Such are the usual funeral ceremonies, but under certain circumstances the normal procedure is not followed. An infant is usually buried in the mpongki, the reason given being the rather pathetic one that its parents do not like to think of it lying out in the rain and the cold. If a man was killed in war he was buried outside the village and no ornaments were put on his grave. Like all Nagas, the Lhotas regard certain forms of death with horror, as being manifestations of supernatural displeasure.[42] Thus it is that when anyone dies by drowning, or by falling from a tree, or by fire, or by accidentally falling on his own spear, or in childbirth, or is killed by a wild animal, very strict purificatory rites have to be performed, and great care is taken to burn or cut down a tree from which a man has fallen and been killed. Except in the case of a man killed by a tiger or leopard the corpse is buried near the place of death, whether inside or outside the village. An account of the rites following a death by drowning will illustrate the procedure followed. The body is buried by the nearest relations present, no bead being put on the wrist or ornaments on the grave. Anyone who touches the corpse must at the first opportunity throw away all ornaments and clothing he was wearing at the time. Other people present need not do more than throw [[161]]away a thread from their clothes and the cotton wool from their ears, and scrape a shaving off their spears and dao handles. Any fish caught before the man was drowned, if the catastrophe took place while fishing, as is often the case, may be cooked and eaten on the spot, but nothing must be carried away. Each man as he leaves the river flicks the water with his right hand and says, “Take away all evil, O river.” As soon as the news of the disaster, for such it is, reaches the village an old man comes out and makes a fire on the path, using a fire-stick to do so. Every man before he can enter the village must step through the smoke of the fire, and hold his ornaments and weapons in it for a moment.[43] Someone is standing ready with a “chunga” of water, and each man washes his hands before he passes on. Even a stranger from another village must do this before he can enter his own village, lest he should bring with him the evil with which he is contaminated. The house and all the property of the dead man are abandoned. His money is simply thrown on the ground and left there. His live-stock cannot be killed, for that would defile the dao. The animals are just left to wander about, or are driven over a cliff if they become a nuisance.[44] No money or debts in kind due to the dead man can be claimed, and his heirs in turn need not pay any of his debts. His house is left to fall into ruins with all it contains. His crops are abandoned and any land he was cutting that year must next be cut by a man of another [[162]]clan, though an old man of the dead man’s clan may take rent for it. For the purification of the members of the household the following rites are performed among the Northern Lhotas. Friends of the dead man build a little shed and put some clothes and food in it. An old man of his clan, on the day after the death, lights a fire in front of the house and sacrifices a cock. The whole household must then come out of the house stark naked and step over the fire. They then enter the shed, where they put on clothes and remain for six days without speaking to anyone. Friends bring them food, and build a new house for them. Among the Southern Lhotas the usual custom is for the household to remain in the old house for six days. A cock is then sacrificed, and they pass through the fire and wash their hands and feet and go to a little house built for them outside the village, where they remain for six days, being fed by their friends. They then again are made to pass through the fire and change their clothes and wash and have their hair cut, after which they are ceremonially clean. The task of the man who sacrifices the chicken is regarded as a particularly risky one. Lhotas near the Sema border usually call in a Sema to perform this unpleasant duty. The Sema is not over nice in these matters and willingly sacrifices the chicken, receiving as his reward any of the live-stock of the deceased which he likes to kill and carry away. He must not, however, take away beads or money which might pass from hand to hand and eventually reach some Lhota. The people of Yekhum were recently very much distressed because some Semas carried off some money which had been thrown away, and complained that they would not know whether any rupee in circulation was from this tainted source or not. If a man is killed by a tiger or leopard the body is not buried, but is put on a platform in a tree and panjis are set underneath. This is the only example of tree “burial” among the Lhotas,[45] though the Aos invariably lay out their dead on machans, and the Konyaks beyond them actually put their dead [[163]]bodies in trees in certain villages. Such horror have the Lhotas of being killed by wild beasts that if a man who is being chased by an elephant throws down his load and the elephant touches it he may never pick it up again, for it “belongs to the elephant,” and were he to take it back some elephant would assuredly take his life in exchange. Similarly the shaft of a spear broken by a tiger may never be used again, or the owner will have to give his life in exchange for the spear. No direct descendant of a man killed by a tiger or leopard may eat meat from a tiger or leopard’s kill until he has removed the curse by cutting off the head of a tiger. The wife of a man under this prohibition must observe it, but the husband of a woman under it may eat meat from a kill, but must not give it to his wife. No one may eat the flesh of an animal which has been drowned, or has died in giving birth to young. Were Lhotas strictly logical they would prohibit the eating of meat from a tiger’s or leopard’s kill. As it is, it is regarded as unclean and meat is prohibited for anyone who has to remain ceremonially clean. Ordinarily, however, it may be eaten, for to forbid it entirely would be a great hardship in a country where such large numbers of live-stock come to this untimely end. Lightning, as is only natural, is looked upon as an instrument of supernatural vengeance. Even if no one be killed, a house struck by lightning is abandoned with all it contains. A tree struck by lightning cannot be cut up for firewood or used for any purpose whatever. Should a field be struck, no crop is cut that year from the place where the lightning fell. The rest of the crop may be eaten, but no seed is kept from that field. The stone adzes which are sometimes found are regarded as thunderbolts and are called Potsophü (“Potsos’ axes”), and no Lhota cares to touch one.
Miscellaneous Beliefs.
Medicine Men. Some Lhotas say that the peculiar powers believed to be possessed by medicine men (ratsen) are hereditary.[46] [[164]]Most people hold, however, that anyone, man or woman, is liable to develop the symptoms which are associated with ratsen. The person affected falls into a fit at the dark of the moon, and while in this state says that friends are coming, though none of the bystanders can see anything. These fits are liable to occur throughout life at the change of the moon, and are certainly very violent. I myself saw Yimbomo of Rephyim, a well-known ratsen, fall into a sudden fit down at the Doyang river when a large number of men were “poisoning” the water for fish. He laughed and shouted incoherently, and kept throwing himself onto the ground with such violence, that two men had to be told off to restrain him. In order to bring a man round from these fits powdered ginger is blown into his nose and ears. When a man shows these symptoms for the first time an experienced ratsen is called in to diagnose the case. If he proclaim it to be genuine he strangles a cock, from the head of which he is believed to extract a small stone called ratse’ha. This stone he gives to the budding ratsen, who is supposed to keep it inside his head, and occasionally even show it to very intimate friends. It is said that a few years ago ’Ntengo of Lungsachung was foolish enough to show his stone to a rival ratsen called Khumeshiyo of the same village, who grabbed it and managed to retain possession of it. The result was that ’Ntengo went mad and died soon afterwards.
A Medicine Man (Ratsen) in a fit
He required two men to restrain him.
[To face p. 164.
A Dancer at the rebuilding of a Morung