The Lushei Kuki Clans 34

The Lushei Kuki Clans 34

flesh of fowls during the sherh period, while the mother is under no

restriction as regards diet. No other animal may be sacrificed during

that time, and cohabitation is not allowed for one month. The Purum

customs are severely simple. The thempu comes and mutters charms on the

day of the birth, and returns on the third day and makes a libation

of zu. No sacrifices are allowed. The name is given on the second

day by the midwife, and the ears are pierced on the seventh day,

but in neither case is there any ceremony. The Tikhup give the name

at a feast, to which the elders of the community are invited; a cock

is killed and zu dispensed freely. In case of the parents being poor,

this feast may be postponed till the child is two years old.

 

The custom of summoning the child's soul reminds one of the Lushai

prohibition of labour on the part of the parents for seven days after

the child's birth, lest its soul, which hovers around them during

that period, be injured.

 

[Ceremonies connected with marriage.] Where marriage is by service,

it is only natural that the actual ceremony should be of little

importance, for the couple have been living as man and wife during

the whole time; but there are exceptions.

 

At an Aimol wedding two thempus are necessary--one of the bridegroom's,

and one of the bride's family. Each kills a cock, the feathers of

which are tied round the necks of the happy pair, after which there

is the usual orgy. The Chiru and Tikhup custom is almost identical,

but the village thempu officiates alone. Among the Kolhen, the

young man's mother makes six visits to the parents of her future

daughter-in-law, taking an offering of zu, and being accompanied by her

eldest son-in-law or other male relative, and on the last occasion by

two or three women. Two days after the last visit, the price is fixed,

and the day for the ceremony chosen by the bridegroom's father and the

village officials. The bridegroom, on the day before that fixed for

the marriage, goes to the girl's house, accompanied by several male

friends, and makes a present of three pots of zu to her parents. The

next morning the bride, accompanied by the unmarried girls of the

village, goes to her future home, taking with her two jars of zu,

a hen, a piece of ginger, a dog, a strap for carrying loads, a new

cloth, and a bracelet. She parts from her friends, with many tears,

on the doorstep of her new home. The khulpu decapitates a fowl

and throws it down; if the right leg falls over the left a happy

married life is assured. The night is spent in singing and dancing,

and the following night in the same way, but in the house of the

bride, who on the next morning quits her father's house for good. On

the day of the marriage the bride and bridegroom must not leave the

village. This taking of omens by killing a cock is practised by the

Lamgang and Kom. Where marriage is not by service the preliminaries

in all clans resemble much those among the Kolhen. Among the Vaiphei,

and, I think, in some other clans, the young man has to give a feast

to the young men frequenting the same dormitory. A similar custom

is described in Fielding Hall's "The Inward Light," page 104, as

existing in Burma. "It is an old custom for the village boys to band

themselves together in a company.... But when one marries he ceases

to belong to the company, for he is about to enter into another and a

wider life. He is a deserter and a traitor to his fellows. Therefore

they lay in wait for him and caught him as he went home at night,

and, taking him without the village gate, they tried him and found

him guilty. With mock ceremony he was condemned to be turned out

from their ranks, and to pay a fine wherewith his comrades might

drown their sorrow at his desertion. Then with laughter and song,

to the light of torches, they took him home in long procession."

 

Widows are allowed to remarry, but as a rule the brothers of the

deceased husband have a prior claim, and if the woman marries

anyone else before the annual feast in honour of the dead she has

to pay a fine, which in some clans is as much as Rs. 120/-, to her

brother-in-law. Until this annual feast has come round she must remain

in her late husband's house, but when that has been performed she

may return to her father's house if she wishes to, but in that case

the brother-in-law will take the dead man's property and children.

 

[Ceremonies connected with death.] All these clans bury their dead in

special cemeteries outside the village, and unnatural deaths or deaths

in childbirth are universally considered signs that the deceased has

failed in some way, and the corpses of such unfortunates are buried

outside the cemetery and with scant ceremony.

 

Among the Aimol, the corpse of the khul-lakpa is carried round the

village before being taken to the grave. The corpse of one who has

gained honours equivalent to Thangchhuah among the Lushais is enclosed

in a rough log coffin and kept for two days amid much drinking and

feasting, which recalls the funeral ceremonies of a Lushei chief. With

a rich man many cloths are buried and with a poor man at least one. In

addition some cooked rice, zu, a dao, some meat, and a bow and arrow

are deposited in the grave. The bow and arrow are a survival, for such

weapons have been long obsolete. Over the grave a small house is built

in which some meat and zu are placed to attract the "Khawhring." Spears

are then thrust through the house, which is then thrown away. I am

not quite clear whether the "Khawhring" in this case is supposed,

as among the Lushais, to have inhabited the body of the deceased,

or whether it is believed to be a disembodied spirit which is on the

lookout for the soul of the deceased.

