Note 8 — GENERAL

Ceremonies connected with the founding of a new village. But the days of expansion are over now, and in many a village abandoned house sites and “genna” stones all overgrown with jungle show how the tribe is shrinking. Yet attempts are still made from time to time to reoccupy the sites of old villages wiped out by malaria, and the ceremonies connected with the founding of a new village deserve to be described. Having selected a site with a good water supply and a tree suitable for a head-tree (mingetung), the would-be founder8 cuts a branch from a bush on the site. If the cut is a clean one and no leaves fall the omen is good. If the branch is not cut through with one blow or leaves fall the omen is bad. The omens being good he and his fellow-colonists select a man to be priest (Puthi) of the new village, and while still retaining the old village as their headquarters, set to work to clear the jungle on the new site. Before doing so, however, the Puthi throws a cornelian bead into the spring which is to supply the new village with water, and prays that the young men and maidens of the village may be strong. After the jungle has been cut the founder makes new fire with a fire-stick9 (mi-hm). The Puthi then spears a small boar, which must not be singed in the fire, and cuts the throat of a cock, from the entrails of which he takes the omens. The pig is cut up, and the Puthi makes a little square of sticks on the ground. In the middle he puts an egg and on each side thirty tiny pieces of pork. All eat the rest of the pig, the pot in which the meat was boiled being turned upside down on the ground and left behind. The jungle having been burnt and a small “morung” constructed, houses are built. When the village is ready for occupation the colonists go to it from the old village in ceremonial dress and fully armed, taking with them a branch stolen from the mingetung of the old village. This they stick in the ground under the head-tree of the new village. To ensure a good water supply in their new home they must bring water in a freshly-cut section of bamboo from the spring of the old village and pour it into that of the new. If they are lucky enough to be able to steal them they also put under their mingetung and in their “morung” luck-stones (oha) from the old village, thereby ensuring good fortune for their new home. About a month later the ceremony of oyantsoa (village-making) is performed. This will be described later in connection with the institution of a new Puthi.10