Note 31 — RELIGION

These preliminaries being satisfactorily settled, at the next Pikuchak the ceremony of tsoyuta (“eating and drinking”) takes place. The man takes a cock, which he has killed and cooked himself, and some “madhu” rice, and goes to the girl’s parents’ house accompanied by an old man of his clan called Hantsen, and another male relative, a sort of best man. The Hantsen enters the house first, then the bridegroom and then the best man. They hand the “madhu” rice to the girl’s father, who in turn produces some. The rice of the two families is mixed by the girl and a brew prepared from it which may be drunk by all except the engaged couple. The bride and bridegroom sit side by side on the bed in the lhurhui, and the Hantsen squats opposite to them, holding in each hand a leaf containing sixteen tiny scraps of the cock which the bridegroom brought. He then swings his hands backwards and forwards eight times, praying that the couple, who by this ceremony are made man and wife, will live long and happily together. From this time the bridegroom will work in his father-in-law’s house for about a year.31 It is forbidden for him to have connection with his wife before tsoyuta.32 To do so would, it is believed, cause the marriage to be sterile. But he may sleep with her when working in her father’s house. When the fields have all been cut the bridegroom’s relations stack a quantity of wood in the jungle, and bring up one load each to the bride’s father’s house, receiving a drink of “madhu” for their trouble. Four or five days later the lantsoa (“road-making”) ceremony takes place. The husbands of women born in the bridegroom’s clan and their wives fetch up all the wood which was left stacked in the jungle and heap it up in front of his father-in-law’s house. The bridegroom kills a pig and gives about twelve pounds of meat to his father-in-law. That night in the latter’s house the Hantsen strangles a chicken and watches how the excreta fall. If any remains in the vent it is an evil omen indicating that the woman will die in childbirth. The Hantsen examines the entrails also, and from them claims to be able to say which will die first, whether the first child will be a boy or a girl, and so on. The chicken is then cooked by the Hantsen and taken away as his perquisite. The married couple may watch, but must never say afterwards what the omens revealed. Next day men of the bridegroom’s clan distribute the wood heaped up in front of his father-in-law’s house among all members of the father-in-law’s clan, being rewarded with shares of the twelve pounds of pork.