A thousand miles on an elephant in the Shan States

by Holt S. Hallett

The other evil spirits of the earth are: Firstly, the Pee Mer Mor, which possess sorcerers and soothsayers. These are the spirits of deceased physicians, and people possessed by them are called in in cases of theft or loss. Secondly, the Pee Kah, the wizard-spirits of horse form. Thirdly, the Pee Hong, who are in two classes: the headless, who are the ghosts of decapitated people; and the ones with heads, who are the spirits of those who have been killed by animals. Fourthly, the Pee Pai, who are the spirits of those who die from abortion, miscarriage, or childbirth. If the child dies with the mother, its spirit joins hers in its rambles, endeavouring to harm the living. The first objects of their search are their husband and father, whose death they do all they can to accomplish. Sometimes the man endeavours to escape by becoming a monk in a monastery away from his home. This belief, like most of the superstitions in Indo-China, is also current in China. Only last year I read of a case in Peking where the seven orifices in the head of a woman who had died in childbirth were burnt with a large stick of ignited incense to prevent her spirit from plaguing her husband.[^[20]] Fifthly, the Pee Koom ngeun, the spirits who watch over hidden treasures. These are the spirits of misers who had during their life hid money and precious stones in the earth. On their death, their spirits are not allowed to join the ancestral clan, but have to haunt their buried treasure and watch over it.

Then there are the Pee Pa, or spirits of the jungle, who are the spirits of those who have died when absent from their home. Their numbers are recruited as follows: If a king, prince, or other ruler, dies whilst passing through the forest, his spirit must of necessity wander about the place where he died. No merit-making can accrue from any religious service over his corpse. The disembodied spirit, not allowed to join the ancestral spirits, wanders about in its desperation, and endeavours to cause the death of all who pass its way. If it succeeds, his victim’s spirit has to become its companion and subject—thus a clan with its chief is formed; and passage through the jungle becomes more and more dangerous as time runs on. No one dying in the forest has the privilege of returning home and joining the ancestral spirits; he, or she, is for ever destined to be a Pee Pa, or evil spirit of the jungle.

The late King of Zimmé, the persecutor of the Christians, died on his way back from Bangkok; and therefore, according to the people, has become a Pee Pa. Mr Wilson gave me the following description of his funeral: The day after his death, the king’s body was put in a coffin. The face and limbs were covered with gold-leaf,[^[21]] which fitted so closely as to leave the features perfectly recognisable. The ordinary custom whereby the corpse should have been placed in a sitting posture was not adhered to in his case. Over the body was placed a loose robe of the purest and richest white damask. The inside of the coffin was lined with white, and the outside was covered with a gold cloth of the finest texture.

The corpse not being allowed to enter the city—no corpse is—was conveyed to the king’s river palace by a large procession of soldiers, priests, and people on foot, and of princes on ponies and elephants. Near the front of the procession was an elephant of the second king, wearing its brightly polished silver trappings. Farther back came the coffin borne on a gilded bier, and surrounded by a large number of yellow-robed monks. Behind it was carried the vacant throne, bearing on its seat the royal crown. Next came a groom leading the pony the king used to ride, and after it, without a mahout, the favourite royal elephant—its huge body ornamented with rich trappings of gold. Following these were the members of the royal family and the near relatives. As the corpse came in sight, a number of princesses who were waiting in the public sala began in modulated tones the wailing for the dead. Every evening a company of priests assembled to chant the prayers for the dead, each receiving some gift at the close of the service.

The king of the infernal regions is known as Phya Yomerat, and his ministers, officers, and malefactors as Pee Narok. Pictures of the damned suffering in the Buddhist hells embellished the walls of many of the temples: the ideas are derived from one of the ten Great Zahts, or mystery-plays, in which a pious prince is shown the horrors of the various places of punishment.

Mr Scott (Shwé Yoe), in his book ‘The Burman,’ gives a description of some of the tortures, which he rightly says is sufficient to make one’s flesh creep. Men devoured by five-headed dogs, by famished vultures, by loathsome crows, the flesh being renewed as fast as the foul creatures tore it away; others crushed beneath the weight of vast white-hot mountains; stretched on fiery bars, and cut up with burning knives and flaming saws, flame entering at the mouth and licking up the vitals; fiends all about, hacking, hewing, stabbing, lacerating the body; fiends with fiery hammers crushing the bones at every stroke: all are depicted in the temples—and much more.

The Buddhist hells and the Buddhist heavens have, however, little to do with the real religion of the people. Buddhism has next to no hold upon them; it is merely a veneer covering their old Dravidian and Turanian superstitions, which, as we have seen, are brought into play in their everyday life, and in the times of sickness and death. With the spirit-worshippers in China and Indo-China, as amongst the ancient Finnish (Turanian) tribes in Russia, described by Sir Mackenzie Wallace, the religious ceremonies have no hidden mystical signification, and are for the most part rather magical rites for averting the influence of malicious spirits, or freeing themselves from the unwelcome visits of their departed relatives. Amongst the Finns in Russia, many even of those who are officially Christians proceed like the Shans at stated seasons to the graveyards, and place an abundant supply of cooked food on the graves of their relations who have recently died, requesting the departed to accept this meal, and not to return to their old homes, where their presence is no longer desired. Another strong resemblance between the practices of the Finns and the people of south-eastern Asia lies in the fact that “they do not distinguish religion from magic rites; and they have never been taught that other religions are less true than their own. For them the best religion is the one which contains the most potent spells, but they see no reason why less powerful religions should not be blended therewith.” Thus the Chinese and Indo-Chinese have acquired a thorough folio of religions and religious superstitions.

Phya Mahn, in the Shan pantheon, is very much altered from the Mahn Min of the Burmese, and the Dewadat of the Pali scriptures; he still can roam about in heaven, and earth, and hell. Formerly, before his attack upon Gaudama, he had power over the spirits of all these regions, but could not bring his heavenly attendants with him to earth, nor take his earthly attendants with him to heaven. Since his ill behaviour he has no attendants in heaven, and must gain the consent of Phya Wet Sawan before any of the latter’s evil spirits can join him in his progress upon the earth.

On my telling Mr Wilson that I wished to leave for Bangkok as soon as possible, as I had agreed to meet Mr Colquhoun there at the beginning of June, and that he might already be there, or on his way up the river to meet me, he said that he thought the best plan would be for him to make arrangements for the crews, and to charge me a lump sum for them and for the use of the comfortable house-boats belonging to his Mission. He considered that 500 rupees was a fair bargain, as it would include the return journey and the food of the men. To this I gladly assented, on the understanding that 200 rupees were to be paid down, and the remainder on my reaching Bangkok. He promised to have the boats ready for me to start on May 31st.

Next day I paid visits to the missionaries, and called on Mr Gould to ask him to accompany me to Prince Bigit’s on the following day, and to arrange for the interview, which he promised to do. On reaching the house occupied by the prince, I found the drawing-room furnished with tables and chairs, and ornamented by a Gatling gun that he had brought with him either for defence or to astonish the natives.