Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/487

Rh, a title which exactly corresponds to and is always translated as phau-rungba. This person has no particular duties, but in connection with certain other officials is considered necessary to the wellbeing of the village. The khul-lakpa or head of the village, and the khunpu or headman, seem connected with the general welfare of the community, but the phan-rungba is only concerned with the rice. Before his house a sacrifice has to be performed before sowing can be commenced. He seems to be the person in whom the spirit of the rice lives, just as the spirits of the Umanglais are supposed to reside in certain persons. Cultivation in the valley has extended, and persons own land beyond the boundaries of the village in which they live. What wonder, then, if the processes of cultivation have ceased to be communal acts, and if the phau-rungba has deteriorated into any elderly person among the reapers?

I must now describe briefly the other supernatural beings believed in by the Manipuris. There are certain spirits called Sa-roi-nga-roi, i.e. those who accompany beasts and fishes. These are evil spirits, always on the look-out to injure mankind, and seem very closely to correspond to the demons called by the Hill tribes Huai, Rampu, Thihla, and various other names. The pundits' version of the origin of these beings is that the great guru married Leimarel, and during his absence from home a son was born. On his return she asked him to name the infant, and the guru said Pu. This name did not please the lady, who refused absolutely to accept it, and the guru (wise, man!) did not argue the point, but, having given a name, he could not take it back. So he created a being to bear it, and then gave the name Ra for the child. But this also did not suit the mother, so the guru created another being to bear it, and pronounced the name Isam. But the lady was still not satisfied, and four more names were pronounced and rejected, and for each a being had to be created.