Note 35 — RELIGION

In cases where the death agony is prolonged the Changs cut a carrying-string on the threshold of the house in order to release the spirit, but there appears to be no such practice among the Lhotas. At death the nearest relation present closes the eyes and washes the face of the corpse. No hole is made in the roof to let the spirit out as among the Konyaks. A very old man ties a cowrie to a chicken’s leg and places it for a moment in the dead man’s hand. He then kills it in order that it may go clucking along the Road of the Dead and give warning that the deceased is coming. It is hung by the neck above the head of the corpse, and after the burial the wings are cut off and stuck up on the left wall of the house and the body either thrown away or given to the buriers (mungpen) to eat. When the deceased is a man who has taken heads, or killed a tiger, a dog is led into the house on a string and the string put into the hand of the corpse for a minute. After the body has been buried the dog is killed in order that it may go barking down the Road of the Dead and frighten away the ghosts of enemies and tigers slain by the dead man during his lifetime. The flesh is eaten by the mungpen. The corpse is buried as soon after death as possible. A grave about six feet deep is dug in front of the man’s house. The body is buried fully dressed, and often decorated with all the ornaments worn during life, if the deceased so desired. Nothing of foreign manufacture may be worn by a corpse. A cornelian bead is tied to the dead man’s wrist to give to a spirit called Etchhilivanthamo, whom he will meet on the Road of the Dead, in exchange for a drink of water. Among the Northern Lhotas a sharp piece of bamboo is also put under the head of the corpse at the time of burial, in order that the soul of the deceased may be able to cut any creepers which he may find obstructing his way. The body is wrapped in two or three good cloths and carried out of the house by the mungpen. Over it in the grave are put short lengths of bamboo laid crosswise, and on them two planks from the dead man’s bed, which are in turn covered with a piece of bamboo matting. In certain villages of the Northern Lhotas rich men were till recently buried in wooden coffins called “boats” (orhung), cut out of one log of wood, with a rude representation of a hornbill’s head and tail at the head and foot respectively.35 It is noticeable that they were made in villages which do not make dug-out canoes,36 or indeed anything more serviceable than a type of bamboo raft which “floats” about six inches under water. These coffins took a considerable time to make and were begun as soon as the illness took a bad turn. If a man recovered after his coffin had been made he was supposed to live a long time.37