The Lushei Kuki Clans 36

The Lushei Kuki Clans 36

The Chiru and Kolhen celebrate a somewhat similar festival called

"Ratek" in the middle of August. A pig and a dog are sacrificed by

the thempu outside the village, on the side towards Kobru, and then

two or three days later an offering of zu is placed in a small bamboo

tube beside the water supply, and the drum is beaten for some time;

the party then return to the khul-lakpa's house and are treated to a

drink. The following day a tall bamboo is planted in the village with a

wonderfully ornamented basket hanging from it, and much zu drunk. The

following year the bamboo is taken up and thrown away, the festival

being named "Ratek poiyi" (cf. Lushai "pai," to throw away). Before

the feast young men go hunting, and if they are successful good luck

is sure to follow. The first day of the feast a pig and a dog are

sacrificed, and zu drunk; on the second, the bamboo is thrown away

and more zu drunk in the house of the khul-lakpa. On the third day the

unmarried girls of the village give a drinking feast to the young men,

and both dance together. Should the zu suffice this portion of the

festival may be prolonged for several days.

 

It is believed that unless these two festivals are carried out every

year in their proper rotation, there will be serious mortality among

the elders of the village.

 

Since writing the above, I have found two more small clans, which

evidently belong to the Old Kuki group--Lonte or Ronte, of whom there

are only nine households, living alongside of the Burma road, close

to the Chawte hamlet, with whom they are classed by the Manipuris;

and Tarau, eighteen households living slightly to the south of the

Burma road.

 

The Ronte clan is divided into two families, called Lanu and

Changom. Marriages can only be made with members of the other family of

the clan. They say that they came from the Ngente hill far to the south

(v. Ngente clan), and claim some connection with the Chiru and Aimol.

 

The Tarau clan is divided into four families, and marriages are

restricted as among the Chawte, Chiru, and Kolhen.

 

A youth of the Pachana family must marry a girl of the Tlangsha family.

 

A youth of the Tlangsha family must marry a girl of the Thimasha

family.

 

A youth of the Thimasha family must marry a girl of the Khulpu-in

family.

 

A youth of the Khulpu-in family must marry a girl of the Pachana

family.

 

In both clans the young men sleep in any house, except their parents',

in which there are unmarried girls. The Ronte say that formerly they

built zawlbuks like the Lushais.

 

The price of a Tarau girl is a gong or Rs. 30/-, or five years

service in the girl's father's house. The Ronte maiden's price is

two gongs, and her proper husband is her maternal first cousin. In

both clans a fowl has to be killed by the khulpu at the time of the

marriage, and the Ronte tie some of its feathers round the necks

of the couple. Should a Tarau maiden be led astray both parties are

fined a pot of rice-beer, which the villagers share, and the seducer

pays the girl's father one pig. The child, when old enough to leave

the mother, becomes the property of the father. A Ronte mother must

not leave her house till five days after the birth of a daughter and

seven after that of a son. On the day of the birth there is a feast,

and on the fifth or seventh day, according to the sex of the child,

a fowl is killed by the khulpu, and the child's hair is cut, its ears

pierced, and its name decided on, the choice being made from the

names of its forefathers. The house is purified by being sprinkled

with zu by the khulpu.

 

Among the Tarau, the period during which the mother may not leave her

house is prolonged to ten days, at the expiry of which the khulpu kills

a cock for male child and a hen for girl, and then purifies the house.

 

In both clans the dead are buried in a cemetery situated to the west of

the village, while the corpses of those who have died unnatural deaths

are buried elsewhere with no ceremony. Women dying in childbirth among

the Tarau are buried by old men, who have no further hope of becoming

fathers, far from the village, while persons being killed by wild

animals, or by some accident, such as a fall from a tree, are buried

where they die. Persons who are drowned are buried on the bank of the

river where the body is found, the grave being dug at the spot where

some water thrown up by hand from the river happens to fall. This

custom also exists among the Shans of the Upper Chindwin, which

lends some colour to the tradition that the Tarau sojourned in Burma

before entering Manipur. Among the Ronte, women dying in childbirth,

and all children dying under a year of age, are buried to the east

of the village, while accidental deaths necessitate the burial being

made to the south. The funeral takes place on the day of death except

in the case of old men, whose corpses are kept for a day while their

friends eat, drink, and dance before them. Whatever animals can be

spared are killed in the honour of the deceased, and their sherh are

buried with him, together with some rice. Every day till the "Papek"

feast, in honour of those who have died within the year, rice and zu

are placed on the grave. At Papek a platform of bamboo is constructed

near the cemetery, and on it are placed such offering of flesh as the

family can afford; much zu is drunk and all dance. The Ronte Sakhua

sacrifice consists of a goat, dogs and mithan being prohibited.

