In cases where the death agony is prolonged the Changs [157]cut a carrying-string on the threshold of the house in order to release the spirit, but there appears to be no such practice among the Lhotas. At death the nearest relation present closes the eyes and washes the face of the corpse. No hole is made in the roof to let the spirit out as among the Konyaks. A very old man ties a cowrie to a chicken’s leg and places it for a moment in the dead man’s hand. He then kills it in order that it may go clucking along the Road of the Dead and give warning that the deceased is coming. It is hung by the neck above the head of the corpse, and after the burial the wings are cut off and stuck up on the left wall of the house and the body either thrown away or given to the buriers (mungpen) to eat. When the deceased is a man who has taken heads, or killed a tiger, a dog is led into the house on a string and the string put into the hand of the corpse for a minute. After the body has been buried the dog is killed in order that it may go barking down the Road of the Dead and frighten away the ghosts of enemies and tigers slain by the dead man during his lifetime. The flesh is eaten by the mungpen. The corpse is buried as soon after death as possible. A grave about six feet deep is dug in front of the man’s house. The body is buried fully dressed, and often decorated with all the ornaments worn during life, if the deceased so desired. Nothing of foreign manufacture may be worn by a corpse. A cornelian bead is tied to the dead man’s wrist to give to a spirit called Etchhilivanthamo, whom he will meet on the Road of the Dead, in exchange for a drink of water. Among the Northern Lhotas a sharp piece of bamboo is also put under the head of the corpse at the time of burial, in order that the soul of the deceased may be able to cut any creepers which he may find obstructing his way. The body is wrapped in two or three good cloths and carried out of the house by the mungpen. Over it in the grave are put short lengths of bamboo laid crosswise, and on them two planks from the dead man’s bed, which are in turn covered with a piece of bamboo matting. In certain villages of the Northern Lhotas rich men were till recently buried in wooden coffins called “boats” (orhung), cut out of one log of wood, with a rude representation of a hornbill’s head and tail at the head [158]and foot respectively.35 It is noticeable that they were made in villages which do not make dug-out canoes,36 or indeed anything more serviceable than a type of bamboo raft which “floats” about six inches under water. These coffins took a considerable time to make and were begun as soon as the illness took a bad turn. If a man recovered after his coffin had been made he was supposed to live a long time.37

Stones and thorns are heaped on the top of the grave to prevent pigs and dogs scratching up the earth, and a low fence is built round it. Two bamboo posts are then put up, one at the head and one at the foot, with a cross-bar between them. In the case of a man’s grave a basket containing a gourd of “madhu,” a little boiled rice and six pieces of meat is hung on the post at the head. His wooden dao-holder, and bear’s-hair wig, cloth, cowrie lengta, ivory armlets, etc., are hung on the cross-bar, and his spears are stuck upright on the grave. In the case of a woman’s grave only the basket is hung at the head, containing five instead of six pieces of meat. A fire is lighted on the grave. For six days after the death of a man and five days after the death of a woman no member of the household must speak to a stranger or kill any living thing. When this period of “genna” is over the man’s possessions are removed from the grave, and imitation spears, or very old ones, put in their place. On the cross-bar above the grave round bamboo basket balls are put to represent the number of times the deceased has done the head-taking “genna.” Sometimes roughly carved wooden heads are used. Tigers made from a short length of bamboo, with short bamboo “legs” and “tail,” commemorate his prowess in the chase.38 On this [159]day the wings of the “death chicken” are taken down from the wall, and cut with a dao on the step between mpongki and lhurhui, six times for a man and five times for a woman, and a prayer is offered that the dead person will not haunt the house, and in the case of a man who has taken heads a mithan and a pig are sacrificed by his clan. For a woman, or a man who has not taken heads, only a pig is sacrificed. The fire is kept alight on the grave and the offerings of food are renewed until the tuku emung, when the dead man is supposed finally to take his departure to the Land of the Dead, and all ornaments being removed the grave becomes part of the village street again.

Offerings to the dead are made not only on the grave, but also by the side of the path from the village which leads to the Land of the Dead under Wokha Hill. Immediately after death two relations, calling upon the dead man to follow them, go down the path, taking with them a gourd of “madhu” and a stick nicked to show the “gennas” the deceased has performed and the heads he has taken. The stick is stuck up by the side of the path and the gourd tied to it. These are to support and refresh the deceased on his way. When the six days of “genna” are over, in the case of a man, a bamboo erection (nritangpeng) is put up by the side of the path, with tallies of heads taken and tigers slain such as are put on the grave. On the memorial of one mighty hunter the writer saw two elephants made of black cloth stuffed with straw. For a man who has done no “gennas” a single bamboo pole is put up. On the tuku emung, when all ornaments are removed from the grave, the final offerings are made by the side of the path.39 The relations go out before dawn, and for a man erect a little bamboo platform or tiny altar composed of a small flat stone supported on little bits of bamboo. On it are laid six pieces of meat and some rice and scraps of any favourite [160]fruit of the deceased. A new dao-belt, with a miniature dao-holder, is stretched between two sticks, and a little wooden dao and spear are put near it. Sometimes a little bamboo platform (eno) with a little notched stick for the ghost to use as a ladder40 is put up, and on it are laid ear ornaments and offerings of food and drink, and imitation beads made from pith. This offering made, the living have performed their duty towards the dead, and the village can begin a new year with little fear of hauntings.41

