Note 15 — DOMESTIC LIFE

Reaping ceremonies. The crops ripen about August, those in the old fields being ready first, and as soon as Mshe etak is over everyone may cut his rice as soon as it is ready. On the day when he first goes down to cut his crop each man performs at his field-house a ceremony called Liritang in honour of the Rangsi.15 He takes down with him “Rangsi’s load” (Rangsi’ha) containing a cooked pig’s head, a gourd of “madhu,” an egg, a little salt, some cooked rice and the leaves of sangsu (a long thin leaf), lhetyak (a hairy leaf), and orungu (a small leaf, white on the underside). Having arrived at his field-house and seen that all who are to help him that day have come, for no one may come once he has begun the ceremony—he lights a fire with a fire-stick, takes four blades of thatching grass from the roof and bends them double, and places six grains of rice on the threshold (likingko) of the field-house. He then cracks the egg over the six grains of rice and pours the contents into the leaf in which he wrapped it when he left his house. This leaf he ties to the post of the field-house, taking it home when he goes in the evening and either giving the contents to his children or eating them himself. He then lights the thatching grass at the fire, and holding the orungu, sangsu and lhetyak leaves with the thatching grass in his right hand, goes outside the house and waves them with a sweeping motion from left to right, the smoke from the thatching grass thus driving evil spirits away. He then says the following16 traditional words:—