The Lushei Kuki Clans

by John Shakespear

The correct performance of the Chāp-chār-kut is thought to go far towards insuring a good crop for the year.

Thang-chhuah Feasts.—The feasts which an aspirant for the honours of Thang-chhuah must give are five in number and have to be given in the order named, as they involve considerable expenditure, but not within any specified time.

1. Chong.—The feast lasts four days, the first of which is called “In-chhia-shem-ni,” (day for repairing the house). The floor in the house is strengthened to make it safe for the large number of guests. The labourers receive a liberal allowance of zu in payment for their trouble. The second day is called “Zu-pui-ni,” from the large amount of zu that is drunk. The next day—“Rawi-ni”—two boars and a sow are killed and there is a great feast. The last day is known as “Chang-do-ni,” and on it the remains of the feast are finished up.

2. She-doi.—The feast only lasts three days. The first day is “In-chhia-shem-ni,” the second is known as “She-shun-ni” (mithan slaughter day), and a mithan is killed and eaten. The third day, known as “Sa-ru-che-u-ni,” is similar to Chong-do-ni.

3. Mi-thi-rawp-lām.—Three months before the day fixed for the feast all the young men and girls of the village start cutting firewood, for cooking the flesh of the animal to be killed. A cane is stretched along from tree to tree beside one of the main approaches to the village for some 500 yards, and against this on alternate sides are rested the billets so that they may be thoroughly dry by the time they are needed. As a reward the young people receive a he-goat and a sow, which they consume with much merry-making, the skulls being placed on posts at each end of the line of billets. This collection of wood is called “sa-thing-zār” (flesh-wood-hangout). The actual feast lasts four days, which are known by the same names as in the “Chong” and are spent in much the same way, but on the Rawi-ni, besides the slaying and eating of mithan, effigies, supposed to represent their deceased relatives, are made and attired in the finest cloths and adorned with the best necklaces. These are strapped on a square bamboo framework, in the centre of which on a tall pole is an effigy supposed to represent the progenitor of the clan. The oldest living member of the clan then comes slowly from his house, bringing with him a gourd of zu, and gives each effigy in turn a little zu, muttering a charm as he does so; he arranges his tour so as to reach his own father’s effigy last, and when he has muttered his charm and given it the zu he dashes the gourd down on the ground and, bursting into tears, rushes into his house, whence he must not emerge for a month. The effigies are then carried about the village with much shouting.

This carrying about of their effigies is supposed to be very pleasing to the spirits of the ancestors, and it is evident that the people consider that these spirits are able to influence them for good or for bad, though I have never had this view of the matter clearly explained to me. This carrying about of persons on a platform is considered an honour, and an instance of it will be found in the description of the Fa-nai. It also appears among the Aimol and Tikhup. Among the Manipuris or Meitheis the right to be carried in a “dolai,” or litter, is much valued and is the prerogative of certain officials, but is sometimes granted by the Rajah as a personal distinction. The last day of the feast resembles the same day in the Chong.

4. She-doi as before.

5. Khuang-choi.—This is the greatest feast. Wood is collected three months before, as in the Mi-thi-rawp-lām, but the collectors get a mithan and a goat as their reward. The feast lasts four days, the names being the same as in the Chong. On the Rawi-ni at least three mithan must be killed. The Khuang-choi really completes the series, and the giver can now proudly wear the Thang-chhuah cloth and have a window in his side wall, but it is considered unlucky to stop, and after some time the She-doi is performed again under the name of “Tlip,” followed in the course of a year or so by “Zānkhuān,” a four days’ feast similar to the Chong, but one or two mithan are killed. If the fortunate man’s life is prolonged he will continue repeating these two feasts alternately. A man who has twice celebrated a Khuang-choi is allowed to build a raised summer house called “zao” a short distance in front of his living house.

After slaying a mithan in any of these feasts the giver of the feast is subject to various restrictions. Till he has performed the “In-thian” ceremony, he may not leave the house nor talk to anyone from another village. In some cases his movements are not so closely restricted, but he must in no case cross running water. I am told that should he infringe these rules his Sakhua would be offended and he or his family would get ill. The “In-thian” ceremony is performed some forty or fifty days after the killing of the mithan, and consists in the sacrificing of a cock. The prohibition of conversing with strangers is generally enforced only for three or four days, but on no account must they be allowed inside the house.

The skulls of mithan killed on these occasions are placed on posts to one side of the entrance to the house of the giver of the feast, and it is the highest ambition of the Lushai to have a long line of such posts in front of his house. Each post is cut out of a tree of considerable size, which is dressed until the lower 7 or 8 feet are only some 8 or 9 inches thick. Above this the tree is roughly cut into a plank some 8 or 9 inches thick, forming an irregular quadrilateral, the lower side being a foot or so long and the upper from 2 to 3 feet, while one side may be 18 inches and the other 2 feet or a little more; at each of the upper corners there is a perpendicular projection some 12 inches long terminating in a spike, a short distance below which a ring of wood is left. The skull is placed on the higher spike, while on the lower an egg is affixed by a thin peg of fir wood. This use of fir may be a survival of the time when the clan lived east of the Tyao, where fir forests are still found.