Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/494

470 the house is smeared with fresh cow-dung, and the hearth is cleaned and sprinkled with water by the Maiba, who enters with three other men. He takes a little earth from the hearth, and places it in a leaf held by one of his companions. They then all four walk around the hearth thrice, and then go out. The old earth is thrown away, and some fresh is obtained and put into the place on the hearth whence the old earth was taken. After this the husband is seated in the yard in front of the Maiba, and is sprinkled by him with the holy water, and then the husband's sister presents the Maiba with rice and vegetables and some money. All the articles laid out are removed to the Maiba's house, except the bag of pice, which is left hanging from the Seng-gam. The Maiba walks off towards his house, holding his hands behind his back, and the husband takes the black cloth with the pice inside it and, running after the Maiba, places it in his hands, saying,—"You have forgotten something." The Maiba must go straight on without looking round, and thus all the ill-luck is removed.

Among the Shans of the Upper Chindwin valley, the woman's corpse is buried in the usual way, but the husband has to go through a purification ceremony. Immediately after the burial he changes into ragged clothes beside the grave, and feigns madness. The villagers pelt him with stones, and he flies from them to the river and plunges in. On emerging he dresses in new clothes, and returns cleansed. The house also has to be purified. In these cases also we find indications of two prevailing ideas. In the two last cases the house and the husband are specially purified, the corpse being disposed of in the ordinary way. At Andro, the evil influence spreads to the whole of the Sagei, but it appears to be independent of the corpse. In the other class of cases the evil influence seems to be specially attached to the body and clothing of the deceased, and in some cases to the house also. The Kabuis seem to hold both theories, as the prohibition placed on the husband eating certain articles is evidently meant to counteract the malign influence to which he is supposed to be particularly subject, and the closing of the village for five days, and the tabu placed on dyeing thread, show that the whole community is also considered in danger, while the "infection" clings