“After death the dead man holds the horns of the sambhur while sitting on its head, the rulngan will wind itself round him and the horns, the mu-vān-lāi will try to seize the rulngan, but the Thangchhuah can drive them off. That is why they always fly screaming so high in the sky. The vāhluk shade him by flying above him and also hide him from Pupawla, and thus the Thangchhuah is carried to Pial-ral.”
In Pial-ral food and drink are to be obtained without labour, which to the Lushai appears the height of bliss.
The omission of the tiger from the list of animals which a Thangchhuah must have killed is curious, and I cannot explain it as the Lushais have no superstitious objection to killing tigers and the “Ai” of a tiger is a very special function, as will be seen in [para. 4 of this chapter].
This ceremony called “Ai” is always performed when a man or a wild animal has been killed. It is supposed to give the performer’s ghost power over the ghosts of the man or animals killed. He is described as going to Pial-ral leading the ghost of his enemy on a string like a dog. Every member of a hunting party in which an elephant is killed or of a raiding party in which a man is slain is entitled to say that he has killed an elephant or a man. This simplifies admission to Pial-ral, and now that the killing of men and elephants is prohibited by an unsympathetic Government, it is popularly supposed that this qualification will not be insisted on.
Many people profess to have seen Mi-thi-khua in their dreams, but none claim to have seen Pial-ral. Should a person dream of his parents and in his dream accept rice from their hands he will die without fail in a very short time.
I have been told that the spirits of the dead sometimes are reincarnated in the form of hornets and sometimes in the form of dew, and if this falls on a person the spirit is reborn in his or her child.
Khawtlang Posts Erected to Commemorate the Slaying of Mithans at a Feast.
2. Ancestor worship. Though this can scarcely be said to be the religion of the Lushais, yet they firmly believe that the spirits of the dead are constantly present and need to be propitiated, and one of the principal Thangchhuah feasts is in honour of the dead. This is described in [para. 9 of this chapter].
At every feast or sacrifice a small portion of flesh, rice, and a little zu is placed on a shelf under the eaves for the spirits of the dead members of the family. This is called “rao-chhiak.”