Immediately a death occurs guns are fired and a special funeral chant called “Lā pi” (Lushai “Hlā”) is sung three times. The funeral ceremonies of ordinary people are practically the same as among the Lushais, but in the case of those who have performed the “Chong” the ceremonies last seven days, and each day the corpse is carried in and out of the house seven times with much shouting, and a mithan has to be killed on each day. Every relative and slave has to attend and bring some animal to be killed. The skulls of all these adorn the great man’s grave, and, in former days, at least one fresh human skull taken specially for the occasion from some other clan had to be added to the other trophies over a chief’s grave. Sometimes the body of a great chief may be placed in a small house at a short distance from the village and partially dried over a slow fire; and a curious survival of the times of war is found in the practice, now dying out, of severing the head and burying it in an earthen pot in a separate place. This was done to prevent the heads being found and removed as trophies, should the village be raided. The entrails of the first animal killed in honour of the deceased are placed on leaves at the foot of the post against which the corpse rested during the funeral feast, and are left there for several days, even up to one month, and at every meal a handful of rice is taken out of the pot and placed on the leaves, before anyone is allowed to eat. This portion for the dead is called “thi an chhe.” As among the Rangte, efforts are made to obtain some wild animal or bird, and if the hunters are successful the entrails of the animal, or the whole animal if it be not edible, are buried with the “thi an chhe” in the grave, without waiting for the expiry of the month.
Unnatural deaths (“thichhia”) are considered unlucky, and the custom regarding the disposal of the corpse in such cases is the same as among the Lushais. Memorial stones are not generally put up by the Thados, but are occasionally found among the Chhinchhuan, perhaps from their proximity to the Lushais.
A man who has performed the Ai of a tiger is honoured with a special memorial. Two posts, one some four feet long and the other about three, carefully squared and with the four sides ornamented with transverse notches, are placed in the ground some five or six feet apart. The longer post terminates in a spike, on which are impaled several oval-shaped pieces of wood, which indicate the number of animals killed by the deceased. Between the posts and to one side a long pole is planted leaning over between the posts, and from this hangs half a dried gourd shell, convex side uppermost, from the rim of which hang tassels of rough wooden beads, and from the centre hangs a piece of wood 7 or 8 inches long, of which one end is forked and the other a knob. This represents “thotche,” a sort of rat found in the jungle and said to be the master of the jungle. If this animal is burnt in the jungle the “Thihla” of the place will be angry and punish the persons responsible. Children eat the flesh of the thotche. The posts are called “thingel” and remind one of the memorial posts of the Chins, and the be-tasselled gourd is a sign among those people that the owner of the house before which it is displayed has killed a man.
Memorial to a Man who has performed the Ai of a Tiger.
Memorial to a Woman who has performed the Buh Ai.
A woman who has performed the Buh Ai is also honoured with a special memorial, consisting of an upright stone some three feet high, in front of which are placed three others supporting a flat stone. A space of about four square yards in front is enclosed by a line of stones set on edge, the whole of the interior being planted with small stones, which are supposed to show the number of baskets of rice reaped on the occasion of the Ai. The feasts connected with the cultivation known by the Lushais as “Kut” are not practised, but when the rice is well up the whole community goes to the jhums, dancing and singing, and beating drums and gongs. In the jhums they work vigorously in perfect silence for a considerable time and then burst forth into song and dance, and eat their fill of rice washed down with zu. There is another feast connected with the crops called “Hun,” which takes place when the rice is about a foot high. Each household prepares two pots of zu, one for the husband and one for the wife, and a post called “shekhon” is planted before each house. This post has two horizontal arms projecting, one near the top and one near the ground, the upper one being the longer. These are perforated, and three reeds are passed through the holes. Each household kills a white cock at the foot of the shekhon. The flesh is cooked in the house and eaten by the householder alone. The “sherh” and bones are hung on the shekhon. The zu in the householder’s pot may only be drunk by other householders, but that in the wife’s pot is dispensed to all comers. For five days after this feast no one but members of the household may enter the house. Nothing out of the house may be given away, and the householder must do no work, nor may he attend a funeral.
The series of feasts performed by the Lushais to attain the honours of “Thangchhuah” is not customary among the Thados, though some informants say that in olden days some such custom prevailed, and the “Chong” feast, at which seven mithan and two of every other sort of domestic animal had to be killed, is not performed now only because none can afford the expense. It will be remembered that “Chong” is the name of the first feast in the Thangchhuah series. Among the Haukip I am told that a position equivalent to Thangchhuah is attained by thrice celebrating the Ai of one of the following—tiger, bear, elephant, or hornbill.