(i.) Inpuichhung (Inpui = big house, chhung = within), Lalchhung, or Chhungte—viz. those who live in the big house or chief’s house. (ii.) chemshen boi (chem = dao, shen = red); (iii.) tuklut boi (tuk = promise, lut = to enter). The first class consist of all those who have been driven by want of food to take refuge in the chief’s house. Widows, orphans, and others who are unable to support themselves, and have no relatives willing to do so, form the bulk of this class of “boi,” but it is not unusual, if a young widow remarries, for her second husband to insist on his predecessor’s children being put into the chief’s house, unless any of their father’s relatives will take them. The inpuichhung are looked on as part of the chief’s household, and do all the chief’s work in return for their food and shelter. The young men cut and cultivate the chief’s jhum and attend to his fish traps. The women and girls fetch up wood and water, clean the daily supply of rice, make cloths, and weed the jhum, and look after the chief’s children. In return the boi get good food and live in the chief’s house, and often wear his ornaments and use his guns and weapons. They have to do very little more work than they would have to do if they were independent, and, on the other hand, they are free of all anxiety as to the morrow.
As all the chiefs are of the same family, a boi is at liberty to move from one chief’s house to another. If a chief or his wife treats a boi very badly, the injured one goes off and seeks for a new master, and, as a large number of boi is considered to increase a chief’s importance, every chief is willing to receive him, and therefore boi are generally well treated. In former days powerful chiefs like Sukpuilala and Vutaia only allowed their boi to go to one of their own relations, but even then a boi very often would manage to find an asylum with some equally powerful chief.
When a person has once entered the chief’s house, he or she can only purchase freedom by paying one mithan or its equivalent in cash or goods. The fact that a boi can ever do this shows that he is allowed to acquire property. When a male boi reaches a marriageable age, the chief generally buys him a wife, and he lives with her for three years in the chief’s house: should he marry a female boi, the couple have to live six years in the chief’s house. After this period, he sets up a house of his own and is known as “inhrang (in = house, hrang = separate) boi,” and works for himself, but is still in some respects a boi. If he kills any animal he has to give a hind leg to the chief, and failure to do so renders him liable to a fine of one mithan or its equivalent. If the chief is in want of rice he can call on his boi to help him if they have any surplus, and if a boi is in want he can look to the chief for assistance.
Regarding the children of such a boi, customs differ somewhat. Some chiefs have made it the rule that only the youngest son, who inherits his father’s property, is a boi, the remainder of the sons and all the girls being entirely free. Others insist that all the children are boi, and that the chief is entitled to the marriage prices of the daughters. They give, as a reason for this, that the chief has paid for the boi’s wife and so is entitled to consider the children as boi. In either case the children are inhrang boi.
A female boi is allowed to marry, and the chief receives the marriage price, and when this has been paid in full he has no further claim on the woman or her children during her husband’s lifetime, but should she be left a widow, she is sometimes forced to re-enter the chief’s house; but as a rule, if she behaves decently, she is allowed to remain on in her husband’s house, and manage his property on behalf of his children, who are never considered boi. Should she re-marry, the chief will again receive whatever sum is paid as her marriage price.
It will be seen that the inpuichhung are by no means badly off, and the custom seems in every way suited to the circumstances of the case. Many a clever young man rises from being a boi to being the chief’s most trusted adviser, and it is by no means unusual for a chief to take a favourite boi into his own family by the ceremony called “Saphun” (see under Adoption, page 54).
(ii.) Chemsen Boi (Red Dao Boi).—These are criminals who, to escape from the consequences of their ill deeds, take refuge in the chief’s house. Murderers closely pursued by the avengers of blood rushed into the chief’s presence and saved their lives at the expense of their own or their children’s freedom. Debtors unable to pay their creditors sought the chief’s protection, and he released them from their debts on condition that they and their children became boi. Thieves and other vagabonds avoided punishment by becoming the chief’s boi. Civil disputes were unblushingly decided in favour of the party who volunteered to become the chief’s boi. It is evident that the custom in these cases has grown up by degrees from the chief’s granting sanctuary to those who, having committed serious crimes, were in danger of being killed by those they had injured or their relatives.
Chemsen boi do not live in the chief’s house or work for him. Their position is similar to that of an inhrang boi, but all their children are considered boi to the same extent as their parents. The chiefs generally take the marriage price of the daughters of such Boi.
(iii.) Tuklut (Enter by Promising) Boi.—These are persons who during war have deserted the losing side and joined the victors by promising that they and their descendants will be boi. A tuklut boi can purchase his freedom for a mithan, and if there are three or four persons in one household one mithan will release them all. As a rule the daughters of tuklut boi are not considered boi. A tuklut boi does not live in the chief’s house, and is in most respects in the same position as an inhrang boi.
Chemshen boi have not been recognised by our officers, and whenever one has claimed protection he has been released. The tuklut boi have also not been formally recognised, but their duties weigh so lightly on them that they seldom claim their release, and in their case, as in that of the “sāl,” the class, receiving no fresh recruits, will soon cease to exist. As regards the inpuichhung boi, the custom seems well suited to the people and provides for the maintenance of the poor, old, and destitute, and it would be extremely unwise to attempt to alter it.