Note 8 — IV. RELIGION.

About midnight the villagers, with torches, drums, and the attendant rīsōmār, assemble in the tikup. The neighbouring villages, if so minded, may come too (āròng ārī is the phrase for the contingents as they arrive). Each contingent is welcomed with the drum, and joins in the drumming concert; the lads and girls are dressed in their best, and provided with betel. The chief of the village lads (klèng-sārpo) then calls the other rīsōmār to touch (not taste) the beer, hòr kāchemē.8 Then follows the shield-dance, first by the rīsōmār of the village, then by the outside contingents in order of arrival or merit. Then all together take hands and dance in a circle. The young women join in the line, taking hold of the lads’ coats, while the lads take hold of them by the belt (vànkòk); the girls cover their heads and faces with a black scarf (jīsō ke-īk): the petticoat is a red-striped Mikir ēṛī cloth. Near the first cock-crow, seven young men go up on the hòng or house-platform from the dancing, with the duhuidī and his assistant; one lad goes in and dances in the inside of kàm, in the space by the partition-wall (nòksèk), while the six others stand at the door (hòngthū, or inghàp ànghō = “door’s mouth”), and dance there. The six whoop three times together as they dance. After a quarter of an hour they return to the circle of dancers in the tikup. At dawn they go up again, and dance till sunrise. The circle breaks up at daylight, and then follows the shield-dance. Then all the drums go round the circle where they dance ten to twenty times, playing a different tune each time. Then, while they all drum standing, a pig is brought forth, tied up for killing. The rīsōmār in successive parties recount over the tied-up pig the history of the funeral service; this is called phàk āphū kācholàng. Then the pig is killed and cut up for the rīsōmār, and for the men engaged in the funeral service. The latter have to cook and eat their shares of the meat, which is given in leaf-bundles (òk-bòr) or on spits (òk-kròn), beyond the river. The rīsōmār also get their shares in the same way, and cook them in the dancing-ring. A small piece of flesh is cooked by the uchēpī for the dead man, and this is put in the plate of the dead and carried by the ingjīr-ārlo up to the body in the kut, the duhuidī tolling the drum as he goes in; this ceremony is called kāsolē. Meantime the old experienced men, braving the horrid stench, have been performing certain rites9 about the body. The remainder of the cooked flesh, with rice, is distributed to the young girls. The rīsōmār then, provided with rice, beer, salt, chillies, and greens from the dead man’s house, disperse to houses in the village to eat, and the officiants go off beyond the river to prepare and eat their food. This part of the ceremony is called rīsō kāchirū, “the lads’ entertainment.”