Note 51 — RELIGION

Certain old women are supposed to possess the knowledge of these charms, which is handed down from mother to daughter. One Amhono of Pyangsa is said to retail a root called loha, which has to be ground up and given to the shy loved one with cooked fish.51 If the suit is hopeless the recipient of the root removes all doubt by being sick on the spot. My informant had never seen the root; he had only heard of it. Another charm is a feather of a bird called tsentsü—probably mythical, at least I could never find out what it was. If a man can once touch a woman’s hand with this she is his for life.