that was to form the evening meal. Suddenly there arose a shout of ' Tchubba-gree ! Tchubba-gree ! ' which is the Hill Arracanese for ' the big snake, the king-serpent.' Behold the camp in a ferment, each stalwart young fellow seizing his dao and tightening his waistband. We went forth, and indeed the snake was very big. His long sinuous growth was at least 20 feet in length and bulky in proportion ; he moved slowly along, taking apparently no notice of the turmoil and confusion that soon filled the wood around him. The Hillmen swarmed around his length like ants, and in a few moments he was cut in pieces by dao strokes. I noticed that each of my combatants as they ran up to the snake spat at him before striking. On inquiring the reasons of this, I was informed that in attacking a snake of this description, if he spat at you first before you struck him, your fate was sealed, and strangulation was your doom ; but if you were speedy in salivation and forestalled his action, then he was delivered a prey into the hands of his assailants. A similar superstition formerly attached to the basilisk or cockatrice, which was said to be able to fascinate or cause the destruction of man or beast if it first perceived its victim before it was io6 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. itself perceived. Sir Thomas Browne, in discoursing ' Of the Basilisk,' says ' that veneration shooteth from the eye, and that this way a basilisk may empoison, is not a thing impossible ; but that this destruction should be the effect of the first beholder or depend on priority of aspection is a point not easily to be granted.' The flesh of this snake (which is a species of python) is eaten by the Hill folk, and the fat of the reptile is held to be a sovereign cure for all cuts and wounds, as well as for more obscure diseases. In the household tales and fireside stories of the people ' the big snake ' holds a prominent place, and is vested with attributes of power and know- ledge." Colonel McCulloch, in his account of the Valley of Manipur, 1859, page 32, mentions the belief of the Manipuris in a snake god, and in fact the royal family is supposed to have sprung ifrom a snake god known as " Pakhangba." Colonel McCulloch also relates that a Kuki — i.e., a Thado — who had left him in perfect health, " saw a black snake as large as his thigh, which uttered a sound like that of an ox bellowing." " On his reach- ing his home he became ill, his belly swelled, and he has not recovered his health." Compare this with the following translation of a statement made to me by Hrangzova, a Lushai political Chaprassie, in 1904: — " When I lived at Thenzawl, I once saw a curious object about 18 inches long, and about 6 inches thick, like a snake, which kept standing up on its stumpy tail, and then falling forward. I called my friend, who also saw it. When I got home I told my father and mother, who were very frightened, and said it was ' thianglo.' They both died within the year. This was 12 years ago. The rulpui which I saw had not got feathers, but perhaps that was because it was not big enough, as I am told the real rulpui has feathers like that of a cock." There are various places named after rulpui. On one hill the body of a large snake is said to have been raised up on a pole, and so big was it that its shadow fell on a hill many miles away, called thereafter " Rulpui-thlin " — i.e., Rulpui's Shadow. The following is the translation of the story of the origin of " rulpui." V FOLK-LORE 107 Chhaiong -chili and the Itulpui. Once upon a time there was a girl called Chhawng-chili, Avho was in her father's jhum. At the bottom of the jhum in a hollow tree a snake had its nest, and the snake loved Chawnor- chili very much. Whenever they went to the jhum she used to send her younger sister to call the snake, who used to come up and coil itself up in Chhawng-chili's lap. The little sister was very much afraid of the snake and did not dare tell her father. When the girls were going to the jhum, their parents always used to wrap up some rice and vegetables for them to take with them. On account of her fear of the snake, the little sister could not eat anything. Then her sister and the snake ate up all the rice and the vegetables, and the little sister stayed in the jhum house all day and got very thin, and her parents said to her, " Oh, little one, why are you getting so thin? " but she always said, "Oh, father, I can't tell you"; but her parents pressed her to tell them, and at last she said, " My sister and the snake make love always ; as soon as we get to the jhum she says to me, ' Call him to me,' and I call him, and he comes up and coils himself up on her lap, and I am so frightened that I cannot eat anything, and that is why I am so thin." So they kept Chhawng-chili at home, and her father and younger sister went to the jhum, and her father dressed himself up to resemble Chhawng-chili, but he put his dao by his side ; then the little sister called the snake, who came up quickly and curled itself up in her father's lap, and he with one blow cut it in two, and then they returned to the village. On the next day Chhawng- chili and her sister went to the jhum and her little sister called the snake, but her father had killed it. So they came back to their house, and found their father lying on the Hoor just inside the door sill. Chhawng-chili said, " Get up, father, I want to scrape the mud off my feet" (on the door sill), but her father would not move. So Chhawng-chili scraped off the mud from her feet, and stepped over the sill, and her father struck up and killed her. In her stomach there were about 100 small snakes. They killed them and killed them, but one escaped and hid under a dry patch of mithan dung, and grew up and used to eat people, and when it got bigger it wriggled into the "rulchawm kua" — i.e., "feed snake hole" — and people of all villages used to io8 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. feed it. After a time it was not content with goats and pigs, but demanded children. One day a Chin who was travelling noticed his host and hostess weeping, and on asking the reason was told it was the day for giving a child to the snake. " I will kill the snake," he replied, and, being provided with a goat, he slew it, and wrapped its flesh round his dao and forearm and offered it to the ralpui. When his forearm had been swallowed, by a quick turn of his wrist he disembowelled the monster. The place where this took place is on the Aijal- Champhai road, some forty miles from Aijal. The Biate or Bete claim to have been the people who fed the snake. If a " thingsir" (a snake of which the female is very light- coloured and the male dark) enters a house, it is very " thianglo." The entry of any snake into a house is looked on with suspicion, and either portends misfortune or it denotes that the sacrifice to Sakhua is urgently needed. If this sacrifice is not performed speedily death may ensue. To see a snake with legs is " thianglo." The Lushais believe there are such creatures. My informant says it is only nowa- days that this is " thianglo," inferring that formerly such creatures were common and therefore attracted no attention. It is the unusualness of the thing which makes the Lushai think it " thianglo." 4. Omens. In the section dealing with superstition the subject of omens of misfortune has been fully dealt with, and there is no need to say much more, but the following extract from ' Asiatic Disserta- tions," II, 1792, is interesting — it is from a description of the " Mountaineers of Tipra." " If at any time they see a star very near the moon they say, ' To-night we shall undoubtedly be attacked by some enemy,' and they pass the night under arms with extreme vigilance." This belief may be accounted for by the superstition that projects undertaken on such occasions are likely to succeed. Once when starting on a night expedition to capture a rebel chief, I noticed my guide staring up intently at the moon, and he expressed great satisfaction at seeing a star quite close to its edge, and exclaimed that our expedition was now sure to succeed, which I am glad to say proved true. V FOLK-LORE 109 The Lushais are firm believers in witchcraft. There are 5 Witch- several ways of bewitching your enemy. Colonel Lewin has a *^^'^^*'- tale in which the wizard takes up the impression of a person's foot in the mud and puts it to dry over the hearth, thereby causing the owner to waste away. Clay figures into which bamboo spikes are thrust also figure in all cases in which a person is accused of this offence. To cut off a piece of a person's hair and put it in a spring is certain, unless the hair is speedily removed, to cause his death. Several tragedies have occurred on account of the belief in witchcraft. In 1897 three whole families were massacred because it was thought that they were bewitching a very aged chieftainess. The livers of the wizards were cut out and portions carried to the sufferer, but un- fortunately she died before being able to taste them and thus prove the efficacy of the remedy. So strong was the feeling about these wizards that four or five households of their relatives had to be given a special and isolated site, as no village would receive them. The following translation of a Lushai's account of how man- kind first learned the black art is specially interesting, as it introduces Lalruanga and Keichalla, who are the heroes of many of the oldest of the Lushai tales. Colonel Lewin gives some excellent stories in his " Progressive Colloquial Exercises." Keichalla is the man who can become a tiger at will, and appears in many tales : — " Dawi witchcraft was known to Pathian. Vahrika also was something like Pathian. Vahrika had a separate water supply, and Pathian's daughter was always disturbing it. Vahrika said, ' What can it be ? ' and lay in ambush. Pathian's daughter came, and he caught her and was going to kill her, but she said, ' Don't kill me ; I will teach you magic' So she taught him, and Vahrika taught it all to Keichalla, Lalruanga, and Hrang- sai-puia. Then Lalruanga went to court Zangkaki, and Zangkaki, who was a friend of Pathian's daughter, bewitched Lalruanga, who had forgotten his " dawi bur " (magic gourd), and he said to Chaichim (the mouse), ' Go and fetch my dawi bur which I put in my basket.' So the mouse went to fetch the dawi bur and got it, but the Tuiruang (Barak) river rose very hic-h. The mouse took the dawi bur in his mouth and started no THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. to swim over the river. The dawi bur was washed away by the river till it stuck in the fish trap of the Thlangom tribe, who said, ' What is this ? ' The dawi bur was singing like anything. The Thlangoms broke it open. No sooner had they opened it than they each acquired knowledge of magic. Then the Thlangoms were chanting the magic song. Some Mizo (natives of these Hills) who were passing through the village also heard the song of those who knew magic. The Mizo saw a man eating rice. ' May you be bewitched ! ' they said. They bewitched him in his rice eating, and for a year after whenever he ate cooked rice it changed into dry uncooked rice, and it swelled inside him till his stomach could not hold it and he died. Thus the Mizo learnt about magic. Nowadays also there is magic, but those who know it won't teach it without payment." The Lushais maintain that the tribes to the north of them, such as Paihte, Bete, &c., are very proficient at witchcraft, while the Chins consider the Lushais such experts at the craft that when Captain Hall, 2nd Gurkhas, and I forced our way from the west through the then unexplored hills and joined General Symons at Haka in 1890, the chiefs of that village besought the General not to allow any of our Lushai followers to go within sight of it, lest they should, by merely looking at it, cause fearful misfortunes. The belief in the man tiger is common through the Hills and also in Nepal. When a man-eater gave much trouble in Lungleh, our Gurkha Sepoys maintained that it was a man, one of three friends who had assumed this shape and were travelling by different shapes to a previously selected rendezvous, on reaching which they would resume their human forms. Klmiavang zawl. — The Lushais believe that certain persons — both males and females, but more generally females— have the power of putting themselves into a trance and are in a state of communication with Khuavang. This power is called " zawl," and a person who possesses it is called " zawlnei." During their trances they are said to be able to elicit from Khuavang information regarding the particular sacrifice required to cure any sick person, and their information is supposed to be more reliable than the opinion of the puithiam, who bases his state- V FOLK-LORE m ments solely on the action of the pulse. The method of interrogating a zawlnei is called " thumvor," and is as follows : — The zaAvlnei being in a trance is given a shallow basket containing rice, which he or she holds in one hand while an egg is placed in the pahn of the other hand. When the zawlnei reverses this hand the egg does not fall. The basket of rice is shaken backwards and forwards, and there appears among the rice the footprint of the animal which it is necessary to sacrifice to ensure the patient's recovery. If it is impossible to trace any resemblance to any animal's footmark the state of the patient is serious and the whole series of sacrifices are needed. Conipare the description of the Maibi's method of divination given in McCulloch's account of the Valley of Manipur, page 21. The following two accounts of Khuavang zawl were given me by Lushais : — Lianthangi was a Khuavang zawl. There was much sickness in the village. One night Khuavang came to her in her dreams and said, " If each house-o^vner will make a clay metna and place it outside his or her house the sickness will cease." So they did this and the next day they observed as •'hrilh," and within 20 days everyone was well again. Thang-tei- nu was a zawlnei, but concealed the fact ; people used to come secretly and make her perform the thumvor, and said she knew everything. She allowed no one to drink zu in her house, and if she drank zu she always got ill and it was " thianglo " for her to perform sacrifice. Khuavang told her this in her dreams. JOiawhring. — In Chapter IV, para. 6, the sacrifice called Khawhring Tir has been described. The belief in Khaw- hring is universal, and from the following translation it Avill be seen that the unfortunate women who were accused of being possessed by such a spirit have good reason to be grateful that the control of the country has passed into our hands. The belief is that Khawhring lives in certain women, whence it issues forth from time to time and takes possession of another woman, who, falling into a trance, speaks with the voice of the original hostess of the Khawhring. A missionary described to me a weird scene of excitement which he once saw, the 112 THE LUSHEI CLANS CH. v object being to exorcise a Khawhring which had possessed a girl. Amid a turmoil of shouting, drum-beating, and firing of guns the spirit was ordered to quit its temporary abode and return whence it came. Translation of a Lushai Version of the Origin of Khawhring. "Wild boars have Khawhring. Once a man shot a wild boar while out hunting. On his return home they cooked the flesh. Some of the fat got on the hand of his sister, who rubbed her head, and the wild boar's Khawhring just passed into her. On the next day, without any provocation, she entered another girl. She took entire possession of her. People said to her, " Where are you going to ? " She replied, " It is the wild boar my brother shot." " Well, what do you want ? " they said. " If you will give me eggs I will go away," she replied. They gave her eggs and she went. Presently all those who borrowed the " hnam " (a plaited cane band for carrying loads) of the girl with the Khawhring also got possessed. If one with a Khawhring has a daughter the child is always possessed, so no one wants to marry a person with a Khawhring. Even now, we being to some extent Lusheis, we do not like to let a person possessed by a Khawhring enter our houses, and if such a one sits on the bed of a true Lushei she will certainly be fined a metna. Those possessed of Khawhring are most disgusting people, and before the foreigners came they were always killed." The writer was not a true Lushei, but belonged to one of the clans which are fast being absorbed and are almost indistinguishable from Lusheis. The Lushais say that sometimes girls walk in their sleep and go and lick up urine, as the metna do, under the zawlbuk, and that when starting forth on these expeditions their feet and hands shine as if they were coated with phosphorus. If a young man wakes a girl up while she is walking thus she is very much ashamed, and generally grants him the favours of her bed to procure his silence. This state is called " Thlahzung." CHAPTER VI LANGUAGE I PROPOSE, in this chapter, to deal only with Lushai, and to treat of the connection between the different dialects spoken in these Hills at the end of Part II. Lushai or Dulien, which is the dialect of the Lushei clan, modified, doubtless, by contact with those of other clans, is now the lingua franca of the whole Lushai Hills, and is understood in many parts of the adjoining districts. A very complete grammar and vocabulary has been published by Messrs. Savage and Lorrain, now of the London Baptist Mission, and therefore I only propose to give a bare outline of the language here, which is largely borrowed from the above work. Articles. — The indefinite article can generally be rendered by the numeral one. The definite article is sometimes represented by demonstra- tive pronouns or relative particles. Gender. — Inanimate objects have no gender. In noims gender may be shown by use of different words, as " tlangval," a young man ; " nula," a maiden. This system is only em- ployed when speaking of human beings, by adding suffixes — " pa " and " chal " for males, " nu " and " pui " for females ; thus " fa pa," son ; " fa nu," daughter ; " she [chal," bull metna; ".she pui," cow metna. "Chal" and "pui" are re- stricted to full-grown animals. All men's names end in " a," all women's in " i." Some words are the same in botli genders — " u," eldci- brother or sister ; " nao shen," a baby ; " naupang," child. "I" is the feminine terminal ion in Manipiiri also. 114 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. Numher. — The plural terminations are " te," "ho," and " zong " ; sometimes these are combined or duplicated. Mi zong zong = all mankind. Lai te ho = chiefs. These terminations are omitted when the number can be otherwise inferred. Sakor paruk = six horses. Puan tam tak ka pe = I gave many cloths. When a suffix is added to a noun to denote case, the plural suffix follows the case suffix, Zawng-a-te an lo changa. Monkey into s they became changed. Kan in-a-te an lo-lut-a. Our house into s they entered. Case. — Nouns are not inflected. The agent is denoted by the suffix " in." Lai in a that = The chief killed (him). The same suffix is used to distinguish the instrument, Lai in fei in a shun = The chief speared (him) with a spear. " In " is therefore exactly equivalent to " na " used in Manipuri to distinguish the agent or instrument. The other cases can only be inferred from the position of the words. The object immediately precedes the transitive verb governing it, Lal-in puan a-pe = The chief gave a cloth. The indirect object precedes the direct. Suaka puan ka pe = I gave a cloth to Suaka. Hnena (to) is sometimes used to give greater clearness. Lai hnena ui pakhat ka pe ang = I will give a dog to the chief. The thing possessed immediately follows the possessor. Kawn bawl in a-kang = The minister's house caught fire. The following construction is sometimes used : — Kawn bawl a in a lian e = Minister his house it big is. VI LANGUAGE 115 The other cases are rendered by suffixes. Ka in a daraw. Ka in a tang in laraw. Aizawl My house in put. My house from bring. Aijal a kalraw to go. Adjectives follow the words they qualify, but are not inflected in any way. Mipa tha = a good man. Hmaichhia thfi = a good woman. Nula-te tha = good girls. When a noun is used as an adjective it precedes the noun it qualifies, as, " Lung in," stone house. Adjectives are compared thus Suaka Nela ai - in a chha k zawk. Suaka Nela than he stronger. Suaka is stronger than Nela. When demonstrative adjectives are compared, "ai-in" is combined with them, thus : — He sakor he saw ai sawn ashang zawk. This horse here that than there is taller. This horse is taller than that. " Saw saw ai-in " being replaced by " Saw-ai sawn." When no object of comparison is mentioned " ai-in " is omitted. Nangma lo azao zawk. Your jhum extensive more. Your j hum is more extensive. The superlative is formed thus : — Lalzong zinga Khuma a vin bar. Chiefs among Khuma he bad tempered most. Khuma is the most bad-tempered of all the chiefs. Khuma lalzong ai-in a vin ber. Khuma chiefs than he ill-tempered more. Khuma lalzong a a vin ber. Khuma chiefs of he ill-tempered most. Khuma a vin ber. Khuma he ill-tempered most. Khuma is the most ill-tempered. 1 2 ii6 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. The numerals are very simple: — 1 = pa khat 4 = pa li 7 = pa sari 2 = pa hnih 5 = pa nga 8 = pa riat 3 = pa thum 6 = pa ruk 9 = pa kua 10 = shom 11=" shorn leh pa khat," 12 = " shom leh pa hnih," and so on to 20 = " shom hnih "; then " shom hnih leh pa khat" &c., to " shom thum " = 30, " shom li " = 40, " shom nga " = 50, and so on to "za" = 100,"za leh pa khat" = 101, and so on to "shang" = 1000. "Shing" = 10,000and "nuai" for 1,000,000 are hardly ever used; 8,975 = " shang riat, leh za kua leh shom sari leh pa nga." It will be seen that the real numerals are "khat," "hnih," " thum," &c., pa being equivalent to unit. It is usually omitted when animals or things are mentioned, but retained when speaking of human beings. Lai pa sari = seven chiefs. Sebong nga = five cows. With numbers above ten the name of the thing enumerated if a monosyllable, is often repeated. Thus : — Ni shom hnih leh ni nga. Days twenty and days five. Ordinals are formed by adding" na " to the cardinals, thus : — In shom na lutrawh. Enter the tenth house. But— Ni thum ni a lo-kalraw. Day three day on come. Every other day = Ni khat dan a. Every third day = Ni hnih dan a, and so on. Numeral adjectives are formed thus : — Voi nga, voi shom leh voi khat. Times five, times ten and times one, eleven times. VI LANGUAGE 117 Demonstrative adjectives arc : — He or hehi | This = near Heng, henghi = these. Hei hei hi f the speaker. Saw = that. Sawng = those. Khfi = that near you. Khang = those near you. Khu = that down there. Khung = those down there Khi = that up there. Khing = those up there. Chu = that. Chung = those. They are generally repeated, thus : — Khu sava khu kadu e. That bird down there I want. Khi zawng khi a liane. That monkey up there he big is. When a noun qualified by one of these adjectives is an agent, the agent suffix " in " is combined with the second part of the adjective thus : — Khu ui khu-an min a sheh = That dog down there bit me instead of Khu ui in khu. The personal pronouns have several forms, which are the same for both genders. Nominative 1^^^™''*'^^^^ = I- ( Keimani, kemc, kan = we. r Keima, keiia, ka = my. J Keimani, keini, kan = our. Possessive S Keimata, keiata, kata = mine. V Keimanita, &c. = ours. rw.