Such are the usual funeral ceremonies, but under certain circumstances the normal procedure is not followed. An infant is usually buried in the mpongki, the reason given being the rather pathetic one that its parents do not like to think of it lying out in the rain and the cold. If a man was killed in war he was buried outside the village and no ornaments were put on his grave. Like all Nagas, the Lhotas regard certain forms of death with horror, as being manifestations of supernatural displeasure.42 Thus it is that when anyone dies by drowning, or by falling from a tree, or by fire, or by accidentally falling on his own spear, or in childbirth, or is killed by a wild animal, very strict purificatory rites have to be performed, and great care is taken to burn or cut down a tree from which a man has fallen and been killed. Except in the case of a man killed by a tiger or leopard the corpse is buried near the place of death, whether inside or outside the village. An account of the rites following a death by drowning will illustrate the procedure followed. The body is buried by the nearest relations present, no bead being put on the wrist or ornaments on the grave. Anyone who touches the corpse must at the first opportunity throw away all ornaments and clothing he was wearing at the time. Other people present need not do more than throw [161]away a thread from their clothes and the cotton wool from their ears, and scrape a shaving off their spears and dao handles. Any fish caught before the man was drowned, if the catastrophe took place while fishing, as is often the case, may be cooked and eaten on the spot, but nothing must be carried away. Each man as he leaves the river flicks the water with his right hand and says, “Take away all evil, O river.” As soon as the news of the disaster, for such it is, reaches the village an old man comes out and makes a fire on the path, using a fire-stick to do so. Every man before he can enter the village must step through the smoke of the fire, and hold his ornaments and weapons in it for a moment.43 Someone is standing ready with a “chunga” of water, and each man washes his hands before he passes on. Even a stranger from another village must do this before he can enter his own village, lest he should bring with him the evil with which he is contaminated. The house and all the property of the dead man are abandoned. His money is simply thrown on the ground and left there. His live-stock cannot be killed, for that would defile the dao. The animals are just left to wander about, or are driven over a cliff if they become a nuisance.44 No money or debts in kind due to the dead man can be claimed, and his heirs in turn need not pay any of his debts. His house is left to fall into ruins with all it contains. His crops are abandoned and any land he was cutting that year must next be cut by a man of another [162]clan, though an old man of the dead man’s clan may take rent for it. For the purification of the members of the household the following rites are performed among the Northern Lhotas. Friends of the dead man build a little shed and put some clothes and food in it. An old man of his clan, on the day after the death, lights a fire in front of the house and sacrifices a cock. The whole household must then come out of the house stark naked and step over the fire. They then enter the shed, where they put on clothes and remain for six days without speaking to anyone. Friends bring them food, and build a new house for them. Among the Southern Lhotas the usual custom is for the household to remain in the old house for six days. A cock is then sacrificed, and they pass through the fire and wash their hands and feet and go to a little house built for them outside the village, where they remain for six days, being fed by their friends. They then again are made to pass through the fire and change their clothes and wash and have their hair cut, after which they are ceremonially clean. The task of the man who sacrifices the chicken is regarded as a particularly risky one. Lhotas near the Sema border usually call in a Sema to perform this unpleasant duty. The Sema is not over nice in these matters and willingly sacrifices the chicken, receiving as his reward any of the live-stock of the deceased which he likes to kill and carry away. He must not, however, take away beads or money which might pass from hand to hand and eventually reach some Lhota. The people of Yekhum were recently very much distressed because some Semas carried off some money which had been thrown away, and complained that they would not know whether any rupee in circulation was from this tainted source or not. If a man is killed by a tiger or leopard the body is not buried, but is put on a platform in a tree and panjis are set underneath. This is the only example of tree “burial” among the Lhotas,45 though the Aos invariably lay out their dead on machans, and the Konyaks beyond them actually put their dead [163]bodies in trees in certain villages. Such horror have the Lhotas of being killed by wild beasts that if a man who is being chased by an elephant throws down his load and the elephant touches it he may never pick it up again, for it “belongs to the elephant,” and were he to take it back some elephant would assuredly take his life in exchange. Similarly the shaft of a spear broken by a tiger may never be used again, or the owner will have to give his life in exchange for the spear. No direct descendant of a man killed by a tiger or leopard may eat meat from a tiger or leopard’s kill until he has removed the curse by cutting off the head of a tiger. The wife of a man under this prohibition must observe it, but the husband of a woman under it may eat meat from a kill, but must not give it to his wife. No one may eat the flesh of an animal which has been drowned, or has died in giving birth to young. Were Lhotas strictly logical they would prohibit the eating of meat from a tiger’s or leopard’s kill. As it is, it is regarded as unclean and meat is prohibited for anyone who has to remain ceremonially clean. Ordinarily, however, it may be eaten, for to forbid it entirely would be a great hardship in a country where such large numbers of live-stock come to this untimely end. Lightning, as is only natural, is looked upon as an instrument of supernatural vengeance. Even if no one be killed, a house struck by lightning is abandoned with all it contains. A tree struck by lightning cannot be cut up for firewood or used for any purpose whatever. Should a field be struck, no crop is cut that year from the place where the lightning fell. The rest of the crop may be eaten, but no seed is kept from that field. The stone adzes which are sometimes found are regarded as thunderbolts and are called Potsophü (“Potsos’ axes”), and no Lhota cares to touch one.