Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/453

Rh another day that Senaniahi was the son of Yumjau Lairema. However, the fact remains that the Umanglais are always spoken of as nine in number, and the Lairemas, or goddesses, as seven, and at every sacrifice offerings for these sixteen deities are laid out as I shall describe later.

The greatest of all the gods is Pākhangba. He is the mythical ancestor of the Meithei kings, and is the first king mentioned in the Chronicle. I have already given you his pedigree. He is said to have assumed the form of a god by day, and by night he used to be a man. He reigned 120 years. In describing the crest he has adopted, His Highness the present Raja speaks thus of this divine ancestor: "Pākhangba was an incarnation of God and born in the family of Babrubahon. He reigned for many years, and during the Burmese invasion, when Manipur was almost depopulated, he appeared once in Nunjing tank in the form of a snake, and thus destroyed the Burmese by some miraculous power. So the form of Pākhangba is given in the crest to show that he is the sole protector of this land." Pākhangba had the miraculous power of being able to sink into the ground and reappear at some spot many miles away; these places are known as sarung, and are held very sacred.

There are eight gods distinguished from the rest by the title of Māgei-Ngākpa, i.e., Watchers of directions. These include Khobru the guardian of the North, Wāngpurel the guardian of the South, Nongpok Ningthau chief of the East, and Hāng-goi Ningthau who guards the West. The remaining four are not placed at the intervening points of the compass, but two, Mārjing and Chingkei, have their abodes in the North-east, and two, Thāngjing and his son Santhong, have theirs in the South-west. Mārjing is the special god of horses, and, when worshipping him, a pony is offered, instead of a buffalo or pig as in the cases of other gods. These greater gods are supposed to exercise special protective powers over certain tracts