- L- \ Keimamin, kei min min = me. Objective^ ^ . . '. . ( Keimani mm, &c. = us. The second person is " nangma " and " nangmani " ; the third " ama," " anmani." The possessive of the second person, when used as nomina- tive of verbs, has a curious irregular form " i " in the singular and " in " in the plural. The pronominal particles "ka" (I), "i" (thou), "a" (lie), " kan " (we), " in " (you), " an " (they) must be used with verbs in addition to the pronouns, thus : — Nangma i kal ang em ? = Will you go ? Keimani chaw kan ei mek = We are just eating our rice. ii8 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. The particle can never be omitted, whereas the true pro- noun is generally left out except when required for emphasis. Reflexive action is denoted in several ways. The particle " in " is prefixed to the verb in all cases. The following are a few examples : — Ka in vel "j Mani leh mani ka in vel V I hit myself. Mani in ka in vel j Keimani theoh vin kan in vel = We hit ourselves. Relative Pronouns are : — Kha, chu, a piang = who, which, what, that. A piang, a piang kha, a piang chu = whoever, &c. Lekha i ziak kha a tha e. Letter you wrote that it good is. The pronouns are sometimes omitted, the idea being conveyed by the use of relative participles or verbal nouns. I lekha ziak a tha e Your letter written it good is. The letter you wrote is good. Interrogative Pronouns are : — Tu-nge ? Tu ? Tu-maw ? Eng-nge ? Zeng-nge ? Eng ? Eng-maw ? = What ? Hhoi-i-nge ? = Which ? They are used thus : — Tu-nge a lo kal ? = Who has come ? Tu-in-a nge i riak ? = ( house in ) you stay Whose = Tu ar nge i lei ? Tu-in-nge vel che ? ( fowl )- Whose you buy ? Who hit you ? Tu-nge i vel ? = Whom did you hit ? VI LANGUAGE 119 Tu and Tu-maw are only used thus : — A lo kal Tu-Maw ? or Tu ? = He has come Who ? Eng-nge i duh ? Khoi-i lekha buh nge i duh ? = What } ou want ? ( book ) which you want ? Which book do you want ? Eng tui nge i choi ? ( water ) = What you draw ? The particle " a " preceding an interrogative pronoun has a partitive force. A tu-nge i ko ? = Which of them did you call ? Verbs. The same form is used for all persons and in singular and plural, the pronominal particles marking person and number. Shoi = to say Fres : Ka shoi = I say. Ka shoi mek = I am saying. Fast : Ka shoi or \ I said. Ka shoi mek a ni = Ka shoi or tawh J I was saying. F^d : Ka shoi ang 1 I will f Ka shoi mek ang = I Ka shoi dawn j say \shall be saying. Ka shoi tawh ang = I shall have said. Conditional Mood. Ka shoi tur = I would say, or, I ought to say. Ka shoi tawh tur = I would have said, or, ought to have said. The future terminations are often used in a conditional sense. Subjunctive Mood. Ka shoi chuan = If 1 say, said or had said. The following forms are peculiar and appear to me of foreign 120 THE LUSHEI CLANS chap. origin. The pronominal prefixes are absent, the person and number being indicated by different forms. Shoi i la or i lang = If I say or said. Shoi la, or lang = If thou sayest or saidst. Shoi shela or shelang = If he say or said, Shoi i la or i lang = If we say or said. Shoi u la or lang = If you say or said. Shoi shela or shelang = If they say or said. The pluperfect tense is formed by inserting " ta." Shoi ta i la = If I had said. Shoi ta u lang = If you had said. By inserting "ma" the meaning "although" or "even if" is given. Shoi ma she lang = Even if he says. Shoi ta ma u la = Although you say. Imperative Mood. The imperative has several forms : — Singular: Shoi rawh, shoi ang che, shoi ta che, shoi te shoi che, all mean " say." The last four forms have a somewhat persuasive meaning. Plural : I shoi ang, i shoi ang u = Let us say. The second person plural is formed by adding "u" to the singular form. Infinitive Mood. The inlinitive or verbal noun is the same as the root shoi = to say. Ka shoi lai in^ _ . , When I was saying. 1 say time at J A verbal noun can also be formed by the suffix " na." Ka riak na in My staying house. VI LANGUAGE 121 The suffixes "tiir," " tur-in," "na-tur," "nan," "an," "in," denotes infinitive of purposes. Tui in tur ka duh. Water to drink I want. Chaw lei tur ka nei lo ^ I have nothing where- Rice to buy I have not. J with to buy rice. The suffix " tu " changes the verb into noun of agency. Veng-tu — a watchman. Hril-tu = an informant. Participles: Shoia, shoi-ing = saying. Negative. There are two negative particles: — lo and shu. The first is used except in the conditional and the imperative, when the latter is used. The particles are placed after the root except in the past tense, when they follow the tense termination. Ka kal lo = I do not go. Ka kal ta lo = I did not go. Ka kal lo vang = I will not goVrhe " v" is inserted Ka kal lo ve = I do not go J for sake of euphony. Kal rawh = Go. Kal shu = Don't go. Kal shu se = Do not let him go. Shoi shu u = Do not say (plural). Shoi shu i la = If we do not say. '' Nem " and " nang " are used as negative particles and intensify the meaning. Ka hre lo— I don't kny a Poi or Chin, and to have originated from a hole in the ground near the Shepui rocks, to the east of the ilanipur river. The Hualngo and Hualhang formerly lived together in villages under Hualngo chiefs. On the rise of the Thangur chiefs, a quarrel broke out, and the Hualngo were defeated by a combina- tion of the Sailo, Zadeng, and I'allian, and driven across the Tiao, and took refuge under the protection of the Falam chiefs, where tlieir descen- dants still are, and are mis- called Whenoh by the officers in charge of the Chin Hills. The Hualhang deserted to the Thangur, and are found scat- tered in the villages of their conquerors. There are six Hualngo villages in the Lushai Hills containing some 200 houses. APPENDIX 127 Lungkhua Sialcliung, Ngalchi Ngalchung, Phungchi Ngaphawl Tochong Topui, Chhakom Muchhip-chhuak Chemhler, Tobul Vide Changte. Vanchong Vanlung, vSumkhum Chemhler, Chengrel Kaithum ... The claim of this family to be true Lusheis is sometimes disputed. Besides the above families, there is one called Chhak-chhuak, i.e., "Come out of the east." In spite of all enquiries I was unable to find out any reason for the name, which was sometimes said to be the name of a branch of one of the other families and sometimes that of a separate family. PART II THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS INTRODUCTORY In this part all the clans of the Lushai-Kuki race which are not included by the people themselves among the Lusheis will be briefly dealt with. All these clans practise the jhum methods of cultivation and were originally semi-nomadic, but certain of them, under changed circumstances, have ceased to move their villages and are taking to plough cultivation. There is a varying similarity in the religious beliefs and customs, and it will suffice to point out the principal diver- gences from those of the Lusheis as already described. The non-Lushei clans group themselves naturally into five sections : — 1. The clans which live among the Lusheis under the rule of Thangur chiefs and have become practically assimilated by them, and are included in the wider term Lushai, as we use it. Naturally the accounts of these will be brief and will deal principally with the origin of the clans. 2. The clans which, while still retaining a separate corporate existence, have been much influenced by the Lusheis, among or near whom they reside. .3. The Old Kuki clans. 4. The Thado clan with its numerous families and branches, often spoken of as New Kukis. 5. The Lakhers. These are immigrants from the Chin Hills, and would more correctly be dealt with in the Chin Monograph, but a brief sketch of them, though very incomplete, may be useful till a fuller account is written. They call themselves Mara. 12!) ^^ CHAPTER I CLANS INCLUDED IN THE TERM LUSHAI These clans have adopted most of the manners and customs of their conquerors, and to an ordinary observer are indistinguish- able from the true Lushei. In many cases the only difference is in the method of performing the Sakhua sacrifice. In few cases some words of the clan dialect are still used, but, generally speaking, there is but little difference noticeable. In cases where the clan had attained considerable strength before its overthrow by the Lusheis the process of assimilation has naturally been slower, and there is more to describe. The following list of clans does not lay claim to being complete, but contains all the best-kno'wn names. Chawte. Members of this clan are found in small numbers scattered among the Lushei villages. They kill a goat as the Sakhua sacrifice, and omit all the Naohri sacrifices except the Zinthiang and Ui-ha-awr. When a mithan is sacrified it is killed in the evening, and the giver of the feast wears some of the tail hairs on a string round his neck. In the hills betAveen the Manipur valley and Tamu I found two small hamlets of Chawte, who said that their forefather had come from the hills far to the south very long ago. Their language closely resembles Lushei, but they have come much under Manipuri influence. The names of the families in no case agreed with those given me by the Chawte in the Lushai Hills. A detailed account of the Manipur Chawte will be found in (3). Chont^thu. This clan is very widely scattered. The following account of the origin of the clan is given by Suaka, now Sub-Inspector of 130 CH. I CLANS INCLUDED IN TERM LUSHAI 131 Police at Aijal : — " Of all Lushai clans Lershia (Chongthu) cele- brated the Chong first of all. Lershia's village was on the hill to the south of the Vanlai-phai. There he celebrated the Chong. He was the richest of all men. Lershia had a younger brother, Singaia. His village was separate at Betlu. He was very rich in mithan, gongs, and necklaces. Once he was moving to another village with all his goods, when a very big snake swallowed him. Even till now Chongthus are always ' upa ' to chiefs. It may be they are wiser than the other clans ; they are very amiable — maybe they understand how to express matters well. In every village Chongthu are always upa. How many children Lershia had or where they are I do not know. Nevertheless he was the richest of all men. Because he was so rich in mithan, gongs, and necklaces he first celebrated the Chong. His name was also first given to the Chong song. Even till now the Sailo and all Lusheis and all Ralte, if they celebrate the Chong according to their customs, sing Lershia's song — they have not a new song of their own." From the above it would appear that Chongthu is a nickname given to Lershia on account of his having first celebrated the Chong. Chongthu's name appears in the Thado pedigree as the first of the race to emerge from the earth, and the great- great-grandfather of Thado. The Chiru and Kolhen also claim descent from him, though they cannot give the intermediate . names. This clan lived to the east of the Tyao river. Their most Hnamte. famous chief was Chon-uma, their last village was at Tlangkua, on the Lentlang. Bad harvests and general misfortunes brought about their dispersal early in the last century. A widely-distributed clan sub-divided into at least 12 Kawlni. families said to be connected with the Ralte, q.v. This clan had a big village on the Hringfa hill, where the Kawl- remains of earthworks made by them in their final struggle !|^i^^°^'_ against the Haka people may still be seen. Messrs. Carey and Burma. Tuck in their " Chin Hills Gazetteer," p. 153, say :— " Having """^^j.^, settled with their formidable neighbours on the north, the Hakas turned their attention to the Lushais, who at this time occupied the country as far east as the banks of the Lavar stream, barely 20 miles east of Haka. Their chief centres were Kwe Hring K 2 132 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap and Vizan, two huge villages on the western slopes of the Rongtlang range, and to this day the sites, fortifications, and roads of the former town may be traced." The Hakas, not feel- ing equal to attacking their powerful neighbours single-handed, called in the assistance of a Burmese chieftain, Maung Myat San of Tilin, who came with 200 men armed with guns and bringing with them two brass cannons. " The Haka and Burman forces were collected on the spot where Lonzeert now stands, and, marching by night, surprised Kwe Hring in the early dawn by a noisy volley in which the brass cannon played a conspicuous part. The Lushais, who had no firearms, deserted their villages and fled in disorder, and for several months parties of Hakas ravaged the country, eventually driving every Lushai across the Tyao before the rains made that river unfordable." The people called here Lushais were the Kawlhring. The last Kawlhring chief was Lalmichinga. The clan is now scattered among the villages round Lungleh, There are eight families, but I have not found any branches. The Zinthiang and Zinhnawm are omitted from the Naohri sacrifices. Kiangte. This clan lived east of the Manipur river, from which place it was driven by the Chins. Kiangte are now found in small numbers in most of the villages in the North Lushai Hills- The clan is divided into seven families, without branches. Ngente. Although this clan has been practically absorbed its members have retained in an unusual degree their distinctive customs. The Ngente were formerly a somewhat powerful clan living at Chonghoiyi, on the Lungdup hill, where about 1780 a.d. a quarrel broke out between their two chiefs, Lalraanga and Ngaia, and the latter set out with his adherents to form another village, but was pursued and killed by his brother. Shortly after this the clan was attacked by the Lusheis and broken up. The above particulars were given me in 1904, when I was near the Lungdup hill. They seem to account for the Koihrui-an-chhat festival, which is described below from notes supplied to me by Mr. C. B. Drake-Brockman in 1901, embodying information gathered by him from Ngente living at Lungleh, many days' journey from Lungdup. This is an interesting instance of history being embalmed in a custom of which the origin has been forgotten, and I humbly recommend its consideration to I CLANS INCLUDED LN TERM LUSHAI 133 those wise men who are ever ready to interpret every custom as afifording evidence of their particular theories. Marriage. — The Ngente young man is no more restricted in the choice of his wife than is the Lushei, but the price is fixed at seven guns, which are taken as equivalent to Rs. 140/-. Of this sum the girl's nearest male relative receives Rs. 120/-, the remainder being distributed as follows : — Rs. 8/- to the " pu," maternal grandfather or uncle, Rs. 6/- to her elder sister, Rs. 4/- to her paternal aunt, Rs. 2/- to the " palal," or trustee. Should a woman die before the whole of her price has been paid, her relatives can only claim half the remainder. Childbirth. — Three months before the birth, the mother prepares zu, which is known as " nao-zu" — i.e., baby's beer, which must on no account be taken outside the house and which is drunk in the child's honour on the day of its birth. Women are delivered at the head of the bedstead, and the afterbirth is placed in a gourd and hung up on the back wall of the house, whence it is not removed. The puithiam sacrifices a cock and hen, which must not be white, outside the village, and, having cooked the flesh there, he takes it to his own house for con- sumption. On the third day after the birth the child is named by its " pu," who has to give a fowl and a pot of zu. A red cock is killed and some of its feathers are tied round the necks of the infant and other members of the family. Death Ceremonies. — The Ngente do not attach any importance to burying their dead near their place of abode. They put up no memorials and offer no sacrifices, and make no offerings to the deceased's spirit. The dead are buried wherever it is most convenient. This is a most singular divergence from the general custom. Festivals. — The Khuangchoi, Chong, Pawl-kut are observed. In place of the Miin-kut they celebrate a feast called Nao-lam- kut, which takes place in the autumn. For two nights all the men and women must keep awake, and they are provided with boiled yams and zu to help them in doing so. On the third day some men dress themselves up as women and others as Chins, colouring their faces with charcoal. They then visit every house in which a child has been born since the last Nao-liim- kut and treat the inmates to a dance, receiving presents of 134 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. dyed cotton thread, women's cloths, &c., and much zu. Compare the account of the Fanai She-doi, p. 136 et seq. below. Koihnd-an-chhat {They Break the, Koi Creeper). — A party of young men, being supplied with hard-boiled eggs and fowl's flesh, go off into the jungle equipped with bows and arrows. On the third day they return with the heads of some animals — for choice those of the " tangkawng," a large lizard — and also a long piece of the creeper from which the Koi beans {v. Chap. II, para. 18) are obtained. They are received with all the honours paid to warriors returning from a successful raid, and a tug of war with the creeper takes place between the young men and the maidens. The heads of the animals are then placed in the centre of the village, and dancing, singing, and drinking go on round them all night, no young man or girl being allowed to go inside a house till daybreak, when the whole party adjourns to the house of a member of the Chonghoiyi-hring family — i.e., a descendant of one born at Chonghoiyi — and after further libations they disperse. It is quite clear that this feast commemorates the victory of Lalmanga over Ngaia — compare the account of the reception of a raiding party given in Part I., Chap. Ill, para. 9. The use of bows and arrows is an interesting survival. The tug of war with the creeper is found among the Old Kuki clans as one of the incidents of the spring festival, and in the Manipuri chronicle we find references to such amusements being indulged in. The Ngente evidently combined the play, intended to keep green the memories of their ancestor, with the usual ceremonies of the spring festival.^ The Ngente do not practise the Khal sacrifices. Language. — In the Linguistic Survey Dr. Grierson gives a translation of the parable of the Prodigal Son in the Ngente dialect supplied him by Mr. Drake-Brockman, and sums up his description of the dialect as follows : — " But in all essential points both {i.e., Ngente and Lushei) agree, and the differ- ence is much smaller than between dialects in connected languages." Paotu. A very insignificant clan, of which I have found only one family. The clan formerly lived on a hill north of the Tao 1 Cf. " Mauipur Festival," Folklore, Vol. XXI, No. I. I CLANS INCLUDED IN TERM LUSHAI 135 peak, to the east of the Koladyne, and were probably driven out by the Chins at the same time as the Kawlhring. There are five families in this clan, which has long been Rentlei. absorbed by the Lusheis, but the Rentlei maintain that at one time, when they lived in a big village on the Minpui hill to the east of the Tyao river, they were the more powerful and showed their contempt for the Lusheis by throwing stones at the skulls of the pigs which the latter used to place on posts outside their houses after performing the Sakhua sacrifice, and this led to the Lusheis placing the skulls inside their houses, whereas the Rentlei to this day adhere to the custom of putting them outside. This clan is still looked on with respect, and chiefs frequently take Rentlei brides. This clan is divided into seven families, one of which has a Roite. branch. There is nothing of interest to be noted about it. This clan has only three families and one branch. Its Vangch- members are said to be generally wealthy, and therefore prudent ' parents strive to get them as " pu " to their children. Their Sakhua sacrifice is elaborate, a mithan being killed in front of the house, a cock at the head of the parents' bed, and a boar at that of the children. There is a great feast, followed by nine days' " hrilh." Now an insignificant clan, of which I have not obtained a Zawngte. single family name. Under a chief called Chengtea they lived on a hill north of Thlan-tlang, which is still known by their name. They were ejected by the Chins probably at the same time as the Kawlhring and Paotu. The eldest son inherits. They place their dead in hollowed-out logs in small houses outside the village, and leave them there for three months. In these particulars they resemble the Vuite. As among the Chawte, after killing a mithan the household of the giver of the feast wear some of the hairs of the tail on strings round their necks. CHAPTER II CLANS WHICH, THOUGH NOT ABSORBED, HAVE BEEN MUCH INFLUENCED BY THE LUSHEIS Fanai A CLAN which was rising into eminence, when our occupation of the country put a stop to its further aggrandisement. The chiefs trace their pedigree back six generations, to a man called Fanai, who lived among the Zahaos, to the east of the Tyao. His great grandson, Roreiluova, was a slave, or at least a dependant, of a Zahao chief, and was sent with 70 house- holds to form a village at Bawlte, near Champhai, in Lushei territory, with the intention, no doubt, of enlarging the Zahao borders, but Roreiluova entered into peaceful relations with the Lushei chiefs, and gradually severed his connection with the Zahaos, and, moving south-west, occupied successively various sites to the west and north-west of Lungleh, between the Lushai and Chin villages, maintaining his position with considerable diplomatic skill, often acting as intermediary between his more powerful neighbours. He died at Konglung early in the nineteenth century, having attained such a position that his sons were at once recognised as chiefs, and on our occupy- ing the country in 1890 we found eight Fanai villages, containing about 700 houses, grouped along the west bank of the Tyao and Koladyne rivers, between Biate on the north and Sangao on the south. Roreiluova's descendants seem to have inherited his skill in diplomacy, for they kept on good terms with their neighbours, and whenever these quarrelled managed to assist the stronger without entirely alienating the weaker. The clan is subdivided into six families and one branch. The Fanai now talk Lushai and dress in the same way, 136 CH. II CLANS INFLUENCED BY LUSHEIS 137 except as regards the method of dressing the hair, which is parted horizontally across the back of the head at the level of the ears, and the hair above this is gathered into a knot over the forehead, while that below is allowed to hang loose over the shoulders. They generally follow Lushai customs. In the series of feasts which an aspirant for the title of Thang- chhuah has to perform, the Chong is replaced by the Buh-za-ai (buh=rice, za=100), performed as among the Lushais. The She-doi feast has to be gone through twice, and is followed by a very similar feast called She-cha-chun (spearing of male mithan), which completes the series. Wealthy persons perform the Khuangchoi, but it is not necessary. The Mi-thi-rawp-lam is prohibited. The following account of the She-doi is taken from my diary of the 14th May, 1890. " We went up at once to the village, where a peculiar dance was in progress. Lembu's wife was being carried about on a platform, round which a wooden railing had been fixed to enable her to maintain her position. This platform had four long poles passed underneath it, and a number of men and women, holding these, were moving the platform about in a manner which must have been most uncomfortable for her Majesty. They lifted it up and down, then swayed it to one side, then to the other, then ran in one direction and stopped suddenly, then in another, and pulled up with a jerk. During all this time the royal lady maintained a solemn silence, and showed complete indifference to the whole proceeding. Her head-dress consisted of a band round which at intervals coloured bands of straw were plaited. From this chaplct porcupine quills stood up all round, to the ends of which the yollowish- green feathers of parrots were affixed, each terminating in a tuft of red wool. At the back, an iron crossbar, about 6 inches long, was tied horizontally, and from this a number of strings of black and white seeds depended, at the end of which glistening wing-cases of green beetles were attached. Except for this startling head-dress, the Queen was dressed much as usual, except that her waist cloth was longer and more gorgeous. Having been carried about for some time, her Majesty showed her appreciation of the attentions of her subjects by distribut- ing gifts. First she threw a small chicken, which was eagerly 138 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. scrambled for and torn to pieces by the young men anxious to obtain it, next followed a piece of white cotton wool, which no one would pick up, and then some red thread, which was scrambled for eagerly. "May 15th. — This morning a mithan was sacrificed. The animal was tied by the head to one of the sacrificial posts, on which his skull was to be placed later on. The chief then came out with a spear in one hand, a gourd of rice beer in the other. The puithiam, or sorcerer, accompanied him, also carrying a gourd of beer. The pair took up their stand just behind the mithan, and the puithiam began mumbling what I was told were prayers for the prosperity of the village. The prayers were interrupted by the chief and the sorcerer taking mouthfuls of beer and blowing them over the mithan. When the prayers were finished, they anointed the animal with the remains of the liquor, and the chief then gave it a slight stab behind the shoulder, and disappeared into his house. The mithan was then thrown on its side and killed by driving a sharp bamboo spear into its heart. The animal was then cut up. Later on another was killed, without any special ceremony, and the flesh of both cooked in the street. Later on there was a dance. Three men arrayed in fine cloths, with smart turbans, came up the main street, crossing from side to side. With bodies bent forward and arms extended, they took two steps forward, then whirled round once, beat time twice with the right foot, two steps, whirled round again, beat time twice with the left foot, and so on, keeping time with the royal band, consisting of a gong, a tom-tom, and a bamboo tube, used as a drum. The dancers, having been well regaled with beer, proceeded to dance each a ipas seul of a decidedly indecent nature. The chief was pro- hibited from crossing running water for a month after this sacrifice had been performed." After this feast there is five days ' " hrilh " for the whole community, and during this no flesh may be brought into the village. The skull of the mithan is kept on the post in front of the chief's house for a month, during which time he may not cross water or converse with strangers. On the expiry of a month a pig and a fowl are sacrificed and the skull is then removed to the front verandah. The only difference in the ceremonies connected with child- II CLANS INFLUENCED BY LUSHEIS 139 birth is that the Ui-ha-awr sacrifice is only performed if the child's hair has a reddish tinge and the whites of its eyes turn yellowish. The Sakhua sacrifices are very elaborate, and consist of a series commencing with the Vok-rial, which is necessary when a new house has been completed. A sow is killed at the head of the parents' sleeping place, and whatever portions of the flesh are not at once consumed are placed beneath it till the next day. The house during this time is " sherh." No one may enter it, and the occupants must not speak to strangers nor enter the forge. Later on a boar is killed in the front verandah, and the heart, liver, and entrails, known as " kawrawl," are placed under the parents' sleeping place for five days, and are eaten by the parents, the father sitting with his back to the partition wall and the mother facing him. During these five days a hrilh as above is observed. This sacrifice is called " Vok-pa " — i.e., " Boar " — and is followed by the " Hnuaipui " — i.e., " Great Beneath " — a full-grown sow being killed under the house, and its head and sherh buried at the foot of one of the main posts. The flesh is cooked beneath the house, but eaten in it. A three days' hrilh follows. The series concludes with " Hnuaite " — i.e.