 

Three days after the burial a wild animal is killed and zu and rice are

offered, and the spirit of the deceased is asked to go away and not

to trouble the living who have sacrificed and made an offering of zu

and rice. The Anal make a distinction between deaths in childbirth and

deaths by accident or in war. In the former case the body is buried in

the cemetery, the grave being dug by those of her household, and food

and drink and domestic utensils are deposited therein. The husband

has to sacrifice a pig and feast the village before the burial, and

the village is "sherh" for that day. The first stones and earth are

placed in the grave by aged men, and the filling then completed by

young men. The thempu having muttered some charms, the young men and

women sing and dance for the deliverance of the soul. In cases of

ordinary death the grave is dug by men not of the household, but in

case of unnatural death only old grey-headed men may perform the task,

and the grave is dug in the jungle and no dance or song terminates

the funeral, but the village is not "sherh."

 

The Chawte make their cemetery some distance from the village. The dead

are buried on the day of death. Over each grave a mound is raised and

fenced round with a bamboo trellis-work. A small post carved faintly to

resemble the human form is placed over the grave of a man, while a hoe,

axe, and winnowing fan denote the grave of a woman. On each grave rests

a flat basket containing some flowers and a small jar of water. Behind

each grave is a rough representation of a house raised some four feet

from the ground, which is also ornamented with flowers, and some

of the deceased's clothes hang from it, while inside are placed a

bamboo full of zu and a small cup, which is filled with clean water,

and a handful of raw rice. These are changed every third or fourth day

till the Thi-duh ceremony comes round in May, when there is a feast,

and portions of meat and some zu are placed on each fresh grave.

 

On the death of a Chiru, guns are fired and gongs beaten, and a fowl,

pig, and goat are killed at once. There is the usual funeral feast,

and food and personal effects, including his comb, are buried with

him. The house is "sherh" for three days, during which rice is placed

in a small basket in the house and then thrown on to the grave. On

the third day the house is purified by the thempu sacrificing a

cock. In nearly every clan the house has to be purified by the

thempu besprinkling it with either consecrated water or zu, and in

many cases the funeral party are similarly purified. The Kolhen bury

the bodies of those who die natural deaths in front of their houses,

as do the Lushais, and the funeral feast closely resembles that held

by the Lushais. The body of a khul-lakpa is carried three times

round his memorial stone, from left to right. A bow and arrow are

placed in the grave. The village is "sherh" for three days for any

death. The Lamgang follow the same customs as the Anal, but the bodies

of women who die in childbirth are not buried in the graveyard. The

Kom and the Purum have the curious custom that the duty of digging

the grave in case of an unnatural death falls on the son-in-law of

the deceased. They say that the spirit of the dead cries out at the

place where he met his death until appeased by an offering of tobacco

leaves and rice. The Tikhup funeral is exactly the same as that of

an ordinary Lushai. The Vaiphei dress up the corpse and strap it on

to a bamboo frame, as do the Lushais, and feast around it for three

days if food and drink suffice for so long. At the end of the feast

the thempu pours some zu down the throat of the corpse and bids the

spirit go in peace, and the body is carried to the grave, but if the

deceased has attained Thangchhuah honours, it is first earned round

the village. The household of the deceased abstain from washing or

dressing the hair till some wild animal has been killed. The custom

of giving something to the maternal grandfather or uncle on the

occasion of a death, known among the Lushais as "lukawng," is found

among several clans. Among the Tikhup and Kolhen, for instance, he

receives the neck of the animal killed on the occasion of the funeral,

and in the last-named clan he also receives a pipe or Rs. 2/-. The

custom known among the Kabui and other allied tribes in Manipur as

"mandu," which ordains that a widower shall pay his deceased wife's

father a certain sum as the price of her bones, is only found among

the Kolhen, with whom it is usual to pay Rs. 5/- or 6/-. Among the

Kolhen a child dying within ten days of its birth is buried under

the eaves of the house, and is called "thichhiat" equivalent to the

"hlamzuih" among the Lushais.

 

[Festivals.] 1. Connected with Crops.--The Tikhup, the only

monotheistic clan in the hills, have no ceremonies connected with

the crops, but allow no dancing, singing, or music in the village

between the sowing and the reaping.

 

Among the other Old Kuki clans there is a great resemblance between the

festivals, and their connection with the Lushai "Kuts" can be easily

traced--in some cases, as among the Kom, the name being actually

the same.

 

A festival which is common to several clans and generally takes place

in the spring, though sometimes later, and is supposed to ensure good

crops and good luck generally, is known by various similar names,

all meaning "Pulling the Creeper."

 

Kolhen "Keidun" Festival.--This occurs in April. The first day, called

"Karamindai," or "Changritakhoi," is occupied by the young men going

off to bring in two long creepers. A fowl and a pig are sacrificed

and the creepers are hung over a post. On the next day the creepers