Note 21 — RELIGION

Stone-dragging. Before the ceremonies21 begin a man who proposes to drag a stone must build a little shed at the back of his house called emungrangki, in which he and the whole household must sleep till the ceremonies are finished. All being prepared and a stone selected, two Wothangs announce the date of the ceremony on behalf of the performer, who must allow no strangers from other villages to enter his house, and must remain chaste from the time the stone is dug out of the ground till the completion of the ceremonies. On the appointed night rice is pounded in front of his house with much singing and “madhu” made after daybreak. (Here and throughout, most of the work is done by the echantyoi, i.e. husbands of women whom the performer calls “sister”). The “madhu” is put in baskets to ferment and a bunch of green stuff called soko-mma (“madhu-forbidding”) is put over the door.22 On the fourth day after this the performer must feed the Wokchungs and their assistants in his house, receiving their blessing in return. The next day a path is cleared for the stone, the workers being feasted on a large pig. On the following day an old man called Lungchakdhro kills a little chicken in front of the house by cutting its throat with a sharp piece of bamboo, and prays that the stone may be carried up safely and unbroken. The chicken is thrown away. Then the Wokchung kills a small pig which is cooked by the performer’s echantyoi in his mpongki. Every man is given a piece. The older men eat their portions, but the younger men only touch theirs and throw them down, for it is believed that they would become weak and unable to lift the stone were they to eat this meat. Then all the men of the village, both those of the performer’s clan and his echantyoi, go down to the stone, which may be as far as two miles away, and make a frame of bamboo, on which it is put and bound with cane and creepers. When all is ready the two Wothangs sprinkle a mixture of “rohi madhu,” “saka madhu” and rarakham in all directions and make a pretence of lifting the stone. These preliminaries over, all take up the frame and carry23 the stone with much ho-hoing and grunting up to a place on the path called züchanpen (“stone-discussing-place”). There they are met by a procession of men in full dancing dress, consisting of all men of the dragger’s clan who have dragged stones before, the rear being brought up by the performer himself, followed by two men called Eso and Yuso, Eso being the last man of the same clan who dragged a stone before the present puller, and Yuso the last dragger before Eso of the same clan. The performer himself carries an axe wrapped in yutso leaves, an egg and a chicken. After the inevitable interval for eating, drinking and talking the senior Wokchung holds the chicken in his hand and utters prayers for the prosperity of the village in general and especially for that of the performer and his wife. He cuts the chicken’s throat with a sharp piece of bamboo and places it with the egg in front of the stone. The two Wokchungs and the performer then all hold the axe together and make eight cuts to the right and eight to the left, as if clearing a way in front of the stone. The stone is then carried up to the village and laid in front of the performer’s house. The evening is spent in feasting and singing. The performer supplies a bull, which is killed and divided up. The entrails are cooked and eaten by the carriers on the spot. The head goes to the performer and the meat is distributed to all except the performer and his clan and household. The songs sung are called orrüeya (“enemy-songs”), and detail the heads taken from every hostile village in the neighbourhood. The next day the Wokchungs show the exact place where the stone is to be set up and a hole is dug. All chant a prayer for the good fortune of the performer, holding in their hands curious cups of “madhu” made of folded plantain leaves ornamented with long horns of rezüyo leaves, similar to the cups used by the Aos at their big sacrifices. Two boars are then killed and cooked and eaten. A procession now emerges from the performer’s house consisting of two old women followed by the performer’s wife wearing her charaksü cloth for the first time, and another old woman. All four must wear their cloths bound round them under the armpits and not over the shoulders. The four women walk round the hole, which they approach from the side opposite to the Road of the Dead. Each one waves her foot over the hole as she passes. They then wash their faces and hands and re-enter the house. The stone is now tipped into the hole, set up and covered with mats, and the rest of the day spent in feasting and gaiety. In the morning the mats are removed and the ceremony is at an end. Among the Southern Lhotas three days elapse between that on which the stone is dragged into the village and that on which it is set up. During these three days the dragger is “genna.” He must not speak to strangers or eat any unclean meat.24