^ "Lesser Beneath" — which is similar to the former, but a young sow is killed. These sacrifices are performed as the necessary animals become available. A dead Fanai is buried in the usual Lushai way, but no rice is placed in the grave. An offering of maize, however, is suspended above it. It may be noted that in the Zahao country rice is not cultivated, the staple crop being maize. The Fanai do not kill tigers, giving as the reason that a former ancestor of theirs lost his way, and was conducted back to his village by a tiger, which kindly allowed him to hold its tail. This clan is found scattered in the Lushai villages to the The north of Aijal, in which neighbourhood there are also one or I^'^'**- two villages under Ralte chiefs. I have already — in Part L, Chapter V, para. 1 — given the legend regarding the repeopling of the world and the closing of the exit from the Chhinglung owing to the loquacity of the pair of Ralte. The names of these mythical ancestors were Hehua and Lcpliipi. Thoir two I40 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. sons were Kheltea and Siakenga, who quarrelled over the dis- tribution of their father's goods, which Kheltea, the younger, had taken, thus conforming to Lushei custom, and set up separate villages, and from them have sprung the two epo- nymous families into which the Ralte clan is divided. The Khelte have always occupied a predominant position, and all the chiefs belong to this family. Lutmanga, Kheltea's youngest son, is said to have made the first cloth from the fibre of the Khawpui creeper. He collected a community at Khuazim, a hill north of Champhai, and from him all the Ralte chiefs are descended. In the early years of the nineteenth century the Ralte villages were near Champhai, and Mangkhaia, a Ralte chief of importance, was captured by some Chuango, a family of the Lushei clan, then living at Bualte, above Tuibual (known to the Chin Hills officers as Dipwell). He was ransomed by his relatives, but Vanpuia, the Pachuao chief, not receiving a share, ambushed Mangkhaia on his way home and killed him. According to another account Mangkhaia filed through his fetters with a file given to him in a roll of smoked meat, and was killed as he was escaping. His memorial stone is famous throughout the Hills, and stands at the southern extremity of Champhai. Mangthawnga, father of Mangkhaia, joined Khawza- huala the Zadeng, then living atTualbung, but, being ill-treated, the Ralte joined Sutmanga, a Thado chief then at Phaileng, who treated them well. Thawnglura, son of Mangthawnga, showed his gratitude to Sutmanga by assisting the Sailo chief Lallianvunga, father of Gnura (Mullah) — whose village Colonel Lister burnt in 1850 — to attack him. Sutmanga then fied north- wards. It is satisfactory to know that Thawnglura's treachery was rewarded by the enslavement of his clan, who till our occupation of the Hills remained vassals of the Sailos. The Ralte are very quarrelsome, and have to a great extent resisted absorption into the Lushais. In some Sailo chiefs' villages there are so many Ralte that the chief himself speaks their dialect, and though Lushai is understood little else but Ralte is heard in the village. The Ralte are linguistically connected with the Thado, and, like the Thado, they used not to build zawlbuks, but are now following Lushai custom in this respect. H'^r-'^ws:-; MEMOKIAI. STONK in ClIAMI'HAl KNOWN AS MANCKIIAIA, I .T NC, 1 1 AW K. II CLANS INFLUENCED BY LUSHEIS 141 The Khelte family has ten and the Siakeng family eleven branches. To the various sums paid to the relatives of the bride among the Lushais, the Ralte add " dawngbul " and " da^^^lgle^ " — sums of Rs. 3/- paid to her male and female paternal first cousins. The two families have slightly different customs as regard sacrifices. The Khelte sacrifice to Sakhua is a boar, which is killed at the head of the parents' sleeping place and then cooked on the hearth. The skull is hung on the back wall of the house in a basket with six pieces of the liver and three of the skin. The chant is as follows : — Ah — h. You whom our grandmothers worshipped ! Ah — h. You v,fhom our grandfathers worshipped ! Ah — h. You of our birthplace ! Ah — h. You of our place of origin ! Ah — h. You who made the Khelte ! Ah — h. You who made the Tuangphei ! Ah — h. In what we have done wrong ! Ah — h. In what we have sung amiss ! Ah— h. Make it right ! The Siakeng, after killing the boar as the Khelte do, entertain those of their own branch, but before the flesh is eaten it is divided into three portions, which are placed for a short time successively on the floor, on the sleeping-place, and on the shelf over the hearth, being thus offered to the spirits of the house, the couch, and the hearth. Of the Naohri sacrifices the Khelte only perform the Hmar- phir, which they call " Thangsang " and the Ui-ha-awr, while the Siakeng perform the Vawkte-luilam, called by them " Chhim- hal," and the Ui-ha-awr. They have adopted most of the Thangchhuah festivals, but not the Mi-thi-rawp-lam. When a mithan is killed it is not speared as among the Lushais, but killed by a blow on the forehead. The skull is placed at the foot of the partition wall for three days, and on the fourth it is taken out and placed at the foot of the memorial post. Some ginger, beans, and salt are placed on a dish and an old man takes the skull, and all dance rotmd the post three times to the beating of drums and gongs. Then ginger is thrown three times on to the skull, after 142 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. which the house-owner's wife pierces the skull with a spear, but if she be pregnant this must be done by a man. The skull is then placed on one of the posts of the platform in front of the house till the Khuangchoi has been performed. On the occasion of the first death occurring in a new village a spot is selected beyond the line of houses, and the corpse is buried there, subsequent interments being made close at hand. It is considered " thianglo " to bury in a village. A well-to-do Khelte after death is dressed in his best, and seated with his back to the partition wall while his relatives and friends drink and dance before him. A bier is made by elderly persons, and on this the corpse is placed in a sitting position, with his weapons in his hands, and three times lifted by old men and women up to the rafters, while drums and gongs are beaten, after which the body is carried out to the graveyard. The birth customs generally resemble those of the Lushais. The This is a clan of some importance still. There are eleven Vuite. Vuite villages, numbering 877 houses, in the south-west corner of the Manipur State and two in the adjoining portions of the Lushai Hills. When we occupied the Hills we found many of this clan living in a species of slavery in the villages of important Sailo chiefs. They have mostly rejoined their clansmen, from whom they had been carried off as prisoners of war. The clan is generally known to the Lushais as Paihte, but Vuite is the term more commonly used by its members and in Manipur. Vuitea and Paihtea were the sons of of Lamleia, who was hatched out of an egg. There were two eggs, and Aichhana, a Thado, tasted one, and, finding it bitter, threw it away and put the other among the rice in the bin, and in due time Lamleia was hatched out, and the present Vuite chiefs claim to be his direct descendants, enumerating seventeen generations. The Thado version of this story is that Dongel, Thado's elder brother, had incestuous intercourse with his elder sister, and on a male child being born their mother was so ashamed that she hid the child in a hollow tree, thinking it would die, but when she found it was alive after several days she brought it into the house and concealed it in the paddy bin, and produced it a few days later, saying that she had found two II CLANS INFLUENCED BY LUSHEIS 143 big eggs in a hollow tree and had tasted one and had found it ver}' bitter. The second she had placed in the paddy, where it had been hatched by the sun's rays. Hence the child was called Gwite, from " ni-gwi," the Thado for a ray of sunshine. The Vuite, of course, do not admit this tale to be true, but my informant tells me that in his father's time, when the Dongel and Vuite lived near to each other, the former paid "sathing" — i.e., a portion of each animal killed — to the latter, in recognition that the Vuite were descended from the elder sister of their ancestor. The Vuite, however, always tried to avoid accepting such presents, and when the Dongel moved away the custom died out. The first Vuite village is said to have been at Chimnuai, near to Tiddim. The name of this site comes first in the Vuite Sakhua chant which I obtained in the Lushai Hills. Being attacked by the Sokte and Falam clans, they joined the Thangur chiefs, but were ill-treated and fled to the neighbour- hood in which they now live, and waged war with their oppressors till the establishment of our rule. They at one time approached the Manipur plain and in 1870, under Sumkam, they raided a Manipuri village, to avenge a charge of being wizards. They appear to be closely connected with the Malun, Sokte, and Kamhau clans of the adjoining Chin Hills, and Dr. Grierson places them linguistically in the same group as these clans and the Thado. In their dress and habitations they resemble the Lushais, but the place of the zawlbuk is taken by the front verandah of the houses of certain persons of importance, in which are long sleeping bunks in which half a dozen or more young men pass the night. The young fellows help their host in his house-building and cultivation, and once a year he gives them a feast of a pig. This custom prevails in most of the non-Lushei clans, and also among the Kabui Nagas in the Manipur Hills. The women do not wear the huge ivory earrings of the Lushai but cornelians or short lead bars. The general constitution of the clan and the village is very similar to that of the Lushais. As regards marriage they are monogamists, in this particular forming a very remarkable exception to all their cognates. The marriages of paternal first cousins are allowed — in fact, among chiefs they are the rule. 144 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. The parents of a young man who desires to marry a girl go to her house with an oflfering of zu, and if this is accepted the girl is at once taken to their house, but the bridegroom continues for two or three months to sleep with his bachelor friends. The marriage is not considered final nor is any payment made till a child is born, and if this does not occur within three years the couple separate, but on the birth of a child the full price agreed on must be paid up and divorce is not countenanced. On my enquiring what would happen in case the lady subsequently proved fickle, my informant smiled in a superior manner and said that such behaviour was unknown among his people. The Vuite object to giving their girls to the Lushais on account of the tendency of Lushai husbands to discard their wives on the slightest excuse. Although the Vuite do not maintain that before marriage their girls are invariably chaste, yet one who errs is looked down on, and in consequence abortion and infanticide are said to be common. "Sawnman" at Rs. 23/- is demanded from the seducer. As among most non-Lushei tribes, the eldest son inherits. The punishments for offences are similar to those among the Lushais, but the Vuite assert that the crime of sodomy is unknown among them. Murder can be atoned for by the payment of seven mithan to the heir of the murdered man, and accidental homicide by that of one mithan and a gun. In the days when war was common they used to ambush their enemies more than was usual among the Lushais, but they never went head-hunting simply for honour and glory. As regards " boi," they follow Lushai customs closely. Pathian is acknowledged, and in general their religious beliefs resemble those of the Lushais, but they have no idea of a separate abode for the spirits of warriors. They believe that departed spirits have two or more lives in the land beyond the grave. For their Sakhua sacrifice a boar is killed on the front verandah and cooked within the house. The skin of the head, the testicles, heart, snout, and liver are placed on a bamboo over the verandah, which must be freshly thatched. Immediately after birth the child is washed, and a fowl is II CLANS INFLUENCED BY LUSHEIS 145 killed, and its feathers are worn round the necks of the mother and infant. The mother may go out of the house, but for four days after the birth both parents abstain from all work. On occasion of the naming two or three pigs if available should be killed and much zu drunk. The Khal sacrifices, with the exception of Uihring, are not performed, but most of the other sacrifices are made. The custom of paying " lukawng " on the death of a person is unknown, and the funeral ceremonies generally are very unlike those of the Lushais. After death the corpse is placed on a platform and fires are lit round it, and young men and maidens sleep near it. The skin is hardened and preserved by being rubbed with some greasy preparation. The body is dressed in the best cloths available, and a chaplet of the tail feathers of the hornbill is placed on its head. During the daytime the corpse is kept in the house, but in the evening it is brought out and seated on the verandah while the villagers dance and sing round it and drink zu, pouring it also into the mouth of the corpse. This disgusting performance goes on for a month or more according to the social position of the deceased. The corpses of those who have attained Thangchhuah honours are kept for a year, at least, in a special shed encased in a tree trunk. Before burial the corpse is carried round the village. In case of a violent death, which does not as among the Lushais include deaths in childbirth, the corpse is placed in the forge and the puithiam sacrifices a fowl, after which the usual ceremonies take place. The Kut festivals are not observed, but after harvest the owners of houses in which young men lodge kill one or two pigs. The honour of Thangchhuah is obtained by giving the following feasts: — (1) Buh ai, one mithan being killed; (2) She- shun, one mithan being killed; (3) Chawn, throe mithan and two pigs being killed. No other feasts are given and windows may be made by anyone. Most of the superstitions common among the Lushais are believed, but gibbons are freely killed. The Vuite are very much afraid of witchcraft, but deny all knowledge of it. When a new site for a house has to be chosen an egg is taken and one end is removed. It is then propped up on three small stones and a fire is lit under it. If the contents L 146 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. boil over towards the person consulting the omen the site is rejected as unlucky. The This is a small clan which, after various vicissitudes, has Rangte. gg^^}g(| down in thirteen hamlets, containing 372 houses, under their own chiefs in the south-western hills of Manipur. They claim connection with the Thados, but resemble the Lushais in many respects, which no doubt is due to their sojourn among them. They also claim relationship with the Vaiphei. They say that their original villages were on two hills called Phaizang and Koku, whence they were ejected by the Chins and took refuge with Poiboi, one of the Sailo chiefs who opposed us in 1871, whence they migrated northwards to their present place of abode. Their language shows that their claim to being allied to the Thado is not without foundation. The clan is divided into eleven eponymous families, named after Thanghlum and his ten sons, Thanghlum being supposed to be the son of Rangte. The constitution of the villages is practically the same as that of the Lushais, except that there are no zawlbuks. The young unmarried men sleep in the house of the girl they like best. An attractive young lady may have several admirers sleeping in her house, and they will continue to sleep there until she expresses a preference for one of them. Marriage is not very strictly limited, but matches with another member of the clan or with some member of one of the Thado families are most usual. The price of a wife — " manpui " — is one blue cloth, one mattress, and three mithan, which is paid to the nearest male relative to the bride on the father's side, but besides this the bride's paternal uncle receives one mithan, which is termed " mankang." If there be three brothers, A, B, and C, B will take the mankang of A's daughters, C that of B's, and A that of C's- Should a man have no brothers some near relative will take his daughter's mankang. The eldest son inherits everything, and is looked on as the head of the family. He receives the " manpui " of all the females, and in his verandah are hung all the trophies of the chase obtained by his brothers and their children, but on the death of one of these brothers the connection ceases, and the deceased's eldest son inherits his property and is looked on as the head of the family by his II CLANS INFLUENCED BY LUSHEIS 147 younger brothers. Like the Vuite, the Rangte claim that sodomy is unknown among them. In their religious beliefs they employ the nomenclature of the Thados, though there is a little variation. The place of Pupawla on the road to Mi-thi-khua is taken by an old woman, named Kul-lo-nu, Avho is evidently the same as the Thado Kulsamnu, who troubles all except the Thangchhuah. Thlan-ropa is known as " Dapa," but the legends regarding him are similar to those told by the Lushais. On the birth of a female child, zu is drunk, but should the child be a son, a pig and a fowl have to be killed, and three days later the puithiam comes and sprinkles the mother with water, muttering charms as he does so, after which ceremony she can go out. Immediately after a death everyone present seizes the nearest weapon and slashes wildly at the walls, posts, shelves, and partitions, shouting, " You have killed him ! We will cut you limb from limb, whoever you may be." The young men then go out in search of wild birds and beasts, the bodies of which are hung on posts round the grave. The corpse is adorned with the head-dress of hornbill's feathers, as among the Vuite and most of the Old Kuki clans. The corpses of ordinary persons are buried without much ceremony close to the house, but the Thangchhuah are carried round the village, as among the Khawtlang, and then enclosed in hollow tree trunks, and kept for periods varying from two months to a year in special sheds, with iires smouldering beneath them, after which the bones are buried. In this it will be noticed that the Rangte custom is a composite of Lushei, Vuite, and Khawtlang. Lukawng is only paid if the deceased has been a great hunter or warrior. In their marriage ceremonies the Rangte differ but little from the Lushais. The " Khal " sacrifices are omitted, but most of the others are performed. Thangchhuah honours are attained by giving only two feasts — the " Chong," at which a hen has to be sacrificed and two pigs and a mithan killed, and the " Mai-thuk-kai," at which two mithan, three pigs, and a hen have to be killed. The guests hold hands and form a circle round the house of the giver of the feast, who has to anoint the head of each of them with pig's fat. The Buh-Ai is unknown, but thr Ai of wild animals is performed as among the Lushais. L 2 CHAPTER III THE OLD KUKI CLANS The term Old Kukis has long been applied to the clans which suddenly appeared in Cachar about 1800, the cause of which eruption I have explained when dealing with the history of the Lushais, but Dr. Grierson in the Linguistic Survey has included in this group a number of clans which had long been settled in Manipur territory, and my enquiries all go to prove the correct- ness of this classification. It appears practically certain that the ancestors of the Old Kukis and the Lushais were related and lived very close together somewhere in the centre of the hills on the banks of the Tyao and Manipur rivers. The Old Kuki clans of Manipur seem to have been the first to move, as records of their appearance there are found in the Manipur chronicle as early as the sixteenth century, and, though the chronology of the chronicle is not beyond suspicion, I think this may be taken as proof that these clans appeared in Manipur a good deal earlier than their relations the Bete and Rhangkhol entered Cachar. What the cause of this move was it is impossible to say. Probably quarrels with their neighbours, coupled with a desire for better land, combined to cause the exodus, and the movement, once started, had to continue till the clans found a haven of rest in Manipur, as their relatives did centuries later in British territory ; for they were small, weak communities, at the mercy of the stronger clans, through whose lands they passed. All these Old Kuki clans are organised far more democratically than the Lushais or Thados. Lieut. Stewart in his Notes on Northern Cachar says: — " There is no regular system of govern- ment among the Old Kukis and they have no hereditary chiefs as 148 CH. Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS 149 among the New ones. A headman called the ' ghalim ' is appointed by themselves over each village, but he is much more a priest than a potentate, and his temporal power is much limited. Internal administration among them always takes a provisional form. When any parby considers himself aggrieved, he makes an appeal to the elders, or the most powerful householders in the village, by inviting them to dinner and plying them with victuals and wine." Among the clans which settled early in Manipur, each village has been provided with a number of officials with high- sounding titles and little power, in imitation of the Manipur system. Among those who have settled in British territory the ghalim has been transformed into the " gaonbura" — i.e., head of the village — and has acquired a certain amount of authority, whilst among the Khawtlang and Khawchhak clans, which after various vicissitudes, including a more or less lengthy sojourn among the Lushais, recently entered Manipur territory, the ghalim has become a feeble imitation of a Lushai lal. The Old Kiild Clans of Mcmipur. Under this heading I propose dealing with the Aimol, Anal, Chawte, Chiru, Kolhen, Kom, Lamgang, Purum, Tikhup, and Vaiphei, who are now found in various parts of the hills bordering the Manipur valley, and who resemble each other in very many respects. In spite of this resemblance, the clans, while acknowledging their relationship to one another, keep entirely apart, living in separate villages and never inter- marrying. In the Manipur chronicle the Chiru and Anal are mentioned as early as the middle of the sixteenth century, while the Aimol make their first appearance in 1728. They are said to have come from Tipperah, but at that time the eastern boundary of Tipperah was not determined, and the greater part of the present Lushai Hills district was supposed to be more or less under the control of the Rajah of that State. A short distance to the east of Aijal there is a village site called Vai-tui-chhun — i.e., the watering place of the Vai — which is said to commemorate a former settlement of the Vaiphei. It seems probable, therefore, that the Aimol and Vaiphei left ISO THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. their former homes in consequence of the forward movement of the Lusheis. The remaining tribes all claim to have come from various places to the south of Manipur — the Anal from the Haubi peak, the Chiru from " the Hranglal hill far away in the south," the Kom from the Sakripung hill in the Chin Hills ; the other clans can give no nearer definition of the home of their forefathers than far away to the south. Like the Lushais, they all assert that they are descended from couples who issued out of the earth, the Chhinglung of the Lushais being replaced by " Khurpui " — i.e., the great hole. The Anal assert that two brothers came out of a cave on the Haubi peak, and that the elder was the ancestor of the Anals, while the younger went to the valley of Manipur and became king of the valley. Another tradition says that the Manipuris, Anals, and Thados are the descendants of three men, Avhose father was the son of Pakhangba, the mythical snake-man ancestor of the Manipuri royal family, who, taking the form of an attractive youth, overcame the scruples of a maiden engaged in weeding her jhum (compare Hodson's "Meitheis," page 12). These legends were probably invented after the clans had come in contact in order to account for the resemblances between them. The Chiru claim to be descended from Rezar, the son of Chongthu, the ancestor of the clan of that name still found in the Lushai Hills, whose name also appears in the Thado pedigree. The Lamgang tell the following tale : — On the Kangmang hill, away to the south, there is a cave. Out of this came a man and a woman, and were eaten up by a tiger which was watching. A god who had two horns, seeing this horrible sight, came out and drove away the tiger, and so the next couple to emerge escaped and became the ancestors of the Lamgang. The Purum claim to be descended from Touring and Tonshu, who issued from the earth. It is said that " Pu rum " means " hide from tiger," Avhich connects them closely with the Lamgang legend. The Kolhen's ancestors were a man and woman who sprang out of Khurpui provided with a basket and a spear, and lived at Talching, and had a son and daughter called Nairung and Shaithatpal, the direct descendants of whom are said still to be found among the Kolhen. Ill THE OLD KUKI CLAxNS 151 The Chawte told me the tale of the peopling of the world out of a hole in the ground, adding the graphic touch that an inquisitive monkey lifted up a stone which laj- over the opening, and thus allowed their ancestors to emerge. It is not quite clear whether these clans are eponymous. The Chiru say that their clan is named after an ancestor, but can give no pedigree. The Aimol say that there is no general name for the various families, and that Aimol is the name of the village site. It is probably Ai-mual. " Ai " is the Lushai name of a berry and also means crab, and appears in Ai-zawl or Aijal. "Mual" is the Lushai for a spur of a hill. It is a very common, in fact almost a universal, custom to call a new village site, if it has no recognised name, after the site of the old village, and probably the original Aimual would be found in the centre of the Lushai Hills. All these clans have come much under Manipuri influence, and the Chiru, Aimol, Kolhen, Chawte, Purum, and Tikhup have abandoned the ancestral architecture, and now live in houses built on raised earthen plinths like the Manipuris. The remaining clans still adhere to the ancient style, their houses being raised some four or five feet off the ground on posts. The walls are of planks, and the roofs of thatching grass ; they remind one much of the Falam houses. Round each village are clustered the granaries — small houses raised well off the ground and placed sufficiently far from the dwelling houses to make them fairly safe from fire. Where the houses are raised sufficiently pigs and poultry live under them ; but cattle sheds are common, most of these clans having learnt the value of cows and buffaloes from the Manipuris. The handsome breed of goats so common in a Lushai village is seldom if ever seen, but animals of an inferior sort are generally kept. The Chiru, Kom, and Tikhup still build zawlbuks. No woman is allowed to enter these buildings, which, besides being the dormitories of the unmarried men, are used for drinking bouts. They are externally very like those built by the Lushais, but have several fireplaces evidently used for cooking, and the general hearth in the centre is absent. Some of the clans which do not now build zawlbuks say that they believe their 152 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. forefathers did so. In the absence of the zawlbuk the young men generally sleep in the houses of well-to-do villagers, but among the Purum I am told that " if a man has one un- married son and one unmarried daughter, the boy goes to sleep at the house of a man who has an unmarried daughter ; though they sleep in this way they are very careful about their characters." Have we here stumbled on the real origin of the " young men's house " — a desire to prevent incest ? The young women also have houses in which they gather at time of festivals, but they do not sleep there. The rotchem, the Lushai mouth-organ, is found among all these clans, but rather smaller and ornamented with fowls' feathers. The Anal make a speciality of long bamboo trumpets, on which they perform with considerable skill, producing sounds indistinguishable from those of a bugle. The trumpets are from four to five feet long, and have bell-shaped mouths made of gourds. Most of these clans have adopted various dances from the Manipuris, their own dancing being of the monotonous nature common to the Lushais and Kukis. In dress and method of wearing the hair Manipuri influence is also noticeable, the men generally wearing coats and loin- cloths and turbans. The women are more conservative and adhere to the short petticoat. The hair is generally worn very much in the Lushai fashion, but the Chiru men are an exception to this. They part their hair in the middle and brush it down straight, and trim it level with the bottom of the ears. They bind a narrow fillet of cane round the head slightly above the eyes. The Kolhen women gather the hair into two heavy rolls, which hang down in front of each ear. The Tikhup maidens have adopted the Manipuri method of dressing the hair. The ivory discs worn in the ears by Lushai women are not found, but metal rings are worn in a similar manner by both sexes. The Manipuris have instituted in each village a number of posts with high-sounding titles, similar to those in use among themselves, but traces of the older organisation are to be found. Thus the Aimol recognise a man called Thompa, of the Chomgom family, as the head of the clan, but he has no power Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS oo and receives nothing, while in each village are four officials who receive a portion of every animal killed in the chase. They are called " kamzakhoi," " zakachhimga," " zupalba," and " pakang- lakpa." The last two titles have a distinctly Manipuri sound about them. The usual titles found are "khul-lakpa" — i.e., chief of the village — " lup-lakpa," " zupalba," and " Methei hnnbu " — i.e. Manipuri interpreter — but there are others. The khul-lakpa and lup-lakpa are hereditary posts. Among the Lamgang there are seven such hereditary posts. Among the Chiru the khul- lakpa, besides receiving a portion of each animal killed, also gets his house built for nothing, which brings him very near to the Lushai " lal." Among the Kolhen the khul-lakpa's and lup-lakpa's posts are not hereditary, but on the death of either his successor must be chosen out of the same family, but his sons are ineligible. The new official has to give a feast, killing a pig, which is eaten by the whole community, and the young men and maidens make merry with dance and song. It seems probable that in this may be some idea of averting the evil effects of a breach of the generally accepted custom. The puithiam is known as "thempu," "khulpu," or "bulropa," and both he and the blacksmith are sometimes rewarded, receiv- ing a day's labour from each householder they serve, instead of a donation of rice. The Lushai system of " boi " is generally unknown, which is only natural in such democratic communities. The following animals are not generally eaten — tigers, snakes, cats, crows, or kites ; and among the Lamgang the rat is also considered unfit for food. Each clan is divided into eponymous families and generally marriage is restricted to the clan, but alliances within the family are prohibited. The Aimol clan is divided into five families — Chongom, Laita or Mangte, Khoichung or Lei von, Lanu, and Chaita. Marriage is unrestricted, but it is unusual for either sex to marry without the chm. The Kolhen are divided into twelve exogamous families divided into two groups, which are also exogamous {v. below, under Festivals, page 167), but marriage outside the clan is prohibited. Among the Anal, Purum, and Lamgang marriages must be made within th«' clan, but not within the family. 154 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. The Tikhup clan, which only numbers some twenty households, is not sub-divided, but marriage is endogamous. The union of first cousins, either paternal or maternal, is prohibited. The elders of the clan attributed the steady decline in their numbers to this custom of endogamy. The Chiru and Chawte customs are alike; not only is a young man's choice limited to some family in the clan other than his own, but the actual families from which he may choose his bride are strictly fixed. Among the Cliiru — A Danla lad may marry a Dingthoi or Shangpa girl. A Dingthoi lad may marry a Chongdur or Danla girl. A Rezar lad may marry a Danla girl. A Shangpa lad may marry a Dingthoi or Danla girl. A Chongdur lad may marry a Danla girl. Danla is the family from which the khul-lakpa must be taken, and Rezar has already been noticed as the son of Chongthu, from whom the Chiru claim descent. Among the Chawte — A Marem lad may only marry a Makhan girl. A Makhan lad may only marry an Irung girl. A Kiang lad may only marry a Makhan or Marem girl. An Irung lad may only marry a Marem, Thao, or Kiang girl. A Thao lad may only marry a Makhan girl. Among the Aimol, Anal, Chiru, and Purum, a young man has to serve his future wife's father for three years, during which he works as if he were a son of the house. During this period he has free access to the girl, though among the Chiru he con- tinues to sleep among the bachelors. Should the girl become enceinte the marriage ceremony must be performed, and the price paid. Among the Aimol the bride's eldest brother gets Rs. 6/- and each of the others one rupee less than his immediate senior. The paternal and maternal uncles receive Rs. 2/- each ; the aunt and the elder sister also receive Rs. 1/- each as "niman" and " nao-puan-puk-man," as among the Lushais. Among the Anal and the Purum, the price must not be less in THE OLD KUKI CLANS 155 than a pig and a piece of iron a cubit in length, but the o-irl's relatives try to get as much more as they can. The bridegroom has also to feast the family of his bride three times on pork, fowls, and rice, washed down, of course, with plenty of zu. The Chiru girls are only valued at one gong. Among the other clans, marriage is by simple purchase. A Chawte maiden can be obtained for a spear, a dao, and a fowl, the payment being sealed by the consumption of much zu. The price of a Kolhen girl is a gong and Rs. 7/- to her mother, and Rs. 7/- each to the elder and younger brother and the maternal uncle. This is most curious, for the father is entirely omitted. Can it be a survival of mother right ? The Kom girls are valued very high, the father receiving one gong, four buffaloes, fifteen cloths, a hoe, and a spear, the aunt taking a black and white cloth. A Lamgamg bridegroom has to pay his father-in-law three pigs or buffaloes or cows, one string of conch shell beads, one lead bracelet, and one black or blue petticoat. A Tikhup father expects a gong, ten hoes, one dao, and one spear ; the maternal grandfather also demands Rs. 7/-. The price of a Vaiphei girl varies between two and ten mithan. To a certain extent the price of the girls may be taken as an indication of the relative importance of the clan. Marriage by servitude is not found among either the Lushai or the Thado clans ; its appearance among the Old Kukis is there- fore curious, for as a rule the customs of a clan will be found to resemble those of one or the other of these two main divisions of the Kuki-Lushai race. Polygamy is, as a rule, permitted. Among the Anal and Lamgang, the first wife is entitled to the company of her husband for five nights, the second for four, and the third for three. It is not quite clear how a second marriage by servitude can be carried out, and probably the rules are modified in such cases. Polygamy is but little practised un account of the expense ; among the Kolhen it is prohibited. In most of these clans the Thado rule of inheritance is followed — viz., the eldest son takes all his father's property, the younger sons only getting what the heir chooses to give them. Among the Anal and Purum, and probably also the Lamgang, the sons of the deceased divide the property, but the youngest 156 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. son takes the house and supports the widow, thus approximating to the Lushai custom. In most clans the father of an illegitimate child is fined. Among the Chiru the fine is a pig, a mithan, and two gongs. Divorce is generally easily obtained. Among the Aimol, if either party repents of the bargain, the payment of a cloth and three pots of zu annuls the contract. Among the Tikhup the cost of divorce is a mithan and a gong. The Anal and most of the other clans insist on the question being submitted to the village officials, who receive fees according to their position, and settle what compensation, if any, shall be paid to either party. As a rule it is very difficult for a woman to obtain a divorce unless her husband agrees, even though he may be extremely unfaithful and brutal. Among the Anal she must give a feast to the village or pay her husband Rs. 50/-. In case of a wife being led astray the injured husband recovers her price or an equivalent amount (among the Tikhup twice the price) from her seducer. In this the Thado custom is followed, which is more just than that of the Lushais, but not so conducive to morality, for among the the Lushais the whole of the woman's family are interested in keeping her from committing herself and are loud in condemnation should she do so, as they have to refund the various sums they have received on her behalf, whereas among the Thado the seducer simply pays up the price and takes the woman, who is thought very little the worse of — in fact, among the clans which follow this apparently more just custom, women hold a far lower position, being traded from one to another, unless they have influential male relatives who take an interest in them. All these clans have been given definite sites in Manipur and have practically abandoned the migratory habits of their fore- fathers, and therefore the idea of property in land, which is entirely absent in the case of the Lushais, is fast springing up. Many villages are moving nearer to the plain in order that the people may take leases from the State of land in the valley and carry on plough cultivation, but they also do a certain amount of jhuming, and proprietary rights in jhum lands are recognised. The punishment for theft is arranged nmch on the Lushai system of the theft of certain articles having a fixed fine Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS 157 attached to it. This is generally a pig, two jars of zu, and a brass plate. Among the Chiru the whole fine is consumed by the people of the village, the thief also getting his share. The Kolhen punishment is a fine of Rs. 28/-, a pig, and two jars of zu. In case of rice being stolen, the Tikhup custom is that the village officials at once kill and eat the pig of the thief and then make him pay a mithan as compensation to the complainant. Thefts of minor articles are generally punished by the thief providing a pig and zu for the entertainment of his judges. Manslaughter is punished by the pa3anent of compensation, the amount vary- ing considerably. The Anal demand a mithan and a gong, the Chiru a mithan and a cloth, the Kolhen three mithan, a brass pot, a pig, and two pots of zu, the Lamgang four gongs, ten jars of zu, and a big pig. Petty assaults are punished by fines of pigs and zu. A false charge is often punished by a fine of zu. Most of these clans declare that sodomy is unknown among them, the very notion appearing to them highly absurd. All disputes and accusations are disposed of by the village officials, who meet sometimes in the house of the khul-lakpa and sometimes at a special spot outside the village where stone seats have been prepared. Since the settlement of these clans in Manipur territory all raiding and fighting has been stopped, so that they have practic- ally forgotten what were the habits of their forefathers in these respects, but the Kom declare that in the good old days the young Kom warriors went off on head-hunting expeditions, and if successful adorned the village gate with the trophies of their prowess ; and there is no reason to doubt that, in spite of their present peaceable behaviour, the previous history of these clans was not less full of raids and counter-raids than that of their neighbours. The general religious beliefs of these clans show a great resemblance to each other and also to that of the Lushais. Pathian is universally recognised as the creator who lives in the sky, though the name is slightly different, appearing as Pathel among the Anal and Kolhen, and Patheng among the Kom. Mi-thi-khua is generally known as the place of departed spirits, but the Chiru and Tikhup have no idea of a place of greater 158 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. comfort for the spirits of warriors, though the Chiru believe that the spirits of those that die unnatural deaths go to a separate and inferior place, while those of the other dead go westwards into the sky. The Anal, Kolhen, and Lamgang believe that, after hovering around the grave for some time, the spirit is reincarnated in some new-born child, but that an unnatural death prevents this and the spirit passes away skywards and returns no more. The belief in a being or beings which trouble the spirits on their way to Mi-thi-khua, as Pupawla does with his pellet bow, is very general. The Aimol call him Ramcharipu, and say that he makes the spirits of all, except " Thangchhuah," kill a certain number of lice in his head. The Vaiphei say that a male and a female being guard the road and trouble and detain the spirits of those who have not attained the honours of Thangchhuah. With the exception of the Tik- hup, all the clans believe in demons, which they call by various names and which correspond exactly with the Huai of the Lushais. The Aimol call these devils Numeinu, Thanglian Borh, Tuikuachoi. " Numeinu " means mother of woman Borh brings to memory the infantile illness called by that name by the Lushais, while " Tuikuachoi " is evidently the Tui-huai. The Aimol and Chiru perform the Daibawl sacrifices in the same manner as the Lushais. The Chawte sacrifice pigs and fowls in case of sickness, but the Khal sacrifices are quite un- known to any Old Kuki clans. Lashi is known to the Aimol and Vaiphei. Among the former the Sakhua sacrifices are performed to this deity, and he is capable of giving success in the chase, The Vaiphei place Lashi almost on a par with Pathian and sacrifice a pig to him every year. Strange to say, he is supposed to have only one leg. The Sakhua chant of the Vuite commences with an invocation to all the wild animals to collect. In nearly every clan there is an annual festival in honour of the souls of those who have died during the year, but in no case is the Mi-thi-rawp-lam or any similar festival included in the series of Thangchhuah feasts. The Aimol sacrifice either a pig or a goat to Lashi as their Sakhua. The Chawte have been much influenced by Manipuris, and I was first told that the names of their gods were Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS 159 Pakhangba and Nimgchongba, but on a little further enquiry I found that Pakhangba was always called Pathian when talking among themselves. The other deity is probably the Manipuri god Nungshaba (" The Meitheis," Hodson, page 98). Above the hamlet was an oval, level space with a low wall round it. At the eastern end was a small house in which were two stones. This was the abode of Pakhangba, and to one side was Nungchongba's dwelling place, which consisted of three small stones, with a fourth one placed on the top. In front of these a bull is sacrificed once in three years, and dancing and singing take place every year after the harvest. The Chiru believe in " Rampus," which in some respects appear to be the same as the Lushai " Huai," but in others they appear to be local gods. The four chief Rampus live one on Kobru, a high hill overlooking the northern extremity of the Manipur valley and called by the Manipuris the guardian of the north, one in Kangjupkhul, the village site of my informants, one on Makong hill and one in the valley of Manipur. Twice a year the Rampu of Kobra is honoured with the