Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/469

 Rh much worn that is impossible to decipher them. The Tangkhul Nāgas also claim this spot as their place of origin. The pundits admit the truth of this legend, and say that the common origin was the cause of associating a Tangkhul with Panthoibi in the farce I have just alluded to. They say that Panthoibi went in search of Nongpok Ningthau, and found him at the site of the present Tangkhul village known as Ukhrul, which they declare is a corruption of okna-pham, i.e. place of meeting. This admission of the pundits is interesting, as showing that there is some connection between the Tangkhuls and the Manipuris. Both physically and mentally the Tangkhuls resemble the Manipuris more closely than any other of the hill tribes do. The exchange of abuse between the sexes is said to have originated from the opprobrious epithets which Panthoibi bandied with Nongpok Ningthau. These two deities are gradually becoming identified with Durga and Mahadeo of the Hindu pantheon.

During a lai-harauba the sexes usually keep apart, in some cases the men all sleeping together throughout the festival. This is a taboo which is almost universal among the Nfiga tribes. In some cases we find sacrifices still performed, but this generally occurs in Loi villages which have not yet embraced Hinduism. At the village of Langmeidong, though the inhabitants are Hindus, we find a pig killed at Pākhangba's harauba, and a pig and two fowls at that of Nongpok Ningthau, and there are also annual sacrifices to these deities, in connection with the crops, of a fowl and a goose. The flesh of these animals is eaten by children who have not yet taken the thread, and the people admit that before their conversion every one used to share in the feasts. The arrangements of Panam Ningthau's harauba are rather unusual. It takes place on a special ground situated on the northern edge of the village of Andro. There are five houses around this ground. In the sanglen or great house, which is the god's, a sacred fire is