Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/717

 /;/ South- West China. 407

The Miao live in hamlets of from ten to thirty houses. When it is proposed to offer a sacrifice no mention is made of it to neighbours. If, however, a man is performing the solemn rite for the first time the families in the village who are of the same surname as himself are apprised of the date, and the heads of these families are expected to be present. On subsequent occasions when this man sacrifices to his door the members of his family only are allowed to be present.

The usual procedure is towards evening to sweep clean the house. At dusk the door is closed, after which no household belonging is allowed to be taken out until daylight on the following day. To carry anything out of doors at such a time would cause something dreadful — probably death — to happen to some member of the family. A young female pig which has not given birth to a litter is then taken, and being held close to the door its throat is cut and the blood is caused to run into a hole which has been delved under the jamb on which the door is hung. On no account is the hole dug under the jamb to which the door fastener is attached. No altar is used. In this hole are buried the bristles, blood, water in which the pig and entrails — the entrails are eaten — have been washed. Everything that is unclean is buried here ; nothing is thrown outside. The pig is cut into pieces — heart, liver, stomach included — placed in a large iron pan and boiled. At the same time millet is steamed to be eaten with the boiled pig. If millet cannot be secured buckwheat is used. On other occasions the Miao eat maize. During the cooking of the food silence is observed. When the meal is ready those in the village who are of the same surname as the sacrificer are invited to come. Such relatives are not requested to come to a meal or sacrifice. All that is said to them is " Please come," and, as I have remarked above, it was only on the occasion of a man's initial sacrifice that relatives were allowed to be present. They came in silence and in the darkness, as no lights were allowed. A light could be used in the house, but it was essential that relatives should come and return in darkness. At the meal, during which strict silence was observed, the meat was taken with the fingers from a large central basin and the guests using wooden ladles helped them-