sacrifice of a dog, while pigs, fowls, or goats are offered to the others. In July a dog is killed in honour of the first three and a pig in honour of the last-named. In case of very serious illness, when the Daibawl sacrifices have proved unavailing, special sacrifices are made to the three chief Rampus above men- tioned. These four Rampus are evidently nearer to local godlings than the multitudinous and ill-defined Huais of the Lushais. In July Pathian also is honoured, a pig being killed on behalf of the whole village, while each household sacrifices a fowl. The day is held sacred, no work being done. It is known as Chapui-chol-lai — i.e., holiday in the great heat. The four Rampus can only have come into prominence since the settlement of the hamlet at Kangju])khul, and it is probable that different ones are worshipped by other hamlets. The Chiru also perform Sakhua sacrifices as the Lushais do. The Tikhup denied all knowledge of any devils or semi-divine beings, saying that they worshipped Pathian and him only. Every year in Phalgun they sacrifice a pig and a cock to Pathian, and much zu is drunk. In cases of sickness sacrifices of pigs or fowls and offerings of fiowers, eggs, and rice are made i6o THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. to Pathian. Dogs are never sacrificed. I think this is the only clan in which they are not. I failed to find out the cause of this. In the other clans the sacrifices are combined with festivals either in connection with the crops, the dead, or Thangchhuah, and are not simply in honour of the god. The puithiam of the Lushais becomes " thempu " and in some clans " khulpu." The last name seems to indicate his responsibility for protecting the village from all ills and mis- fortunes by performing the necessary sacrifices (khul = village, pu = protector). He appears here as one of the village officials, which is the natural result of the inhabitants of each village being all of the same clan, instead of many clans, as among the Lushais. The functions and methods of the thempu and khulpu appear to be the same as those of his Lushai confrere,. There are various restrictions imposed on pregnant women. Among the Anal she may not eat chillies or honey, and her husband must not touch a snake or a corpse. The Kolhen prohibit her from killing a snake, attending a funeral ceremony, and eating a crab, eggs, and a certain vegetable called " chak " in its young state. The Lamgang also debar her from touching a corpse, but the prohibited articles of food are a sort of fish called "ngarin" and a small animal which I have not succeeded in identifying. The birth ceremonies are much alike ; in every clan there is a period during which the woman, and in some cases the house, is "sherh." During this time the mother's movements are restricted in some way. Among the Aimol the period is five days in case of a boy, and three in case of a girl ; among the Anal and Purum, three days in both cases ; among the Chawte, Kom, and Vaiphei, five. Among the Chiru the period is extended to ten days, during which the mother must not go out and no one but near relations may enter the house. Among the Kolhen the period is also ten days, but all women of the village may enter the house ; the mother must eat no flesh, and fowls only may be sacrificed. Cohabitation is prohibited for three months. Among the Tikhup the restriction on the mother's movements lasts only till the disposal of the afterbirth by special persons who clean up the house ; till this is done no one may take a light Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS i6i from the fire or remove any article from the house. In every case at the conclusion of this period there is a sacrifice. The custom of the Aimol is for the " thempu " to pour out a libation of zu and herbs in front of the house and invoke the child's spirit to take up its residence within the new-born infant. The name is given at the same time, the father's family choosing the name of a son and the mother's of a daughter. On the day of the birth of an Anal child, the " khulpu " is called, and after he has muttered certain incantations, zu and fish are distributed to the whole village. All sacrificing is prohibited for three days, and cohabitation for three months. When distributing the zu and fish, the house- hold gods — i.e., the Sakhua — are invoked and the soul of the child is summoned. Among the Chawte the thempu attends on the day of the birth, and sacrifices a fowl and sips zu. He then mutters incantations over a piece of turmeric which is then thrown out of the house. On the fifth day a fowl is killed, and as the name selected is pronounced three grains of rice are dropped into a cup of water, and if they sink the name is approved, but if they fioat another one must be selected and tested in the same manner. The Chiru ceremonies are more elaborate. After ten days the thempu comes to the house, a rakeng tree is planted in front of it, and then the thempu sacrifices a hen on behalf of the mother, and a cock or a hen, according to the sex of the child, on its behalf. The parents eat the flesh of the birds, and the sherh and bones are buried in the house. Two or three pots of zu are consumed by married persons. The thempu, taking some zu in his mouth, goes round inside the house, blowing it out on the walls and muttering charms. The mother can now leave the house, but for three or four days must not leave the village. The " keng-puna " or " ming-puna" — i.e., " name-giving " — takes place almost immediately. Two cocks or hens, according to the sex of the infant, are killed by the thempu, and their blood smeared on the infant's forehead and navel, some of the feathers being tied in its hair. The Kolhen pierce the child's ears and give the name on the tenth day, the ceremony being the same as among the Chiru on that day. The maternal grandfather is expected to give the child a pair of brass earrings, M 1 62 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS CHAP. bracelets, leg ornaments, and a string of glass beads, and it is generally named after him — a custom also followed by the Koms, who combine the name-giving and ear-piercing, giving a feast for the purpose, on the expiration of the five days' sherh. The ear-piercing is done by the paternal aunt. The Lamgang ceremonies are the same as those of the Anal, but the father is prohibited from eating the flesh of fowls during the sherh period, while the mother is under no restriction as regards diet. No other animal may be sacrificed during that time, and co- habitation is not allowed for one month. The Purum customs are severely simple. The thempu comes and mutters charms on the day of the birth, and returns on the third day and makes a libation of zu. No sacrifices are allowed. The name is given on the second day by the midwife, and the ears are pierced on the seventh day, but in neither case is there any ceremony. The Tikhup give the name at a feast, to which the elders of the community are invited ; a cock is killed and zu dispensed freely. In case of the parents being poor, this feast may be postponed till the child is two years old. The custom of summoning the child's soul reminds one of the Lushai prohibition of labour on the part of the parents for seven days after the child's birth, lest its soul, which hovers around them during that period, be injured. Where marriage is by service, it is only natural that the actual ceremony should be of little importance, for the couple have been living as man and wife duiing the whole time ; but marriage, ^j^gj-g ^re exceptions. At an Aimol wedding two thempus are necessary — one of the bridegroom's, and one of the bride's family. Each kills a cock, the feathers of which are tied round the necks of the happy pair, after which there is the usual orgy. The Chiru and Tikhup custom is almost identical, but the village thempu officiates alone. Among the Kolhen, the young man's mother makes six visits to the parents of her future daughter-in-law, taking an offering of zu, and being accompanied by her eldest son-in-law or other male relative, and on the last occasion by two or three women. Two days after the last visit, the price is fixed, and the day for the ceremony chosen by the bridegroom's father and the village officials. The bridegroom, on the day before Ceremo- nies con- nected with Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS 163 that fixed for the marriage, goes to the girl's house, accompanied by several male friends, and makes a present of three pots of zu to her parents. The next morning the bride, accompanied by the unmarried girls of the village, goes to her future home, taking with her two jars of zu, a hen, a piece of ginger, a dog, a strap for carrying loads, a new cloth, and a bracelet. She parts from her friends, with many tears, on the doorstep of her new home. The khulpu decapitates a fowl and throws it down ; if the right leg falls over the left a happy married life is assured. The night is spent in singing and dancing, and the following night in the same way, but in the house of the bride, who on the next morning quits her father's house for good. On the day of the marriage the bride and bridegroom must not leave the village. This taking of omens by killing a cock is practised by the Lamgang and Kom. Where marriage is not by service the preliminaries in all clans resemble much those among the Kolhen. Among the Vaiphei, and, I think, in some other clans, the young man has to give a feast to the young men frequent- ing the same dormitory. A similar custom is described in Fielding Hall's " The Inward Light," page 104, as existing in Burma. " It is an old custom for the village boys to band themselves together in a company. . . . But when one marries he ceases to belong to the company, for he is about to enter into another and a wider life. He is a deserter and a traitor to his fellows. Therefore they lay in wait for him and caught him as he went home at night, and, taking him without the village gate, they tried him and found him guilty. With mock ceremony he was condemned to be turned out from their ranks, and to pay a fine wherewith his comrades might drown their sorrow at his desertion. Then with laughter and song, to the light of torches, they took him home in long pro- cession." Widows are allowed to remarry, but as a rule the brothers of the deceased husband have a prior claim, and if the woman marries anyone else before the annual feast in honour of the dead she has to pay a fine, which in some clans is as much as Rs. 120/-, to her brother-in-law. Until this annual feast has come round she must remain in her late husband's house, but when that has been performed she may return to her father's house M 2 i64 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. if she wishes to, but in that case the brother-in-law will take the dead man's property and children. Ceremo- All these clans bury their dead in special cemeteries outside riected " ^^^® village, and unnatural deaths or deaths in childbirth are with universally considered signs that the deceased has failed in some way, and the corpses of such unfortunates are buried outside the cemetery and with scant ceremony. Among the Aimol, the corpse of the khul-lakpa is carried round the village before being taken to the grave. The corpse of one who has gained honours equivalent to Thang- chhuah among the Lushais is enclosed in a rough log coffin and kept for two days amid much drinking and feasting, which recalls the funeral ceremonies of a Lushei chief. With a rich man many cloths are buried and with a poor man at least one. In addition some cooked rice, zu, a dao, some meat, and a bow and arrow are deposited in the grave. The bow and arrow are a survival, for such weapons have been long obsolete. Over the grave a small house is built in which some meat and zu are placed to attract the " Khawhring." Spears are then thrust through the house, which is then thrown away. I am not quite clear whether the " Khawhring " in this case is supposed, as among the Lushais, to have inhabited the body of the deceased, or whether it is believed to be a disembodied spirit which is on the lookout for the soul of the deceased. Three days after the burial a wild animal is killed and zu and rice are offered, and the spirit of the deceased is asked to go away and not to trouble the living who have sacrificed and made an offering of zu and rice. The Anal make a distinction between deaths in childbirth and deaths by accident or in Avar. In the former case the body is buried in the cemetery, the grave being dug by those of her household, and food and drink and domestic utensils are deposited therein. The husband has to sacrifice a pig and feast the village before the burial, and the village is " sherh " for that day. The first stones and earth are placed in the grave by aged men, and the filling then completed by young men. The thempu having muttered some charms, the young men and women sing and dance for the deliverance of the soul. In cases of ordinary death the grave is dug by men not of the household, but in case of unnatural death only old Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS 165 grey-headed men may perform the task, and the grave is dug in the jungle and no dance or song terminates the funeral, but the village is not " sherh." The Chawte make their cemetery some distance from the village. The dead are buried on the day of death. Over each grave a mound is raised and fenced round with a bamboo trellis- work. A small post carved faintly to resemble the human form is placed over the grave of a man, while a hoe, axe, and winnow- ing fan denote the grave of a woman. On each grave rests a flat basket containing some flowers and a small jar of water. Behind each grave is a rough representation of a house raised some four feet from the ground, which is also ornamented with flowers, and some of the deceased's clothes hang from it, while inside are placed a bamboo full of zu and a small cup, which is filled with clean water, and a handful of raw rice. These are changed every third or fourth day till the Thi-duh ceremony comes round in May, when there is a feast, and portions of meat and some zu are placed on each fresh grave. On the death of a Chiru, guns are fired and gongs beaten, and a fowl, pig, and goat are killed at once. There is the usual funeral feast, and food and personal effects, including his comb, are buried with him. The house is " sherh " for three days, during which rice is placed in a small basket in the house and then thrown on to the grave. On the third day the house is purified by the thempu sacrificing a cock. In nearly every clan the house has to be purified by the thempu besprinkling it with either consecrated water or zu, and in many cases the funeral party are similarly purified. The Kolhen bury the bodies of those who die natural deaths in front of their houses, as do the Lushais, and the funeral feast closely resembles that held by the Lushais. The body of a khul-lakpa is carried three times round his memorial stone, from left to right. A bow and arrow are placed in the grave. The village is " sherh " for three days for any death. The Lamgang follow the same customs as the Anal, but the bodies of women who die in childbirth are not buried in the graveyard. The Kom and the Purum have the curious custom that the duty of digging the grave in case of an unnatural death falls on the son-in-law of the deceased. They say that the spirit of the dead cries out at the place where he i66 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. met his death until appeased by an offering of tobacco leaves and rice. The Tikhup funeral is exactly the same as that of an ordinary Lushai. The Vaiphei dress up the corpse and strap it on to a bamboo frame, as do the Lushais, and feast around it for three days if food and drink suffice for so long. At the end of the feast the thempu pours some zu down the throat of the corpse and bids the spirit go in peace, and the body is carried to the grave, but if the deceased has attained Thangchhuah honours, it is first carried round the village. The household of the deceased abstain from washing or dressing the hair till some wild animal has been killed. The custom of giving something to the maternal grandfather or uncle on the occasion of a death, known among the Lushais as " lukawng," is found among several clans. Among the Tikhup and Kolhen, for instance, he receives the neck of the animal killed on the occasion of the funeral; and in the last-named clan he also receives a pipe or Rs. 2/-. The custom known among the Kabul and other allied tribes in Manipur as " mandu," which ordains that a widower shall pay his deceased wife's father a certain sum as the price of her bones, is only found among the Kolhen, with whom it is usual to pay Rs. 5/- or 6/-. Among the Kolhen a child dying within ten days of its birth is buried under the eaves of the house, and is called " thichhiat " equivalent to the " hlamzuih " among the Lushais. Festivals. 1. Connected with Crops. — The Tikhup, the only monothe- istic clan in the hills, have no ceremonies connected with the crops, but allow no dancing, singing, or music in the village between the sowing and the reaping. Among the other Old Kuki clans there is a great resemblance between the festivals, and their connection with the Lushai " Kuts " can be easily traced — in some cases, as among the Kom, the name being actually the same. A festival which is common to several clans and generally takes place in the spring, though sometimes later, and is supposed to ensure good ■ crops and good luck generally, is known by various similar names, all meaning " Pulling the Creeper." Kolhen " Keidun " Festival. — This occurs in April. The first day, called " Karamindai," or " Changritakhoi," is occupied Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS 167 by the young men going off to bring in two long creepers. A fowl and a pig are sacrificed and the creepers are hung over a post. On the next day the creepers are brought to the khul-lakpa's stone, and he, saying certain charms, pours out a libation of rice beer, and then a tug of war takes place between two parties selected as follows :— On one side are all the young men of the khul-lakpa's family — viz., the Chongthu — and on the other those of the Jete, to which the lup-lakpa belongs. With the Chongthu pull the young men of the following families — viz., Tulthung, Maite, Tiante, Laishel, Songchungnung, while with the Jete are associated the young men of the Lunglai, Rembual, Mirem Tumtin, and Vanbie. The girls of each family pull on the opposite side to the young men of their family. While the pull is in progress the khul-lakpa sings a song, and when he reaches a certain point the rope is cut in two by a man who stands waiting with a dao. The pull is repeated with the second creeper, and each party carries off the ends it has retained. Marriages are only allowed between the young people who pull on the same side, with the exception of the Chongthu, who, being of the chief's family, may marry a girl of any family except their own. During the festival no work of any sort must be done, but otherwise there are no restrictions as regards villagers or strangers, but the khul-lakpa must abstain from work and from cohabitation for two or three days before. Should a death occur a day or two before the date fixed for the festival, the fact will not be recognised till the completion of the feast, when the funeral ceremonies will take place as if the death had occurred on that day, the corpse being kept outside the village during the interval. The Anal and Lamgang, as usual, observe the festival in a similar manner. The creeper having been brought to the gate of the village, the headmen and the thempu receive it, and the latter, muttering prayers, pours over it a libation of rice beer, and then ties a piece of it to the gate. The remainder is cut up and a piece is tied to each house in the village. The thempu goes round at night throwing a piece of turmeric into each house and calling out as he throws each piece, " From to- day may all evil and misfortune run away from this house." ^ ' Compare tho Synteng custom of beh-dieng-khlam, — P. R. G. i68 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. The Purum celebrate the festival in August, and the unmarried girls take a prominent part in the ceremonj'. A raised platform is made before the house of the eldest unmarried girl in the village. (In a community where there is no dearth of husbands, and every girl is sure of being married in due course, the prominence given to the eldest spinster is not objected to as it might be in an English village.) On this platform the girls assemble, and the creeper after the usual ceremonies is tied to the platform, and there is a great feast with much dancing between the young folk. The similarity between these festivals and the " Koi-hrui-an- chat," mentioned under the Ngente, bears out the truth of the tradition that these clans long ago were near neighbours. The Chiru at the time of cutting the jhums go in procession with drums and gongs to the place chosen and on their return drink much rice beer. In March or April, before the sowing, a festival called " Arem " is celebrated. On the first day a dog is killed at a stone to the west of the village, and a pig to the north in the direction of the hill Kobru. All the men attend, but no women. The animals are killed by the thempu. The flesh is eaten there by the whole party, and the " sherh " are left at the place of sacrifice. There is then a drinking party in the house of the thempu. On the second day all the young men go and catch fish, and on their return they are entertained with two pots of rice beer by the unmarried girls. On the third day the lup-lakpa gives a feast of meat and rice, washed down by much rice beer, to the men only, and later all dance in front of the " chhirbuk " — i.e., Lushai zawlbuk. The fourth day is spent in visiting each other, drinking and singing at each other's houses. As soon as it is dark men and women meet before the chhirbuk and dance round the stone drinking ; then they go to the lup-lakpa's house and drink again, and then to a house where all the unmarried girls are collected and drink again, and then bring the girls to the chhirbuk and dance round the stone again, drinking as they go. This is a pretty heavy day's work, and it speaks well for the young folk if many of them have the energy to complete the pro- gramme by drinking and dancing together on the fifth day. During the festival the village is " sherh." Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS 169 The Chawte, before cutting their jhums, sacrifice a pig and go down to the stream and sharpen their daos — " Ti'ust in God, but keep your powder dry." The above festivals correspond to the " Chap-char-kut " of the Lushais, and the following resemble the " Mim-kut." The Purum in September observe " Chulkut " for five days, making and exchanging rice cakes and drinking rice beer, but not sacrificing any animals. The Kolhen observe " Chamershi " for two days in the middle of the rains — viz., in July or August. A pig and a cock are sacrificed in the khul- lakpa's house and eaten there by men only. Old men dance, and rice beer is drunk. This feast is supposed to expel evil spirits. The Chiru in July sacrifice a pig on behalf of the village to Pathian, while each household offers him a fowl. This feast is called the " feast of the hot season rest " — i.e., the few days of leisure after the second weeding of the crops. The Aimol, after burning the jhums, celebrate a feast they call " Lo-an-dai." Three fowls are killed and eaten in the khulpu's house, and rice beer is drunk, but no gong-beating or singing is allowed. After the harvest, feasts corresponding to the Lushai " Polkut" are held, but among the Purum a feast called " Shanghong " has to be celebi-ated in October, just when the grain is filling in the ear. Every householder has to bring a small sheaf of the green rice, which is presented to the village god, and feasting and drinking goes on for three days, during which time the village is " sherh." The Kolhen, before reaping the crop, carry the khul-lakpa or lup-lakpa out of the village towards the fields with beating of drums, and later drink at his expense. The Kom call the harvest festival " Lam-kut." It lasts three days. No sacrifice is performed, but the young men and girls dance and drink together. Among the Chawte the custom is practically the same as among the Purum, save that the feast only lasts one day. The Lamgang and Anal harvest festival is practically the same. In each case the best crop in the village is reaped by the whole community going to the field with dance and song, and subse- quently the lucky owner of the crop has to entertain the village for three days. It would appear that all good Lamgangs and Anals must pray to have the second best crop. On the second 170 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. day of the feast the consumption of meat and tobacco, the carrying of water and wood, and working with axes or hoes are tabu. The feast closely resembles the " Buh-Ai " of other clans. The Aimol custom is very different from that of the other clans. All the men go out in search of game, the flesh of which is eaten in the evening, and drums are beaten and songs sung while the rice beer circulates freely, in contrast to the feast at the sowing time. Dancing is, however, tabu. The harvest feast is called " Sherh an long." The Lamgang have an extra feast, or rather period of rest, when the grain is all garnered, when for ten days no one may enter or leave the village, and no work can be done, the whole energies of the community being concentrated on eating and drinking well. 2. Feasts Corresponding with the Thangchhuah Feasts of the Lushai. — The idea of " Thangchhuah " is found in some form or other in all clans. Even in those clans who have no very clear conception of a special abode for the spirits of those who have earned good fortune in the world beyond the grave by feasts and killing men and animals here below, we find feasts the giving of which confers on the giver special considera- tion among his fellow-villagers and entitles his corpse to special funeral honours. All these feasts seem more or less connected with the erection of some form of memorial — either a post, such as the Lushai " she-lu-pun," which finds its counterpart among several Old Kuki clans, but among them the erection of the memorial is the important part of the ceremony, whereas among the Lushais the killing of the animal is the more im- portant and the feast is named after that, not after the planting of the post ; or a stone or a heap of stones, or a paved platform. All these are erected during a man's life and are quite distinct from the memorials erected in memory of the deceased, and thus connect the Lushai-Kuki race with the Nagas> among whom the erection of stones is a very important function. The " Mi-thi-rawp-lam" is not included in the Thangchhuah series by any of these clans — in fact, it seems to be omitted by all clans not living under Lushei chiefs. These all have a special annual ceremony to lay the ghosts of those who have Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS 171 died during the preceding year. The explanation of this seems to be that among the Lushais the clans have all been broken up and are scattered in different villages, and therefore an annual clan ceremony is not possible, and it has become a virtu- ous act for some wealthy member of the clan to celebrate the feast in honour of the dead of the clan. Among the clans which have retained their corporate existence the annual ceremony is natural, and therefore it is excluded from the Thangchhuah series. The Tikhup can earn consideration after death by giving a single feast. The young men and maidens collect a big heap of stones and arrange a seat of honour near it for the giver of the feast, who is carried down on a litter. The young folk dance and sing and drink before him, and then he is carried back to the ^dllage and has to present a mithan to the young men, who feast on it for a day and a night at the house of their leader. A song is composed in honour of the giver of the feast, which is sung at all subsequent feasts. The Lamgang, Kom, Kolhen, and Anal put up wooden posts, the Chawte erect a post and pave a piece of ground in front of it, while the Aimol put up a stone and make a pavement. Mithan and pigs are killed, and a feast given which lasts several days, the cost being met by the person ambitious of fame. The Chiru alone seem to have no idea of Thangchhuah, and, as noted before, have no idea of a special abode for good spirits. The Vaiphei have to give two feasts, at the first of which one, and at the second two or more, mithan are killed. The Kolhen, on occasion of putting up the post, sacrifice a mithan thus : — The thempu first throws an egg at the forehead of the mithan, muttering a charm to drive away all evil ; the animal is then speared until blood is drawn, after which it may be shot. They also give the following feasts as part of the Thangchhuah ceremonies : — " Khuang-that " — i.e., " making a drum." The first day is occupied in bringing the log which is to be hollowed into the drum ; on the second there is a dance outside the house of the giver of the feast ; on the third the mithan is killed after a thempu has broken the egg on its 1/2 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap, forehead, and then another thempu invokes its spirit, blowing rice-beer over the body, as at the Fanai festival, p. 138. The fourth and fifth days are occupied with feasting. " Lungainai " — i.e., "collection of stones" — this is very similar to the Tikhup festival, with the carrying of the giver omitted \ a mithan is killed as above described. The Aimol have also the drum-making feast, and another in which the giver is carried on a litter, but no heap of stones is made. On each occasion much rice-beer and flesh has to be con- sumed. 3. Other Feasts. — Mostly annual, if necessary provisions are forthcoming. Some of these probably have reference to the crops. The Purum celebrate " Yarr " in February for seven days. Dancing begins each evening at sundown, and is kept up all night with feasting and drinking. In March they keep " Kumyai " for three days, the young men and maidens dancing and drinking together, but no animals are killed. This seems probably equivalent to the " Chap-char-kut " of the Lushais, but both it and the Yarr are said to be to please the village god, without any special reference to the crops. The Lamgang have a peculiar feast early in May, when the young men plant a very tall bamboo, from the end of which hangs a wooden representation of a bird, at which every man in turn, commencing with the thempu and the khul-lakpa, shoot with bows and arrows. Mithan are killed and eaten. No woman is allowed to join this festival. The Chiru and Kolhen celebrate a somewhat similar festival called " Ratek " in the middle of August. A pig and a dog are sacrificed by the thempu outside the village, on the side towards Kobru, and then two or three days later an offering of zu is placed in a small bamboo tube beside the water supply, and the drum is beaten for some time ; the party then return to the khul-lakpa's house and are treated to a drink. The following day a tall bamboo is planted in the village with a wonderfully ornamented basket hanging from it, and much zu drunk. The following year the bamboo is taken up and thrown away, the festival being named " Ratek poiyi " (c/. Lushai " pai," to throw away). Before the feast young men go Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS ■/ 5 hunting, and if they are successful good luck is sure to follow. The first day of the feast a pig and a dog are sacrificed, and zu drunk ; on the second, the bamboo is thrown away and more zu drunk in the house of the khul-lakpa. On the third day the unmarried girls of the village give a drinking feast to the young men, and both dance together. Should the zu sufiice this portion of the festival may be prolonged for several days. It is believed that unless these two festivals are carried out every year in their proper rotation, there will be serious mortality among the elders of the village. Since writing the above, I have found two more small clans, which evidently belong to the Old Kuki group — Lonte or Ronte, of whom there are only nine households, living along- side of the Burma road, close to the Chawte hamlet, with whom they are classed by the Manipuris ; and Tarau, eighteen households living slightly to the south of the Burma road. The Ronte clan is divided into two families, called Lanu and Changom. Marriages can only be made with members of the other family of the clan. They say that they came from the Ngente hill far to the south {v. Ngente clan), and claim some connection with the Chiru and Aimol. The Tarau clan is divided into four families, and mar- riages are restricted as among the Chawte, Chiru, and Kolhen, A youth of the Pachana family must marry a girl of the Tlangsha family. A youth of the Tlangsha family must marry a girl of the Thimasha family. A youth of the Thimasha family must marry a girl of the Khulpu-in famil3\ A youth of the Khulpu-in fixmily must marry a girl of the Pachana family. In both clans the young men sleep in any house, except their parents', in which there are unmairied girls. The Ronte say that formerly they built zawlbuks like the Lushais. The price of a Tarau girl is a gong or Rs. 30/-, or five years 174 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. service in the girl's father's house. The Ronte maiden's price is two gongs, and her proper husband is her maternal first cousin. In both clans a fowl has to be killed by the khulpu at the time of the marriage, and the Ronte tie some of its feathers round the necks of the couple. Should a Tarau maiden be led astray both parties are fined a pot of rice-beer, which the villagers share, and the seducer pays the girl's father one pig. The child, when old enough to leave the mother, becomes the property of the father, A Ronte mother must not leave her house till five days after the birth of a daughter and seven after that of a son. On the day of the birth there is a feast, and on the fifth or seventh day, according to the sex of the child, a fowl is killed by the khulpu, and the child's hair is cut, its ears pierced, and its name decided on, the choice being made from the names of its forefathers. The house is purified by being sprinkled with zu by the khulpu. Among the Tarau, the period during which the mother may not leave her house is prolonged to ten days, at the expiry of which the khulpu kills a cock for male child and a hen for girl, and then purifies the house. In both clans the dead are buried in a cemetery situated to the west of the village, while the corpses of those who have died unnatural deaths are buried elsewhere with no ceremony. Women dying in childbirth among the Tarau are buried by old men, who have no further hope of becoming fathers, far from the village, while persons being killed by wild animals, or by some accident, such as a fall from a tree, are buried where they die. Persons who are drowned are buried on the bank of the river where the body is found, the grave being dug at the spot where some water thrown up by hand from the river happens to fall. This custom also exists among the Shans of the Upper Chindwin^ which lends some colour to the tradition that the Tarau sojourned in Burma before entering Manipur. Among the Ronte, women dying in childbirth, and all children dying under a year of age, are buried to the east of the village, while accidental deaths necessitate the burial being made to the south. The funeral takes place on the day of death except Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS 175 in the case of old men, whose corpses are kept for a day while their friends eat, drink, and dance before them. Whatever animals can be spared are killed in the honour of the deceased, and their sherh are buried with him, together with some rice. Every day till the " Papek " feast, in honour of those who have died mthin the year, rice and zu are placed on the grave. At Papek a platform of bamboo is constructed near the cemetery, and on it are placed such offering of flesh as the family can afford ; much zu is drunk and all dance. The Rente Sakhua sacrifice consists of a goat, dogs and mithan being prohibited. Although the Tarau, from their language, are evidently closely allied to the Lushais, they are the only Old Kuki clan I have met which does not worship Pathian. They denied all knowledge of that name, affirming the name of their god was "Rapu," to whom the Manipuri name of " Sankhulairenma " has been given. Rapu has a shrine just above the Burma road near to Tegnopal, where every year fish, rice, and zu are offered to him. When the rice begins to fill in the ear there is a five days' feast in the village, during which time the young people dance and drink. A pig is killed, and the liver, ears, feet, and snout are offered to Rapu. These are called " sar " (c/. Lushai " sherh "). Before the cutting of jhums commences a small pig or a fowl is sacrificed to Rapu so that no one may be cut with a dao during the clearing of the jhums. Dogs are not eaten or sacrificed by the Tarau or the Rente ; the latter also consider the mithan unfit for a sacrifice. In these particulars they form an exception to the general custom of Kuki clans. The Rente have a feast called " Va-en-la," which is given with the idea of enhancing the gi\ er's importance in this world and assuring him comfort in the next. A pig is killed and thirty pots of zu are prepared, and the whole village makes merry. A long bamboo is planted in front of the house of the giver of the feast. Throughout its length this bamboo is transfixed with crosspieces of bamboo about 18 inches long; from its end depends a bamboo representation of a bird, whence the name of the feast — "va," in Route, as in Lushai, meaning "a bird," and " en," " to see." 1/6 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS CHAP. To show the similarity between the Tarau and the Lushai language I give a few words of each. English. One Two Three ... Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Father .. Mother .. Son Daughter House Sun Moon Water . . Dog Mithan . Tree Jhum Lushai. Pa-khat . Pa-hnih . Pa- 1 hum Pali Pa-nga . Pa-ruk . Pa-sari . Pa-riat . Pa-kua . Shoni Pa ... . Nu ... . Fa-pa Fa-nu In ... , Ni ... , Thla Tui ... Ui ... . Shial Thing Lo ... Tarau. Khat. Ni. Thum. Ma-li. Ranga. Kuruk. Siri. Tirit. Ku. Shorn. Pa. Nu. Sha-pa. (Thado, "chapa.") Sha-nu. Ini. Ni. Thla. Tui. To carry water, ' ' tui choi," in both dialects. Uh. Shil. Thing. Lou. The east and west in Tarau are called " ni-chhuak-lam " and " ni-thlak-lam," which are pure Lushai for " the direction of sun rising and sun setting." Folklore. 1. Legends. — A large number of tales have been collected by Babu Nithor Nath Banerji, of the Manipur State Office, from which I select the following. They have all to a certain extent suffered by being told to the Babu in Manipuri instead of in the vernacular of the relaters. This accounts for Manipuri names being used in some cases. The following is a tale told by the Anals :— " Once upon a time the whole world was flooded. All were drowned except one man and one woman, who ran to the highest peak of the Leng hill [this is interesting, as Leng is the name of one of the highest hills in the present Lushai Hills], where they climbed up a high tree and hid themselves among its branches. The tree grew near a large pond, which was as clear as the eye of a crow. They made themselves as comfortable as they could, Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS 177 being determined to spend the night there. They passed the night, sometimes exchanging whispers, and in the morning they were astonished to find that they had become a tiger and a tigress. [This changing of human beings into animals reminds one of the Lushai Thimzing legend.] Pathian, seeing the sad state of the world, sent a man and a woman from a cave, which was on the hill, to re-people it. The man and the woman emerging from the cave were terrified at seeing the two huge animals, and addressed Pathian thus : ' Father, you have sent us to re-people the world, but we do not think that we shall be able to carry out your intention, as the whole world is under water, and the only spot on which we could make a resting place is occupied by two ferocious beasts which are waiting to devour us ; give us strength to slay these animals.' After which they killed the tigers and lived happily and begat man}^ sons and daughters, and from them the world was re-populated." The following tale told by the Kolhen resembles in many particulars the story of Kungori told by Colonel Lewin, which is given below : — The Story of Fachirang and Rangcliar. " Once upon a time there lived a widow ; she had a daughter whose beauty attracted many young men of the village. One day a tiger came in the shape of a man and asked to marry the girl. She was much frightened and kept silence. The tiger- man was angry at her behaviour, and recited a charm which made her ugly. Her mother said, ' Look ! my daughter who was the most beautiful girl in the village has become ugly ; if a man can restore her beauty he may marry her, and if a woman can do it she shall be my friend.' On hearing this, the tiger-man came to the old woman and said, ' Oh ! Granny, I am a stranger, and have come from a distant village ; let me put up in your house. The old lady agreed, and after a few days he said, ' Oh ! Granny, why are you so sad ? Tell me the cause of your sorrow. Perhaps I can remove it.' ' Ahis, my boy, it is beyond your power to do so,' she replied. The; tiger-man, however, pressed her to toll him, and at last she did so, where- upon he replied, * All right, if I cure her you will give her to N 178 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. me,' and in a few days he had restored her beauty, and they were married and lived together in her mother's house for many years. At length he asked permission to take his wife to his own home, and they started, but no sooner had they passed the village gate than he was changed into the shape of a tiger, and his wife wept much at seeing him thus. An old woman of the village saw them and came and told the people that a tiger was carrying ofif the girl, so the villagers assembled to consult, but no one would volunteer for the task of rescuing the girl. At last Fachirang and Rangchar, two brothers, set oil with a dao and a spear to kill the animal, but after going a very little way Fachirang, the elder brother, said, ' Oh ! Rangchar, I don't know what is the matter, but my heart beats so flist that I must remain here ; you go and see if you can kill the beast alone.' So the younger brother went on alone till he came to the place where the tiger and the girl were living happily. Rangchar thrust his spear into the breast of the tiger, and it died at once, and Rangchar carried off the girl and returned to where his brother was waiting, and they all three set out for home together. The elder brother married the girl, and they all lived happily together." The Story of Ki'tng6ri. (From " Progressive Colloquial Exercises in the Lushai Dialect " by Captain H. Lewin, 1874.) Her father, who was unmarried, was splitting cane to make a winnowing basket when he ran a splinter into his hand : the splinter grew into a little child ; (after a time) the child was brought forth motherless and they called her Kung(5ri. They fed her with single grains of millet and rice, and so little by little she grew big. Two or three years passed by and she attained puberty ; she was very pretty, and all the young-men of the village wanted to marry her, but her father refused them all. Then the young tiger-man, Keimi, took up the impression of her foot and wrapped it up and placed it on the bamboo grating over the house fire to dry. Then Kungori became ill. Kimg6ri's father said, " If there be anyone that can cure her, he shall have my daughter." All the villagers tried, but not Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS 179 one of them could do any good. Then the young tiger-man came. " I will cure her, and I will marry her afterwards," said he. Her father said, " Cure the girl first and you may then have her." So he cured her ; the footprint which he had placed to dry on the fire-shelf he opened out and threw away. Kung(jri became well and Keimi married her. "Come, Kungdri," said he, "will you go to my house ? " So they went ; on the road Keimi turned himself into a tiger, Kungori caught hold of his tail, and they ran like the wind. Some women of the village were gathering wood and they saw this, so they went back home and said to Kung6ri's father, " Your daughter has got a tiger for a husband." Kungori's father said, " Whoever can go and take Kungori may have her," but no one dared to take her. How- ever, Hpohtir and Hrangchal, two friends, said, "We will take her." Kungori's father said, " If you are able to take her you may have her," so Hpohtir and Hrangchal set off. Going on they came to Keimi's village. The young tiger-man, Keimi, had gone out hunting; before he reached his house Hpohtir and Hrangchal went to Kung(5ri. " Kungori," said they, " where is your husband ? " " He is gone out hunting," she said, "but will be home directly." On this they became afraid, and Hpohtir and Hrangchal climbed up on to the top of the high fire-shelf Kungori's husband arrived. " There is the smell of a human being," said he. " It must be my smell," said Kiing^ri. Night fell ; everyone ate their dinners and lay down to rest. In the morning Kungori's husband again went out to hunt. A widow said (to the two friends), " If you are going to run away with Kungori take fire-seed, thorn-seed, and water- seed (with you)." So they took fire-seed, thorn-seed, and water- seed, and they took Kiingori also and carried her off. Kungori's husband returned home. He looked and found Kungori was gone, so he followed after them in hot haste. A little bird called to Hrangchal. " Run ! run ! Kungori's husband will catch you," said the bird. So (the friends) scattered thu fire-seed, and the jungle and undergrowth burnt furiously, so that Kungori's husband could not come any further. Wht-n the fire subsided he again resumed the pursuit. N 2 i8o THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. The little bird cried to Hrangchal, " He is catching you up." So they scattered the water-seed, and a great river rose. How- ever, Kiingori's husband waited for the water to go down, and when the water went dowTi he followed after them as before. The bird said to Hrangchal, " He is after you again — he is fast gaining on you ; sprinkle the thorn-seed," and thorns sprouted in thickets, so that Kiingori's husband could not get on. By biting and tearing the thorns he at length made a way. and again he followed after them. Hrangchal's ^ party became bewildered and hid in a clump of reeds. Hpohtir cut the tiger down dead with a blow of his dao. " I am Hpohtir," ^ said he. So the tiger died. Hrangchal and the others went on again until they came to the three cross-roads of Khuavang, and there they stopped. Hpohtir and Hrangchal were to keep guard turn about. Hrangchala went to sleep first while Hpohtir kept watch. At night Khuavang came. " Who is staying at my cross- roads ? " he said. Hpohtira (spoke out boldly). " Hpohtira and Hrangchala (are here)," said he, " crouching under the reeds. We cut off the tiger's head without much ado." Khuavang, hearing and becoming afraid, ran off. So Hpohtira (woke up Hrangchal, saying), " Hrangchal, get up ; you stay awake now. I am very sleepy ; I will lie down. If Khuavang comes you must not be afraid." Having said this he slept. Hrangchala watched ; presently Khuavang returned. " Who is this staying at my cross-roads ? " he said. Hrangchala was frightened ; (however), he replied, "Hpohtira and Hrangchala (are here); they killed the tiger that followed them among the reed-roots." But Khuavang was not to be frightened by this, so he took Kung6ri. Kiingori marked the road, trailing behind her a line of cotton thread. They entered into a hole in the earth, and so arrived at Khuavang's village. The hole in the earth was stopped up by a great stone. In the morning Hpohtir and Hrangchala began to abuse each other. Said Hpohtira to Hrangchal, " Fool man ! " said he, " where has Kungori gone to ? On account of your faintheartedness Khuavang has carried her 1 a is merely the masculine termination. Hrangchal-a is a man's name, Hrangchal-i a woman's. The terminations are often omitted when it is known who is meant. Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS i8i off. Away ! you will havo to go to Khuavang's village." So they followed Kung(5ri's line of white thread and found that the thread entered (the earth) under a big rock. They moved away the rock and saw Khuavang's village below them. Hpohtira called out, " Hoy ! give me back my Kiingori ! " Khuavang replied, " We know nothing about your Kungori, whom you were taking away." '' If you do not (immediately) give me Kungori I will use my dao," said Hpohtir. " Hit away," answered Khuavang. With one cut of the dao a quarter of the village died right off. Again Hpohtir cried, " Give me my Kungori," Khuavang said, " Your Kungori is not here." On this Hpohtir and Hrangchal said, " We will come in." " Come along," said Khuavang, so they went in and came to Khuavang's house. Khuavang's daughter was a very pretty girl. " Here is Kungori," said they. " This is not she," said Hpohtir; "give me Kiingori herself." So (at last) they gave her to him. They took her away. Kungori said, " I have forgotten my comb." "Go, Hrangchal, and fetch it," said Hpohtir; but Hrangchala — " I dare not. I am afraid," said he. So Hpohtir went (himself) to fetch (the comb). While he was gone Hrangchal took Kungori out and closed the hole with the great stone. After this they arrived at the house of Kimg(5ri's father. " You have been able to release my daughter," said he, " so take her." Kiingdri, however, did not agree. Said Kungori's father, " Hrangchal is here, but where is Hpohtira ? " " We do not know Hpohtira's dwelling-place," he said. So Hrangchala and Kiing6ri were united. Though Kungori did not wish it, he just married her. Hpohtira was married to Khuavang's daughter. Beside the house he sowed akoi-seed. It sprouted and a creeper sprang (upwards like a ladder). Hpohtira, when he was at Khuavang's, had a child (born to him), and he cooked some small stones, and when his wife was absent he gave the stones which he had cooked to the child, saying, " Eat." While it was eating Hpohtir climbed up the stalks of the koi creeper and got out. He went on and arrived at the house of Kungori's father. They had killcfl a mithan, and were celebrating the Khuangchoi and dancing. With (me blow Hpohtira cut off the head of Hrangchal ! i82 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. Kungori's father cried, " Why, Hpohtira, do you cut off Hrangchala's head ? " "I was obliged to decapitate him," said Hpohtir. " It was I who released Kung(5ri from Keimi's village — Hrangchala dared not do it. When Khuavang carried off Kiingori also Hrangchala dared not say him nay — he was afraid. Afterwards we followed Kung(5ri's line of cotton thread, which led us to Khuavang's village. Kung6ri (after we had released her from there) forgot her comb ; we told Hrangchal to go and fetch it, but he dared not. ' I am afraid,' said he, so I went to get it. He then took Kung6ri and left me behind, shutting the hole in the earth with a great stone. They went away. I married Khuavang's daughter, and while she was absent I climbed up the stalks of the creeper and came here." On this," Is it so?" said they. 'Then you shall be united." So Hrangchala died, and Hpohtira and Kimgori were married. They were very comfortable together, and killed many mithan ; they possessed many villages, and lived happy ever after. Thus the story is concluded. I condense the following tale told by the Kolhen from the obviously embellished version supplied to the Babu : — A widow had seven sons and one daughter, called Ringchanghoi, who was very beautiful, and much beloved by her brothers. To prove the truth of their professions of love she sent them off to catch the sun and the moon, that she might wear them as her necklace. Before their departure they built her a fortified house, and told her to remain within it until their return. They also left with her some unhusked rice, which had magical properties, turning red whenever the brothers were in danger. Ringchanghoi one day was sitting in the verandah cleaning her hair when she was seen by the king, who quickly added her to the number of his wives. The youngest brother, returning alone, found the house empty, and at once rejoining the others in the sky, where they were still hunting the sun and moon, told them of the disappearance of their sister. They all returned home, and on entering the house the youngest brother was changed into a parrot, while the others fell down dead. The youngest brother finds his sister and is captured and presented to her, and tells her what has happened, whereupon she sends off her husband, who by a powerful charm restores Ill THE OLD KUKI CLANS 183 the dead to life and the youngest brother to his original form, and all ends happily. In this tale there is some slight resemblance to the Liishai tale of Rimenhoi, as also there is to the tales told by many clans to account for eclipses of the sun and moon. The Kora, for instance, say that the god Awk-pa was drying his rice when the sun and the moon came riding by and scattered it ; this vexed Awk-pa, who lay in ambush in a cave, and the next time they came he swallowed them. The resemblance between this tale and the Lushai explanation of an eclipse is very marked. The name " Awk " is the same, and the idea of swallowing is preserved. The Purum, while using the same word for an eclipse, have quite a different story : — " Once upon a time there were seven brothers who went into the forest to cut wood, and shot a deer, and ordered the youngest brother to cook it while they went on with their work. The youngest brother, having cooked the meat, put it on some leaves till his brothers should return. Some leaves from a tree fell on the meat, whereupon the deer came to life again and ran away. The brothers returning got angry and, not believing the tale told by the youngest, killed him and put his body under the tree. Some leaves falling on the corpse, it came to life, and the brothers were much astonished and went home, taking some of the leaves, roots, and bark of the tree with them." On their way they saw the body of a dog floating in a river which they had to cross, and put some bark on it and the animal revived. When they reached home they put the bark, leaves, and pieces of root to dry in the sunshine, leaving their dog to watch them. The sun and the moon, perceiving the usefulness of the things, stole them all and were chased by the dog. When the dog gets too near, the sun and the moon hide, thus causing eclipses. The Kolhen have the same name for an eclipse, and their explanation of the phenomenon is much the same. The god Rikumpu left his dog to watch his garden, and the sun and the moon came to steal, and are still being chased by the faithful hound. The Lanigang say that eclipses are caused by their god catching the sun and the moon, who once stole liis tobacco as it was drying. The Anal have much the same idea. The story is worthy of being given at length : — " Once upon a time a very pious man who devoted i84 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. much time to worshipping God had a pet bitch. The sun and the moon, being envious, tried to take his virtue from the man. To accomplish their wicked purpose they promised to give him their virtue if only he would first entrust them with his. The saint fell into the trap and the celestial rascals ran otf with his virtue. The holy man, finding himself defrauded, ordered his dog to catch the thieves. The dog brought a long pole and climbed up it to reach the fugitives, being followed by her master. She reached the sky and still chases the sun and moon, and some- times catches them. Therefore, when an eclipse occurs the Anal call out, ' Release ! Release ! ' The poor pious man took so long ascending the pole that, before he accomplished the journey the white anbs had eaten up the lower end and the saint fell to the earth and was killed." Thunder and lightning are accounted for by some clans thus : — Wulai the lizard climbs a tall tree and shouts defiance, whereupon God from the sky hurls his axe at him and he runs down, but the tree is burnt up. The Anal and Kom have also a more poetic explanation of lightning — viz., that it is the glitter of God's sword as he plays with it in heaven, while the Purum also say that it is the glitter of his robes. Earthquakes are accounted for by assuming the existence of another world below the surface of the earth. The Purum and Kom say that Yangmal the earth worm took a present of a piece of earth to the king of these lower regions. On the way the earth was changed into gold and silver, much to the delight of the monarch, who sent Yangmal back to fetch more, but the worm made excuse that the upper world had been destroyed. To test the truth of this statement the king shakes the world. The Anal and Lamgang say that the people of the lower world shake the upper one to find out if anyone is still alive up there, and so on, an earthquake occurring the Anal and Lamgang villages resound with shouts of " Alive ! Alive ! " Rainbows are accounted for as the lips of God spread in the act of drinking, or simply his glory. Note. — I must acknowledge the assistance I have received in preparing the account of these Old Kuki tribes from Babu Nithor Nath Banerji, head clerk of the Manipur State Hill Office. My information regarding the Anal, Kom, Purum, and Lamgang was chiefly from his notes, and in a lesser degree I am indebted to him for details regarding the Kolhen and Chiru, I'ruuM. KHAwri.ANr l'^ Lamgan(; Man and Woman. Al.MOl,. yjSffer i^ CiiiKU. Navtch Hki.mkt ok Hidis. CiiiRr, ( 'lIlKT. Iaijs). Rs. 1/- FuU grown hen Rs. 2/- Brass pot (4 spans). Rs. 21- Brass jiot (4 spans). Rs. 2/- Brass pot (4 span.s). Rs. 5/- Beer pot (Ra-cha). Ruling Clan. Rs. 1.50/- One slave. Two Mithan. Rs. 50/- One Mitiian (feiuale). No. Rs. 50/- One Mithan. Gun (syulo). Rs. 50/- One Mithan. Gun (syulo). Rs. 10/- Beer pot (Ka-clia). Rs. 2/- Brass pot (4 spans). Rs. 5/- Beer pot (Ra-cha). Rs. 5/. Beer pot (Ra-cha). Rs. 10/- Beer pot (Rai-pi). Rs. 50/- One Mithan. Gun. 10 To WHOM PRICE IS PAID AND OTHER PARTICULARS IN REGARD TO THE Marriage Customs of THE Mara Tribes. When the whole family live in the same house, none of the sons having their own liouses, then the Prices Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and Nos. 0, 10, 11, have all to be paid to the fatlier of the bride. If the family is divided and the eldest son has a house of his own, then the father has price No. 11 and the eldest son must have price No. I, while the prices Nos. 2, 3,4, 5, 6, and Nos. 9, 10, are at the eldest son's dis- posal and he may or may not share with the youngest son as he pleases. No. 7 has to be paid to the friend of the father of the bride if the sons and father live in the same house. But if the family is divided, the eldest son liaving his own house, then this must be paid to his friend instead of the father's. No. 8 has to be paid to the bride's mother's brother (bride's uncle). 1 At the weilding the bridegroom has to kill half the number of pigs tliat are killed by the bride's family, thus : — Bride's family, 5 pigs killed ; the bridegroom kills 3 pigs=8 pigs. 10 „ „ „ „ 5 =15 pigs. 2 The amount of price in these columns are all equal to one another in value and the bride- groom chooses only one out of each price according to what he has. THE LAKHER OR MARA CLAN 219 KT.^.« »« T)«.»*. Amount of Price. No. To WHOM PRICE IS PAID AND OTHER PARTICULARS IN REGARD Common People. Ruling Clan. TO THE Marriage Customs of THE Mara Tribes. ci A 'S *N ci CO X! 'a TJ-thei-pa a Lia-pa a Sei-hnai-pa ... Rs. 10/- A "Sisa" bead. Rs. 5/- Brass pot (5 spans). Rs. 2/- Brass pot (4 spans). Rs. 20/- A"Sisa" bead. Rs. 10/. A " Sisa" bead Rs. 5/. Beer pot (Ra-cha). 11 Note. — No. 11, divided into three sums, has to be given on engagement before the marriage, and is kept by the father of the bride. PU-MA.i A-mapi Rs. 20/- Gong (7 spans). Gun. Rs. 150/- One slave. Two Mithan. 12 Aw-rua-baw-na Rs. 5/- Beer pot (Ra-cha). Rs. 50/. One Mithan. Guu. 13 N6-hla Hs. 2/- Brass pot (4 spans). Rs. 10/- Beer pot (Ra-cha). 14 Saw-hla Rs. 1/. Full grown hen. Rs. 2/- Brass pot (4 spans). 15 Kei-ma Rs. 2/- Brass pot (4 spans). Rs. 5/- Beer pot (Ra-oha). 16 Lao-lisa " bead. Rs. 20/- A "Sisa "bead. > a Lia-pa Rs. 2/- Brass pot Rs. 10/- A "Sisa" bead. 18 C^ (4 spans). a Sei-hnai-pa ... R.S. 1/- A large fowl. Rs. 21- Biass I'Ot (1 sjiaus). Pu-nia has to be paid by the bridegroom to the bride's " Pii-p.*i," that is, the bride's mother's brother (uncle). He therefore receives the prices Nos. 12, 13, 14, 15 and IS. No. 10 has to be jaid to the friend of the "Pu-pa" (bride's uncle). No. 17 has to be paid to the bride's graniimother's brother on her mother's side (bride's great uncle), or it is somctiincs paid to tlie " Pu-pas " (bride's uncles) wife's father (father of aunt by marriage on the mother's side). 1 If the " Pupa " wishes for the.se prices to be paid he has to go to the bridegroom's house after the marriage (some other day) and kill 11 big pig. Then the jirices have to be met quickly, or at least some of them, and the bridegroom also has to go to the " l'u)iii's" lioiise and kill a pig in exchange for the pig that was killed fur him. If the " Pujia " is deiid (or when dead) his children can claim the prices in bis stead 220 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS CHAP. DEATH DUEJ Namf. of T*RTnp. Amount of Price. No. To WHOM Price is paid and OTHER PARTICULARS IN REGARD Common People. Ruling Clan. TO THE Marriage Oi'stoms of THE Mara Tribes. Ru Rs. 10/- or more. Gong. This price is often nearly as heavy as the " 0-kia." Rs. 80/- or more. One Mithan (large). This price is often nearly as heavy as the "O-kia.' 19 At the death of a wife this price has to be paid as a death due by the husband to the dead wife's father or eldest brother as the case may be. At the death of a husband the eldest son of the dead man has to pay the price to his father's mother's brother (the dead man's uncle). If there is no son, the dead man's brother will pay, and then the dead man's daughters, when they marry, their marriage prices will go to this brother of the dead man (his nieces' marriage prices). If there are no daughters then he has his dead brother's posses- sions as a recompense, and he will also care for the widow unless she prefers to go to her own family once again. 1 The death-due upon a woman is heavier than that upon a man. The death-due upon a prosperous man is more than that ujion a poor man. One out of each of the above prices has to be paid by the bridegroom before he is out of debt for his bride, and it will be found that : — (1) An ordinary person has to give for his bride about Rs. 153/-, or £10 4s. (2) ( ine of the ruling clan has to give for his bride about Rs. 671/-, or £44 14s. Sd. Then at death the death-due must be met, for No. 1, from Rs. 10/- to 20/-, or 13/4 to £1 6s. Sd. for No. 2, from Rs. SO/- to 150/-, or £5 6s. Sd. to £10. Needless to say, many of these prices are kept on credit, and often have to be met after death by the son or the son's son, making it a terribly complicated matter on the wliole. Reginald A. Lorrain, May ith, 1911. Pioneer Missionary to (he Lakhers' or Maras\ Offences against property and person can generally be settleci by payment of a fine, but the Lakhers have no fixed custom in such matters, and a person of quality generally takes the law into his own hands if he considers himself aggrieved. Head-hunting used to be indulged in and is still practised by the Lakhers in unadministered tracks. In case of a chief's death it was proper to kill someone of a distant village before drums or gongs were beaten, but it was thought " thianglo " to bring back the head on such an occasion. As regards their religious beliefs, the Lakher equivalent of Pathian is Khazang. Mr. Whalley writes : — "All spirits, with one doubtful exception to be noted later, whether malignant or benign, are slaves of the great spirit Khazang or Loitha. Whereas the V THE LAKHER OR MARA CLAN 221 attributes and the names of the lesser spirits vary from village to village and individual to individual, this great spirit has a firmer outline and permits of some attempt at description. The picture they draw is primitive, almost touching in its childishness. The Khazang or Loitha is small and brown and almost hairless. He is capable of sexual love and has children. He is material in his essence, but superior to natural laws such as those of time, space, and gravity. He is immortal, and has an immaterial wife and immaterial children. For his continuance the world exists with its revenue. In their own phrase he ' eats ' the domains of the lesser spirits through all nature as a chief ' eats ' villages (i.e., receives tribute in supplies from villages). He regards individual men much as these same men regard individual ants. Nearer to the heart and farther from the intelligence of the Lakhers is the mysterious Pi-leh-pu, the all-mother and all-father (strictly translated ' grandmother ' and ' grandfather,' the term is generally used for ancestors) — a being not anthropomorphised or materialised, partaking in some shadowy way of the functions both of guardian angel and of originator of the human race." In the course of my enquiries I did not come across any references to Pi-leh-pu, but there seems good reason to think that the term is applied to the mythical ancestor of the clan. In the Lushai Mi-thi-rawp-lam, it will be remembered that in the centre of the frame round which the effigies of the ancestors of the celebrants are fastened there is a white effigy to represent the mythical ancestor of the whole clan. In some respects Pi-leh-pu seems to resemble the Lushai Sakhua. The Ram-huai of the Lushais are known as "Hri-pa"and the Lashi as " Sakhia." After death the spirits pass to Mi-thi-khua, the road to which is by the village of Lunchoi and passes up a precipice. It is so narrow that women with child have to widen it as they go, for which purpose a hoe is buried with them, or at least laid beside the corpse during the funeral feast. Pial-ral is called "Pe-ra'," and to reach itall sorts of animals must be killed and the Ai ceremony performed for each. The Khuangchoi feast is also considered, if not absolutely nccessar}^, at least very useful. Triumphs in the courts of Venus will not help the spirit to pass to Pe-ra'. Women can onl}' reach that 222 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. happy place if their husbands take them. A series of feasts or sacrifices closely resembling the Thangchhuah feast of the Lushais is performed, but I was assured that the performer's state in the next world was not in any way affected thereby, the feasts being equivalent to the Lushai Sakhua sacrifice. The series consists of — Vok-rial. — A very small pig which has been brought up in the house is killed and eaten. Vok-pa. — A boar of five fists' height which has been brought up in the house is killed, a black hen being also sacrificed at the same time. The " sherh " are kept inside the house for three days, dur- ing which time none of the household may do any work, but the house is not closed and anyone may share in the feast. The Vok-rial is performed three times and the Vok-pa twice, and then a mithan is killed and all share in the feast. The performer of the She-shun may not cross a big stream or enter another village till he has sacrificed a hen. Subsequently he again performs Vok-rial, which is said to conclude the sacrifices to Sakhua. A feast in which two mithan are killed is called " Bawi." It is followed by Khuangchoi, in which at least five mithan must be slain. The spirits of the dead are supposed to become mist after having lived two or three lives in the other world. Ten days after the birth of a child the mother goes to the water supply and washes herself. She then takes the child to her father's house, where she receives some rice and a fowl, which she takes home and eats. Sacrifices are not done at this time. Children's heads are shaved at three months, and the hair is allowed to grow at nine years with girls and at eleven with boys. The bodies of stillborn children are buried outside the village without any ceremony, but no purification, either of the house or village, is considered necessary. Death. The usual funeral feast, which in the case of wealthy persons may last three to five days, precedes the burial. Some time afterwards a second feast is given and a portion is put aside for the spirit of the deceased. At the funeral feast the corpse is laid out with fine cloths and ornaments and a dance is performed by two women and one man. In other respects the Lakher < V THE LAKHER OR MARA CLAN 223 and Lushai customs are very much alike. There is an annual feast in honour of those who have died during the year. It is called " Lachhia." A pig is killed and the young men and maidens dance attired in their best clothes, and the usual large quantities of zu are consumed. In cases of unnatural death no one may leave the village till the sixth day. On the fourth day a hen is sacrificed outside the village. The corpse is buried beyond the village boundary fence. Deaths in childbirth are considered unnatural deaths. If the firstborn in a family dies within a few days of its birth the corpse is buried anywhere, without ceremony, and the house- hold abstain from work for one day. Such a death is called " naw-dawng " (Lushai " hlamzuih "). Many of the Lushai sacrifices are performed. The Khal takes the following form : — A fowl is killed at the head of the bed in the name of the father, a month later one is killed in the name of the mother, and in successive months one is killed for each child. The flesh of these fowls can only be eaten by the parents. The Uihring sacrifice is known as " An-hmu " ; a dog is killed outside the house, the hills inhabited by their ancestors being named. The " sherh " are hung on a tree or a bamboo. The husbands of women who are enceinte may not enter the house on such occasions. The following sacrifices of the Lushais are not performed — Hring-ai-tan, Khuavanghring, Tui-leh-ram, Bawlpui. In the Thla-ko a cock is killed outside the village and the spirit is summoned. Khawhring is unknown, and they maintain that there are no wizards or witches among them. There are three festivals connected with the crops — (1) " Kicheo " or " Kutsa-zawng," which takes place in January ; feasting and drinking are the main features of this festival, which is preceded by a general hunt, as the flesh of wild animals, birds, or land crabs is absolutely necessary. (2) " Paku," which comes just before the sowing of the rice, closely resembles the Lushai Chap-char-kut. (3) "Lalia" — this corresponds to the Lushai Mimkut ; the children are fed with maize cakes, and if any member of the family has died within the previous year some cakes are put aside for his spirit. The superstitions of the Lakhers resemble those of the 224 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS ch. v Lushais. To kill a python is sure to result in the death of the killer. Even to see a loris is unlucky and to kill one is fatal. The sight of two snakes copulating will also be followed by serious illness, if not by death. The Lushai Chawifa is known as " Thla-shi-pu," and if it falls in the jungle that is the place to cut your jhum, for then you are sure of a good crop. It seems that Thla-shi-pu is merely a meteor ; the Lakhers have not sur- rounded this natural phenomenon with the myths which the more imaginative Lushais delight in. In choosing the site for a village a cock is taken, and if it does not crow the site will not be selected, but if one of the party dream of dead persons or bad things this is also sufficient cause for rejecting the site. Among the Lakhers there are no priests of any sort; every man is his own priest. At the marriage ceremony the fowl is killed by the man who has arranged the match. CHAPTER VI LANGUAGE The languages of all the clans dealt with in this monograph, except the Lakher, are very similar, and also bear a strong resemblance to those of their neighbours. Dr. Grierson, in the " Linguistic Survey of India," uses the term " Kuki-Chin " to describe all the languages spoken by the clans 1 have dealt with and their cognates, but he adds: — " Meithei-Chin would be a better appellation, as the whole group can be sub- divided into two sub-groups, the Meitheis (Manipuris) and the various tribes which are known to us under the names of Kuki and Chin." Dr. Grierson considers that all the Kuki-Chin languages belong to the Burmese branch of the Tibeto-Burman family, and he subdivides them as follows : — I. Meithei,* or Manipuri. II. Chin languages — 1. Northern group : Thado, Sokte,* Siyin,* Ralte, and Paite or Vuite. 