Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/488

 464 Collectanea.

injuring passers-by, their bodies are buried in remote spots where people do not go frequently, — often in deep graves close to the water's edge on a river bank. The Maiba, or priest of the ancient gods of the country, buries with the corpse some well-roasted peas, saying, — " When these peas spring up you may return, and not before." In Andro, a village inhabited by people who have not yet been perverted to Hinduism, the Maiba takes a stone and a little cotton wool, and, having put the stone into the right, and the wool into the left, hand of the dead child, he throws them into some water, saying, — " You are bad ; do not return till this stone floats and this cotton sinks." ^

The burial takes place on the day of the death, and three days later the Lai-yu-paV^- ceremony is performed. The Maiba takes a bunch of plantains, and, commencing from one end, says chang (alive) to the first, and si (dead) to the second, and so on. If the word si falls on the last fruit, the bunch is suitable ; otherwise it is rejected, and the experiment repeated till a suitable one is found. This bunch is then placed in the verandah of the house, and beside it are placed two pieces of plantain leaf cut into a circular form, on one of which is placed a little betel nut, and on the other a fruit called hei-ruk. If the child be a boy, a puggri, loin- cloth, and muslin shawl are placed beside the other offerings ; if the infant be a girl, a petticoat and the muslin shawl suffice. The Maiba invokes the spirit of the child, saying, — " We have given you all things. Go and do not return." The articles then pass into the possession of the Maiba. Three months later a compli- cated ceremony known as Suren thingatpa is performed. The following articles are collected and placed on a winnowing-fan, — an earthen cup containing a duck's egg and rice flour, a second cup full of parched rice, a bunch of plantains terminating in chdng and two bunches terminating in si, two circular pieces of plantain leaves with betel nut and fruit on them, and six cloths. The

^ Should the mother die before giving birth, the foitus is removed and buried as above described.

"This name is a survival of pre-Hindu days. To this day the Naga before drinking pours a little of his j« (rice beer) on to the ground as an offering to the lai or god. The Manipuris, having become strict Vaishnavas, omit ihe ytty while keeping the name.