 

Although the Tarau, from their language, are evidently closely allied

to the Lushais, they are the only Old Kuki clan I have met which

does not worship Pathian. They denied all knowledge of that name,

affirming the name of their god was "Rapu," to whom the Manipuri name

of "Sankhulairenma" has been given. Rapu has a shrine just above the

Burma road near to Tegnopal, where every year fish, rice, and zu are

offered to him. When the rice begins to fill in the ear there is a five

days' feast in the village, during which time the young people dance

and drink. A pig is killed, and the liver, ears, feet, and snout are

offered to Rapu. These are called "sar" (cf. Lushai "sherh"). Before

the cutting of jhums commences a small pig or a fowl is sacrificed to

Rapu so that no one may be cut with a dao during the clearing of the

jhums. Dogs are not eaten or sacrificed by the Tarau or the Ronte;

the latter also consider the mithan unfit for a sacrifice. In these

particulars they form an exception to the general custom of Kuki clans.

 

The Ronte have a feast called "Va-en-la," which is given with the

idea of enhancing the giver's importance in this world and assuring

him comfort in the next. A pig is killed and thirty pots of zu are

prepared, and the whole village makes merry. A long bamboo is planted

in front of the house of the giver of the feast. Throughout its

length this bamboo is transfixed with crosspieces of bamboo about 18

inches long; from its end depends a bamboo representation of a bird,

whence the name of the feast--"va," in Ronte, as in Lushai, meaning

"a bird," and "en," "to see."

 

To show the similarity between the Tarau and the Lushai language I

give a few words of each.

 

 

ENGLISH. LUSHAI. TARAU.

 

One Pa-khat Khat.

Two Pa-hnih Ni.

Three Pa-thum Thum.

Four Pa-li Ma-li.

Five Pa-nga Ranga.

Six Pa-ruk Kuruk.

Seven Pa-sari Siri.

Eight Pa-riat Tirit.

Nine Pa-kua Ku.

Ten Shom Shom.

Father Pa Pa.

Mother Nu Nu.

Son Fa-pa Sha-pa. (Thado, "chapa.")

Daughter Fa-nu Sha-nu.

House In Im.

Sun Ni Ni.

Moon Thla Thla.

Water Tui Tui. To carry water, "tui choi,"

in both dialects.

Dog Ui Uh.

Mithan Shial Shil.

Tree Thing Thing.

Jhum Lo Lou.

 

 

The east and west in Tarau are called "ni-chhuak-lam" and

"ni-thlak-lam," which are pure Lushai for "the direction of sun rising

and sun setting."

 

 

 

Folklore.

 

1. Legends.--A large number of tales have been collected by Babu

Nithor Nath Banerji, of the Manipur State Office, from which I select

the following. They have all to a certain extent suffered by being

told to the Babu in Manipuri instead of in the vernacular of the

relaters. This accounts for Manipuri names being used in some cases.

 

The following is a tale told by the Anals:--"Once upon a time the whole

world was flooded. All were drowned except one man and one woman,

who ran to the highest peak of the Leng hill [this is interesting,

as Leng is the name of one of the highest hills in the present Lushai

Hills], where they climbed up a high tree and hid themselves among

its branches. The tree grew near a large pond, which was as clear

as the eye of a crow. They made themselves as comfortable as they

could, being determined to spend the night there. They passed the

night, sometimes exchanging whispers, and in the morning they were

astonished to find that they had become a tiger and a tigress. [This

changing of human beings into animals reminds one of the Lushai

Thimzing legend.] Pathian, seeing the sad state of the world, sent

a man and a woman from a cave, which was on the hill, to re-people

it. The man and the woman emerging from the cave were terrified at

seeing the two huge animals, and addressed Pathian thus: 'O Father,

you have sent us to re-people the world, but we do not think that

we shall be able to carry out your intention, as the whole world is

under water, and the only spot on which we could make a resting place