2. Central group : Tashon,"^ Lai,* Lakher, Lushai, Banjogi,* and Pankhu.* 3. Old Kuki group : Rhaugkhol, Bete (Biate), Hallam, Langrong, Aimol, Anal, Chiru, Lamgang, Kolren (Kolhen), Kom, Purum, Mhar (Hmar or Khawtlang), and Cha.* 4. Southern group : Chinme,* Welaung,* Chinbok,* Yindu,* Chinbon,* Khyang or Sho,* Khami,* With reference to the connection between the different clans, Dr. Grierson writes : — " The terms Old Kuki and New Kuki are apt to convey the idea that the tribes so denoted are closely ' Clans marked * are not dealt with in this monograph. 226 ^ 226 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS chap. related to each other. But that is not the case. Not only do their customs and institutions differ considerably, but their languages are separated by a large group of dialects in the Lushai and Chin Hills, and the so-called New Kukis (Thados) are, so far as we can see, a Chin tribe, most closely connected to the inhabitants of the northern Chin Hills, while the Old Kukis are related to tribes more to the south." The account of the causes of the Old and New Kuki incursions into Cachar, given in Part I, Chap. I, Section 8, which was written before I had read Dr. Grierson's book, agrees entirely with his conclusions. A detailed account has been given in Part I of the Lushai language, and, considering the full manner in which the dialects of all these tribes have been dealt with by Dr. Grierson in the " Linguistic Survey of India," it seems superfluous to attempt to give outlines of them, and therefore I propose only to draw attention to the many points of similarity between them. The works I have consulted are : — " The Linguistic Survey of India," Vol. II, Part III, Lorrain and Savidge's " Grammar and Dictionary of the Lushai Language," Mr. T. C. Hodson's " Grammar and Small Vocabulary of Thado," and the appendix to Lieutenant Stewart's " Notes on Northern Cachar," 1855. In going through Mr. Hodson's vocabulary of the Thado language, the first thing that struck me was the absence of the letter R. Further examination showed that where R is used in Lushai and certain other languages G or Gh is substituted in Thado. Many instances of this will be found in the following comparative vocabulary. In many cases F in Lushai, Rhangkhol, and Langrong is replaced by Ch, sometimes softened into S in Thado, Manipuri, and some Old Kuki dialects. I have so far only found the following examples, but the material at my disposal is very insufficient, and I have no doubt that, given complete vocabularies, many more would be found : — " Fa " in Lushai, " cha " in Manipuri and Thado, meaning "child." " Far-nu " in Lushai and Langrong, "char-nu" in Aimol, Kolhen and Lamgang, " sar-nu " in Chiru, Kom, and Hallam, meaning " sister." VI LANGUAGE 227 "F{lk"in Langrong, " chak " in Manipuri, " cha " in Aimol, Anal, Kolhen, Lamgang, " shak " in Chiru, meaning '•' to eat." In Lushai we have " chaw-fak-hnn," " rice-eat-time." Until I found that " fak " meant " to eat " in Langrong, the Lushai equivalent for dinner-time had always puzzled me, as the Lushai word for " to eat " is " ei." " Fa^vp " in Lushai, " chop " in Thado, " chup " in Purum, meaning " to kiss." "Fang" in Bete, "chang" in Thado, meaning "paddy," while " fang " in Lushai means " a orain." " Fep " in Lushai, " chop " in Thado, moaning " to suck," as sugar-cane. " Feh " in Lushai, " to go to the jhums," " feh " in Rhangkhol, " to go " : " che " in Thado, Aimol, and Anal, and " chatpa " in Manipuri have the same meaning. " Fing " in Lushai, " ching " in Thado, " singba " in Manipuri, mean " wise." " Fu " in Lushai, " chu " in Thado mean " sugar-cane." " Fang-hma " in Lushai, " fung-mat " in Bete, '• chung-mai " in Thado, mean ''a pumpkin." N in Lushai sometimes becomes " shi " in Lai or Haka dialect, as " ni " in Lushai and " shi " in Lai, meaning both " to be " and " aunt." G and K are often interchanged and also R, L, and N. In Liashai we have " lung " meaning both " stone " and " heart," while in Manipuri we have " nung " meaning " stone," and though " heart " is translated by " puk," we have " nung- siba " "to be sad," evidently composed of " nung" and "siba," " to die," and also " imng-ngaiba," meaning ' happy," showing that " nung " once meant heart. In many of these languages, similar words are used but have slightly different meanings. For instance, " shang " in Lushai means "tall," while in Thado and Manipuri we have "sang" meaning " long." " Leng " in Lushai means "to stroll," and "Icngba" in Manipuri means "to walk," but is only used of important personages who would be likely to move slowly and in a dignified manner. In Lushai "shat" means "to cut," but as a Lushai's iiouse Q -2 228 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS ch. vi consists of timber and bamboos, he always uses " shat " when he speaks of building a house, and we find " sha " in Thado and " saba " in Manipuri mean " to make," " to build." In Lushai the verb " ni," "to be," is conjugated completely, but in Manipuri " ni " means " is " and has no other tenses. Manipuri : Ma ai-gi i nau ni. Lushai : Ama ka nau a ni. English : He my younger brother he is. The following comparative vocabulary gives in the first two columns the Thado and English words as given by Mr. Hodson. The first word in the column of remarks is always Lushai, and where it has not exactly the same meaning as the Thado word the correct meaning is given ; then follow, where necessary, the equivalents in other dialects. About one word in every three given in Mr. Hodson's vocabulary has been found to resemble closely the Lushai word having the same or a similar meaning. Mr. Hodson's vocabulary has no pretensions to be a complete dictionary of the Thado language. Were such available I believe the number of similar words in the two dialects would be found to be even greater. As regards the Old Kuki dialects the information available is not sufficient to make a thorough comparison. It is clear that they are very closely allied to Lushai and Thado and to each other. The connection between Manipuri and what Dr. Grierson calls the Chin languages will, I believe, be found on further enquiry to be closer than at first appears. COMPARATIVE VOCABULARY OF THADO AND LUSHAI LANGUAGES, WITH NOTES ON THE OTHER CHIN LANGUAGES AND MANIPURI OR MEITHEI. Thado. English. Lushai and Remarks. A Fowl .. Ar. Old Kuki dialects, Ar. A-eng or A-j'eng Turmeric ... . .. Ai-eng. Beteh, Aishel. Ai Crab .. Ai. Beteh, Lie. A-le True, right ... . . . Awle, all right. Ashi Star .. Arshi. Old Kuki dialects the same. Ban Arm .. Ban. Bat To owe .. Bat. Be To beat a drum . . . Beng. Be Pulse . . Be, all sorts of peas and beans. Bon To wrestle Buan. Bong Cow .. Se-bong. Bong-hlo Mud Bol-hlawh. Bu Paddy ■ ^"^^• Chem Dao ' Chem. Same in Old Kuki dialect. Chep To suck .. Fep. Chi 8alt Chi ; and in Old Kuki dialects also. Chok To buy .. Chawk. In most Old Kuki dialects, Chok or Chak, and Puruui has Lei, which is the commoner word in Lushai. Da To spread .. Da, to put. Choi Tired .. Chawl, to rest when tiix'd. Cham Level . . Cham. Dang Other Dang. Dai-tui Dew .. Dai. Dfingka Silver .. Tiingka. Deng To beat Deng, to pound, to hammer. Ding To stand .. Ding. Di Correct . Dik. Doi Magic Doi ; and in Old Kuki dialects. Doi Weak Doih, cowardly. Dui To love ,.. Duh, to like, to desire. Duni Tobacco Dum-ci, Dum-bawm, tobacco bo.x ; but the usual woid is Vai-hlo. Eng Yellow .. Fng. Ga Fruit Ra ; al.so Bclcli. Gani-la Distant Ram, country ; Hla, dii^lant. In Old Kuki dialects, La, Hla, and Lak. 229 230 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS Thado English. Gam-mang . Forest Ge ... . Gel ... . To pass the night ... Hail Ghai ... . Pregnant Ghal ... . Ghi ... . Ghin ... . Enemy Heavy Sound Ghop ... . Lean Ghu ... . . ... A bone Ghu ... . A thief, to .steal ... Ghul ... . ... A snake Gim ... . . ... To worry Go ... . ... A bamboo Go ... . To cremate Ha ... . . ... Tooth Hal ... . . ... To set fire to Ham ... . . ... Blow through Hao ... . Rich He ... . . ... To know Hem ... . Hem ... ... Sharp .. To soothe Hla ... . . . . . Month, the moon . . . Hla ... . Wing Hla ... . ... Song Hling ... . . ... To suffice Hlut ... . . ... To enter Hon ... . ... (harden Hot ... . . ... To shake Hni ... . . ... A dog In ... . ... House Kal ... . . ... To climb Kalson . ... To walk Kan Kap ... . . •• Dry . ... To shoot Kel ... . . ... Goat Ket ... . . ... To be broken Kha ... . . .. Bitter Kha . ... Chin Khelbuk . Khoi ... . . ... Thigh . ... Bee Khom ... . . ... To collect Khong . ... Drum Kho-shi . ... To feel cold Khu ... . Khubu .. Cough . ... Knee Khut ... . . ... Hand Lushai and Remarks. Ram. The Lushai Hills being covered with forest, Ram means both country and forest. Mang appears in the Manipuri, U-Mang. Ria(k). Gf. Manipuri. Lek. Rial. Manipuri, Lei. Rai. Ral. Manipuri, Lfd ; Beteh, Ral. Rit. Beteh, Rik. Ring, loud. Rawp, to become thin, to waste away. Ru ; also in Manipuri and Old Kuki dialects. Ru ; also in Beteh. Rul ; also in Old Kuki dialects. Manipuri, Lil. Rim, tired, toilworn. Ro, a particular sort of bamboo. Rawh, to heat, to roast. Ha, and in all Old Kuki dialects. Hal ; also in Beteh. Ham, to play a wind instrument. Hao-sak ; the k is nearly silent. Thei, to be able ; Hre or Hriat, to know. Manipuri, Heiba, to know how to do. Hriam. Thlem, to pacify. Thla ; and Manipuri and Old Kuki dialects, Tha or Thla. Thla. Hla. Tling-tlak, to complete. Lut, Huan. Hot, to stir with spoon. Ui. Hui or Ui in Manipuri and all Old Kuki dialects. In ; and in all Old Kidii dialects. Kal, to go ; also in Langrong. Kang, to dry up. Manipuri, Kangba. Kap. Kel ; and in all Old Kuki dialects. Keh. Kha. Kha, the lower jaw. Khel, side of upper part of thigh. Khoi. Khon. Manipuri, Khom-silba. Khuang. Khua a shik. Khuh. Khup. Manipuri, Khuk-u ; Beteh, Rakhuk, Kut. Rhangkhol, eq. Chiru, 168 Old Kuki, 156 Thado, 194 Sacrifices connected with, 80-1, 169, 175, 202 Superstitions connected with, 101 et seq. Job's tears, 87 Justice, decisions how administered, 55, 56 Old Kuki, 157 Thado, 195 Offences, Personal, 54-5, 220 Offences, Property, 54, 220 Ka«ui, a Naga tribe, 143, 166 Kairuma, a Lushei chief, 49 Kaithum, a branch of Vanchongclan, 127 Kamhau clan, 30,143 ,190 Kauizakhoi, Old l\uUi villaL^c ofiicer, 153 R 242 INDEX Kanghrmm village, 35 Kanujiipkhul village, 159 Kaiigmang hill, 150 Kaiigpuizam sacriHce, 74 Kang Sanaba, Manipuri game, 39 Karniindai, first day of Keidun festival, 106-7 Kassalong river, 4 Kawl Burma, q.v. Kawlehi, a branch of Changte clan, 125 Kawlhring (Burma-born). 131, 132, 135 Kawlnam, copy of Burmese dah, 15 Kawlni, a Non-Lushei clan, 131 Keichala, a sorcerer, 109 Keidun, Kolhen festival in April, 166-7 Keimi, a tiger-man, 177. Kei-ma, a Lakher marriage price, 218-9 Kela, a Lushei, 102. Kel-khal sacrifice, 73 Kelsi village, 185 Keng-puna, name-giving, 161. Khill Sacrifices, xix, 70, 72 et seq. Not practised by the Lakher, 223 Ngente, 134 nor by Rangte, 147 nor by Thado, 201 Vuite practise Uihring only, 145 Khal-chuang sacrifice, 73 Khalkhama, a Lushei chief, 7 Khasi people, The, 69, 76 (Synteng), 167 Kawchhak, an Old Kuki clan, 149, 185 et seq. Khavvkawk hill, 71 Khavvhring, xix, 81, 111-12, 164, 223 Khawhring-hring-tir, a charm, 81 Khawpui creeper, 140 Khawtlang tribe, xiii, 6, 8, 40, 74, 96, 100, 147, 149, 185 Khawzahuala, Zadeng chief, 140 Khazang (Loitha), 220-1 Khelraa, Old Kuki clan, 185 Khelte clan, 140-1 Kheltea, a Ralte chief, 140 Kherpui. See under Chhinglung. Khongzia clan, 190 Khonza = Thado, q.v. Khuangchoi feast, 89, 94 ; Fanai, 137 ; Siakeng, 142 ; Ngente, 133 ; Lakher, 222. Khuang-that, a Vaiphai Thangch- huah ceremony, 171 Khuavang, xix, 61, 67-8, 95, 110, 111, \met seq. Khuavang-hring sacrifice, 75, 223 Khuavangzawl, hypnotism, 110-11 Klmazim, liill, 140 Khul-lakpa, Old Kuki village officer, 153, 154. 164, 167, 172, 173 Khulpi, Thado equivalent of Lushai Chhinglung, 193 Khupno, a branch of Hualbang clan, 126 Khupno, a branch of Hualngo clan, 126 Khulpu, Old Kuki puithiam, 153, 160, 161, 169, 174 Khulpu-in, a Route familv, 173 Kliuptingi, tale of, 209-11 Khyoung-tha, sons of the river 105 Kiang, a Chawte family, 154 Kiangte, a non-Lushei clan, 132 Kicheo (Kutsa-zawng), Lakher fes- tival, 223 Kipgen, a Tliado clan, 190 eteeq., 201 Klangklang. See under Thlangtlang Klongshai, Chin name for Lakher clan, 213 Kobru hill, 159, 168, 172 188 Kochuk, 190 Koichung (Leivon), a branch of Aimol clan, 153 Koihrui-an-chat, a Ngente festival, 132, 134, 168 Koku hill, 146 Koladyne river, 1, 7, 135, 136, 214 Kolheu, Old Kuki clan, 149 et seq., 162-3, 165, 166, 169, 171 Kom, Old Kuki clan, 8, 149 et seq., 163, 165, 166, 169, 171 Konglung village, 7, 136 Kongpuishiam sacrifice, 35, 77 Kuchom, Thado she-demon, 201. Kuki, 1-2, 5, 6, 8 ; meaning of term, xiii. Kukis, the old, xiii, xvii, 6, 129-134, 147, 148-188 Kukis, the new, xiii, 6, 129, 189 ; see under Thado Kuki language, xvii Kulho, a branch of Thado clan, 192- 3 Kullon. a brancli of Thado clan, 192-3 Kul-lo-nu (<■/. Thado Kulsanmu), Rangte belief about, 147 Kulsamnu, troubles of thangchhuah, dead, 147, 201 Kumpinu, the "Company's mother," 99 Kumpui, xix Kungori, Legend of, 177 et seq. Kurnaphili river, 1, 43, 95 Kut, xix, 86 et seq., 205 ; Vuite, 145 Kutsa-zawng, Lakher festival, 223 Kwe-Hring village, 131-132 INDEX 243 Lackhia, a Lakher festival, 223 Lai-haranba, Manipuri "god-pleas- ing " cerenioii}', 69 Laishel famil}', 167 Lfiita (Mangte), a branch of Aimol elan, 153 Lakher (Mara), a non-Lushei clan, xiii, xviii, 105, 129, 213-224 Lai, xix, 43, 153 Lalba-\vn,abranchof Pachuao clan, 125 Lalbiita's village, 66 Lalcliheva, a Thangliiah chief, 4 Lalchhung, dependents in chief's house, 46 Lalia, a Lakher festival, 223 Laller, a branch of Chuaongo elan, 126 Lallianvunga, a Sailo chief, 140 Lallula, a Lushai chief, 7 Lalmanga, a Ngente chief, 132, 134 Lalmichinga, a Kawlhring chief, 132 Lalmanga, a Lnshai hero, 109 Lalsavunga, a Sailo chief, 185 Lalsukta (Lalchakla), a Palliun chief, 4,5 Lalul, a Sailo chief, 3, 5 Lamgang, Old Kuki clan, 149 et seq., 162, 165, 167, 169, 171 Lamkut, a Kava feast, 169 Lamleia, egg-hatched chief, 142 Language, Lushei, xiii, xviii, 113-124 Non-Lushei, 225-235 Lashi, xix, 6S-9, 158 Lanu, a branch of Aimol clan, 153 Lanu, a branch of Route clan, 173 La-pi, Thado funeral chant, 204 Lathang, a branch of Chuachang clan, 126 Lavar river, 131 Leiven (Koichung), a branch of Aimol clan, 153 Lemba's wife, a Fanai queen, 137-8 Leng hill, 176 Leng village, 99 Lentlang river, 131 Lcplupi, co-ancestor of theRalte, 139 Lersliia, a Chongthu chief, 131 Lewin, Ll.-CoL T. H. ("Thangliana"), vi, xiii, xiv. xvii, xviii, 6, 7, 45, 60, 105, 109, 177, 178 Lianchi, a Lakher chief, 213 Ijiaiiglunga, tale of, 68 Liaiikhaiiia, a Lushai chief, 7 Lianphunga, a Lushei chief, 55 Liangthang, a Thado chief, 192 Liangthang, a Thado clan, 192 Liangthangi, a hyjinotic niediuin. 111 Lianthawgna, a huai (spirit), 60 7 Liantliung, a branch of Pachuao clan, 125 Liantliira, a Lushei chief, 4 Lianughor, a branch of Pachuao clan, 125 Lingvuni village, 99 Lister, Colonel, 21, 140 Lizard, 134, 184 Lo-an-dai, an Aimol feast, 169 Lohnian sacrifice, 80 Loi, a marriage ceremon}', 83 Loilang, an Old Kuki clan, 185 Loitha, Lakher equivalent for Pathian, 220 Longnam, a Thado funeral price, 199 Longteroi hill, 4 Lonte (Rente), an Old Kuki clan, 173 Lorrain, H. J., xviii, 113, 217,220, 226 Lukawng, a fine paiiale account of, 185 Suaka, sub-inspector of police, 130 Suakhnuna, a Lushei chief, 66, 69 Suicide. 2 Sukpuilala, a Lushei chief, 47 Siiktc (;lan, 3 Siunkani, a Viiilc chief, 1 13 Sum-kmini, verandah, 21 248 INDEX Sumklum, a branch of Vanchong, clan, X, 127 ; a branch of Hrasel clan, 127 .Sutmanga, a Thado chief, 1-10 Superstitions, 101 et. ■•ieq. Lakher, 223-4 ; Vuite, 145 Sylhet, 1, 3, 5, 189 fSymons, General, 110 Taihhlum, a branch of Hualhang clan, 126 Talching village, 150 Tamu, 130 Tangkhul Nagas, 90 Tan, precipice, 68 Tao hill, 59 Taran, an Old Kuki cl;ui, 173 et seq. Tatooing, 12 Tegnopal village, 175 Teknonymy, 19 Thado, ancestor of Thado clan, 131, 189, et seq. Thado, New Kuki clan, xiii, xvii, xviii, 2, 3, 6, 8, 13, 46, 49, 59, 93, 106, 129, 131, 140, 142, 143, 146, 147, 148, 150, 185, 189, et seq. Thalun, son of Thado, 191 Thangbawgna, tale of, 79 Thangchhuah, xx, 11,62-5, 87,147; Fanai, 137 Thangchhuah feasts, 69, 87 et seq. Khelte and Siakeng, 141 Vuite, 145 Old Kuki, 158, 166, 170 ef seq., 186-7 Thado, 207 Lakher, 222 Thangkua village, 3 Thanghlum, a Rangte chief, 146 Thanglian Borh, Aimol siie-demon, 158 Thangluah, branch of Thangur clan, 3, 4, 42, 57 Thang-tei-nu, a prophetess, 111 Thangur, a Lushei clan, xiii, xiv, 3, et seq., 8, 41, 125, 126, 143, 185 Thangura (Thangul), ancestor of all Lushei chiefs, 2, 3, 5, 6 Thao, a Chawte family, 154 Thlanropa (Dapa), legends of, 147 Thaurang, Sailo chief's village, 56 Thawnglura, a Ralte chief, 140 Thefts, 54, 156-7 Thempu, Old Kuki puithiam, 153, 160, efseq., 168, 171, J 72, 198 Thenzawal village, 76, 99, 106 Thiak, an Old Kuki clan, 183 Thian, xx, 51 Thi-an-chhe, portion for the dead, 204 Thiang-lo, unlucky, 70, 74, 79, 101, 102 ct seq., 106, 108, 111, 142, 220 Thichhia, unnatural deaths (Thado) 205 Thi-duh cerenionv, 165 Thihla, Thado demons, 200, 201, 205 Thimasha, a Ronte family, 173 Thimzing, Legendary epoch of eclipse and metamorphosis of beings. 93, 103, 123-4 ; Old Kuki, 177 ; Thado, 192-3 Thingbulgna, Thado tree-spirits, 201 Thingel, Thado posts, 205 Thir-deng, xx, 44, 198 Thirsu, Thado Thir-deng, 198 Thi-thin, death offering, 86 Thlahzang, sleep-walking, 112 Thlako sacrifice, 76 Thlandropa, Mythical hero, 94-5 Thla-sui-pu, Lakher, efjuivalent for Chawifa, 224 Thangneo, a Thado chief, 192-3 Thlangom, a branch of Thado clan, 110, 192 Thangsang, Siakeng name for Hmar- phir sacrifice, 141 Thichhiat, Old Kuki equivalent for Lushai Heamzuih, 166 Thla-ko, a sacrificial cock, 223 Thiang-tlang (Klang-klang) chiefs, 7, 213, 215 Thlan-thang, village, 139 Thlen, Khasi snake-demon, 69 Thompa, Aimol chief, 152 Thonglien, a Lakher chief, 12, 13 Thotche, jungle rat, 205 Thunder and Lighting, Old Kuki idea about, 184 Thumvor, Method of interrogating hypnotised. 111 Tiangsha, a Ronte family, 173 Tiante, a Chougthu family, 167 Tiddim village, 143, 201 Tiger, 14, 33, 34, 35, 56, 64, 73, 79, 86, 93, 97, 109, 110, 139, 150, 153, 177 et seq., 198, 202, 205, 208 Tikhup, Old Kuki clan, 89, 149 et seq. 163, 170, 172; do not sacrifice dogs or acknowledge devils, 159, 166 Tilin, 132 Tipperah, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 58, 98-9, 149 Tlangkua village, 131 Tlangau, xx, 44 Tlangsam, Thado crier, 198 Tlip feast, 89 Tlong river, 3 Tlungbuta, a Lushei chief, 55 INDEX 149 Tobacco, 9-11, 12, 31,214 Tobul, a branch of Toehoiig clan, 127 Tochong, a Lushei clan, 127 Tonring, co-ancestor of I'liruin clan, 150 Tonshu, co-ancestor of Purum clan, 150 Topui, a branch of Tochong clan, 127 Toung-tha, sons of the hill (Lewin), 105 Tuai, prostitutes, 55 Tualbung village, 140 Tuali, a Lushei girl, 11 Tualsumu, a portent, 104 Tuazol, a branch of Hualngo clan, 126 Tuck, H. M., xiv. xvii, 131, 213 Tuibual (Dipwell) village, 140 Tuibur, part of tobacco-pipe, 11, 12 Tui-chong river, 95 Tui-chongi, a girl, 95-6 Tuichhung, a branch of Chongte clan, 126 Tui-huai, spirits, 65 e.t seq., 158 Tuikhumnga, Thado water-spirits, 201 Tuikhumlen, king of water-spirits, 201 Tuiknachoi (Tui-huai) Ainiol name of demons, 158 Tui-leh-ram. Water and land sacri- fice, 73-4, 223 Tuilrampui river, 1 Tui-pathen, Thado spii'its, 201 Tuiruang (Barak) river, 109 Tuithang, a branch of Haonar clan, 126 Tuillin precipice, 66 Tukutboi, persons becoming slaves by desertion to conquerors, 46, 49, 50 Tulthung, a Chongthu family, 167 Tumpha, a branch of Changte clan, 125 Tumtin family, 167 Tyao river, 1, 3, 62, 90, 126, 131, 135, 136, 148 Ui-HA-AWR sacrifice, 77; Chawte, 130; Fanai, 139; Khelte, 141 Uihovi, son of Rimenhoiyi, 99 Ui -bring sacrifice, 75, '223 ; Vuite, 145 Ui-te-luilam Bacrifice, 77 Umbrellas, 13 Upa, XX, 44, 131 Va-en-la, a Raiitc feast, 175 Vahlit hill, 71 Vahlnk, a mythical bird, 64 Vahrika, tale of, 109 Vai River, 149 Vai-tui-chhun village, 149 Vaiphei, an Old Kuki clan, xix, 22, 146, 149 et seq., 163, 166, 171, 202 Vaki village, 7 Vambio family, 167 Vanchong, a Lushei clan, 127 Van-chung-khrd sacrifice, 73 Vandula, a Lushai head -chief. 7 Vangchhia, a non-Lushei clan, 93, 127, 135 Vanhrniai-Thanga village, 4 Van-lai-phai valley, 93, 97, 131, 185 Vanlung, a branch of Vanchong clan, 127 Vanpuia, ancestor of Vanpiiia-hriii, 125, 140 Vanpuia, ancestor of Vanpuia-thla, 126 Vanpuia-hrin, a branch of Pachuao clan, 125 Vanpuia thla, a branch of Chuaongo clan, 126 Varchuao, branch of Pachuao clan, 125 Vawk-te-luilam sacrifice, 77 ; Siakeng, 141 Victoria, H.M. Queen, 99 Villages, 20-4, 44-5 ; organisation of. 43-4 ; Old Kuki, 152, 186 ; Thado, 193, 198 Vizan village, 132 Vokngak, a branch of Changte clan, 125 Vok-pa, Fanai sacrifice, 139 ; Lakher, 222 Vok-rial, Fanai sacrifice, 139 ; Lakher, 222 Vok-tc-khrd sacrifice, 72 Vonghtu, 213 Vonodcl, descendant of Lalul, 7 Vuite, a non-Lushei clan, 41, 74, 90, 93, 135, 142-4, 158, 186, 190 Vuite, a son of egg-hatched Lamleia, 142 Vuta, a Lushei chief, 58 Vutaia, a Sailo chief, 4, 47 War, 56-^60 War of the North and South, Warri, a game, 39 Weapons, 14 16 Weights and nu-asures, 19 20 Whalley, Mr., 216, 220 ■so INDEX " Whenoli," a chief, 126 Witchcraft, 109 ; Vuite, 145 Widowers and widows, 52-3, 163 AVindows, token of householder's rank, 27, 186 Women, barrenness, 70, 76 ; Thado, 202 Chastity, 53 ; Vuite, 144 Confinement, 2, 70, 81-2 ; Fanai, 138-9 ; Lakher, 223 ; Ronte and Tarau, 174 ; Old Kuki, 160 ; Ngente, 133 Dress, 12, 31 ; Lakher, 215 ; Vuite, 144 ; Old Kuki, 152, 186 Occupations, 17-18 Ornaments, 14, 143 Possessed by spirits, 110 et seq. Tobacco smoking, 12, 31 Woodthorpe, Colonel, xviii Worship, Ancestor, 65, 71, 89, 201 Natural forces, 65 Snakes, 105-8 Spirits, 65 et seq. Walai, the lizard, 184 Yangmal, the earth-worm, 184 Yau, a Purum Festival, 172 Zadeng, a branch of Thangur clan, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 42, 125, 126, 140 Zadenga, Thangur chief, 125 Zahao tribe, 136, 139 Zakachhunga, Old Kuki village officer, 153 Zanghaki, courted by Labuanga, 69 Zankiiuan, four days' feast, 89 Zawl, liypnotised state. 110-11 Zawlbuk, XX, 18, 21, 22, 103, 168 Chiru, Kom, Tliikup, 151 Not built by the Ralte, 140 Nor by Rangte, 146 Old Kuki substitutes, 152, 168, 186 Ronte, 173 Vuite substitute, 143 Not built by Thados, 193 Zatea, an Old Kuki man, 187 Zawlnei, a hypnotic medium, 110-11 Zawlthlia, aThangchhuah, 98-9 Zawngte, a non-Lushei clan, 135 Ziki, a girl, 66, 68 Zinhawn sacrifice, 77, 132 Zin-thiang sacrifice, 70, 130, 132 Zo, Chin name for Lakher or Mara clan, 215 Zomi, a Thado female spectre, 201 Zong-pam, a branch of Chuaongo clan, 126 Zote clan, 188 Zu, a fermented drink made from rice, 36 Method of distilling, 37 Use in Sacrifices, 73, 78, S3, 87, 91, 138 Zuhrei, the big rat, 94 Zupalba, Old Kuki village officer, 153 Zu-pui-ni feast day, 88 Zuting-ni, fourth-day, 87 RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LTD., BRUNSWICK STREET, S.E., AND BUNOAV, SUFFOLK. 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