Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/456

426 of Laimon-phau-woibi, the mother of rice. Sunday is her birthday. 7, La-phubi Leimanu, ancestress of the Chenglei clan and mother of the earth. She was born on Wednesday, on which day no land is sold. As I have said, the names of these ladies are not in general use, and, as Mr. Hodson has told us in his book on The Meitheis, these clans have also male gods. But every one knows that there are seven goddesses, and offerings for them are laid out whenever a sacrifice is made.

Every god and goddess has a lai-pham, i.e. a god's place, a spot specially sacred to him or her at which ceremonies in the deity's honour are performed. Most of the more important gods are said to reside on hilltops, but, for the convenience of their worshippers, they also have abodes in more accessible spots. Sacred spots are found on the tops of ridges, where a heap of stones or some other mark informs the passers-by that they are on holy ground, and each makes an offering, be it only a leaf from a bush beside the road. The greater gods have sacred groves near to the villages of their special worshippers; inside the grove is an open spot, at one end of which is the lai-sang, god's house (Plate IX.), and on either side are long open sheds in which the villagers sit, males on one side and females on the other, all arranged in due order of seniority, during the lai-harauba or "pleasing of the god," a ceremony which usually takes place once a year. There are various taboos connected with these groves and the lai-sangs. At Andro, Panam Ningthau's lai-sang can only be opened on Sunday, and repairs must also be done on that day. In case of repairs, or even entire rebuilding, the work must be finished entirely in one day. This rule is also observed in the case of Nongpok Ningthau's house at Lāngmeidong, but not in case of that of Panthoibi at Wāngu. During the time occupied in the repairs, the god has to be accommodated in a lei-hul, a bunch of sacred grasses and flowers, which he is persuaded to enter, and which is then placed in the grove at a short