Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/454

424 of country, and are therefore sometimes spoken of as Lam-lai, gods of the countryside.

In the good old days the eight Māgei-Ngākpa were worshipped annually on behalf of the Raja, and thus sickness and trouble were kept out of the valley of the Meithei. The custom was discontinued when the administration of the country was assumed by the British Government, and the present ruler has not revived it. Besides these gods there are others, whose name extends beyond the village in which they specially dwell. Such are Khumlangba, the god of the ironworkers of Kakching; Pureiromba and Panam Ningthau, gods of the Loi village of Andro; Sorārel, the god of the sky, who is specially worshipped at Phayeng, another Loi village; Panthoibi, a very popular goddess; and many others. In addition to these each yumnak or family has a special Lai or Lairema, who is worshipped by all its members. These are evidently deified ancestors, real or imaginary. I have referred to Pākhangba, the ancestor and god of the royal family. The Longjam yumnak worship Longjam Lairema, a girl of the family, who was carried up to the sky by Sorārel, who threw down her clothes, so that her relatives might know what had become of her. Konthaujam Lairema, the goddess of the Konthaujam family, was also carried off by the same amorous deity, who, to console her, promised that as long as she remained with him none of her kin should die. This promise in some way became known to her relations, and, in order to entice her to descend to earth, they killed a dog and cremated it with all ceremony beneath a sevenfold canopy, so that the girl was unable to detect the deception and became very distressed, fearing that some beloved relative had died. Sorārel tried to reassure her, but she would not be comforted, and insisted on returning to her home. In spite of being warned by Sorārel of the consequences, she shared in the family meal, and therefore could not rejoin her divine