A thousand miles on an elephant in the Shan States

by Holt S. Hallett

Offerings to the spirits of the land or rivers are frequently made in cases of sickness by the people. These consist of clay images, rice, vegetables, flesh, fruit, flowers, and wax tapers, set on toy boats or rafts and placed on the stream or in the street, whichever is the public highway. The spirits are supposed to find the food, &c., and become appeased.

A dryad.

Other superstitions are connected with these naiads. One seems to have given rise to the trial by water, which can still be claimed in the Ping States—both accuser and defendant having to enter the river and see which can keep his head longest under water without coming up for breath; and another, which accounts for the seeming heartlessness of the people towards drowning folk. The common belief is that the water-sprite will certainly resent the interference of one person in rescuing another, by at some future time claiming the rescuer as a substitute.

New Year’s Day amongst the Shans and Burmese occurs at the time of the expected break of the south-west monsoons, and is held in honour of the great Indian rain-god Indra, who is invoked by the people to strike the great demon-shaped clouds (personified in India as the Demon Vritra) which bring the periodical rains, upon which the fertility of the ground depends. In the month of May, in India, the heat becomes intense: vegetation is dried up, the crops cannot be sown, the cattle droop, and milk and butter become scarce. Famine or plenty depends upon the expected rains, and the daily gathering of the clouds is watched with anxiety; but although the array of clouds is constantly enlarging, there is no rain until a rattling thunderstorm charges the ranks and the broken clouds let loose the impetuous showers. “This,” according to the Sama Veda, “is Indra, who comes ‘loud shouting’ in his car, and hurls his thunderbolt at the demon Vritra.”

Indra is represented in the Vedas as a young and handsome man, with a beautiful nose and chin, ever joyous, and delighting in the exhilarating draughts of Soma juice. When offering to Indra, the priest exclaims—“Thy inebriety is most intense; nevertheless, thy acts are most beneficent.”

The evening of the next day, when we were at Lakon, the monsoon burst upon us. A great low-lying phalanx of black bellying clouds came up in battle array from the horizon, and, like a vast black curtain, quickly hid every star from our view. Then commenced the stupendous fight. Indra’s bolts, dashing in every direction, rent the clouds, and the rain came pouring down in torrents upon the thirsty earth.

Amongst the Ping Shans, New Year’s Day is the same as in Burmah, and is fixed by the position of the sun and not by that of the moon. It is the time of the great Water Festival, when for three days Phya In, or Indra—the rain-god and king of the Dewahs—is supposed to descend at midnight to the earth to stay for three or four days. On the signal of his arrival being given, a formal prayer is made, and jars full of water, which have been placed at the door of each house, their mouths stoppered with green leaves, have their contents poured on the ground as a libation to the god, in order to ensure the prosperity of the household; and every one who has a gun hastens to fire it off as a salute to the rain-god.

The first thing in the morning the people take fresh pots of water to the monasteries, and present them to the abbot and his monks; and in the afternoon the women proceed to the temples to wash the images, and later on freely douse their grandparents and other aged relatives. The scene of the image-washing is highly picturesque. Before leaving home for the temples, the women compound various perfumery from spices and flowers, which, when duly prepared, is cast into a metal basin—sometimes of silver—filled with fresh well-water. Newly cut flowers lie on the surface of the water, and likewise deck the hair of the women and girls, and even the top-knots of the little boys who accompany them.

Each woman, and even tiny little girl, bears a basin of perfumed water in her hands, and all trip along gaily, dressed in all the finery at their disposal, chatting and jesting merrily together, to the temple. As they enter its grounds, which are enclosed by low white-plastered brick walls, along two sides of which are erected sheds for the accommodation of pilgrims, the abbot and his monks, in their bright yellow garments, and with their bald pates glistening in the sun, may be seen strolling amongst the pleasant shady fruit-trees. Everything has been kept neat and trim by the pious villagers, not even a stray leaf is to be seen, and fresh sand has been scattered about the grounds as a finishing touch. The great white-walled temple, with its handsome many-tiered roof, and its floor raised some feet from the ground, stands with its door facing the entrance-gate, and a broad flight of steps, with handsome side walls surmounted by great plastered dragons embellished with coloured glass scales of various tints, and the bottoms of beer-bottles for eyes, leads up to the double entrance-door.