Kuki (Indic people); Lushai (Asian people); Lushai language
3. Other Feasts.--Mostly annual, if necessary provisions are
forthcoming. Some of these probably have reference to the crops.
The Purum celebrate "Yarr" in February for seven days. Dancing begins
each evening at sundown, and is kept up all night with feasting
and drinking. In March they keep "Kumyai" for three days, the young
men and maidens dancing and drinking together, but no animals are
killed. This seems probably equivalent to the "Chap-char-kut" of
the Lushais, but both it and the Yarr are said to be to please the
village god, without any special reference to the crops. The Lamgang
have a peculiar feast early in May, when the young men plant a very
tall bamboo, from the end of which hangs a wooden representation of
a bird, at which every man in turn, commencing with the thempu and
the khul-lakpa, shoot with bows and arrows. Mithan are killed and
eaten. No woman is allowed to join this festival.
The Chiru and Kolhen celebrate a somewhat similar festival called
"Ratek" in the middle of August. A pig and a dog are sacrificed by
the thempu outside the village, on the side towards Kobru, and then
two or three days later an offering of zu is placed in a small bamboo
tube beside the water supply, and the drum is beaten for some time;
the party then return to the khul-lakpa's house and are treated to a
drink. The following day a tall bamboo is planted in the village with a
wonderfully ornamented basket hanging from it, and much zu drunk. The
following year the bamboo is taken up and thrown away, the festival
being named "Ratek poiyi" (cf. Lushai "pai," to throw away). Before
the feast young men go hunting, and if they are successful good luck
is sure to follow. The first day of the feast a pig and a dog are
sacrificed, and zu drunk; on the second, the bamboo is thrown away
and more zu drunk in the house of the khul-lakpa. On the third day the
unmarried girls of the village give a drinking feast to the young men,
and both dance together. Should the zu suffice this portion of the
festival may be prolonged for several days.
It is believed that unless these two festivals are carried out every
year in their proper rotation, there will be serious mortality among
the elders of the village.
Since writing the above, I have found two more small clans, which
evidently belong to the Old Kuki group--Lonte or Ronte, of whom there
are only nine households, living alongside of the Burma road, close
to the Chawte hamlet, with whom they are classed by the Manipuris;
and Tarau, eighteen households living slightly to the south of the
Burma road.
The Ronte clan is divided into two families, called Lanu and
Changom. Marriages can only be made with members of the other family of
the clan. They say that they came from the Ngente hill far to the south
(v. Ngente clan), and claim some connection with the Chiru and Aimol.
The Tarau clan is divided into four families, and marriages are
restricted as among the Chawte, Chiru, and Kolhen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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