On the sixth day after the heads had been hung up the Ramo “genna” took
place. On the fifth day everyone who had taken a head or jabbed a
corpse killed a small chicken and hung it up with some boiled rice and
“madhu” rice wrapped in a leaf from the roof of his house in the
mpongki on the left side as you go in. He then cleaned his dao and took
the omens by pouring the contents of a small “chunga” of “madhu” on the
ground and splitting the “chunga.” Then he wrapped the two halves in a
leaf, and opening the leaf suddenly let them fall to the ground. If one
side fell one way up and the other the other, it meant that the omen
was good and it would not be long before he did the head-taking
ceremony again. If both halves fell the same way up no successful raid
would be made in the near future. He then hid the pieces of split
“chunga” in the roof of his house. Next day all the men in the village
put on full dress and went round in procession singing from the Puthi’s
house to that of every man who had taken or jabbed a head six days
before. Vats of “madhu” and great wooden dishes of pork were standing
ready outside each house, and everyone ate and drank as much as they
could, which was doubtless a good deal. In the evening the little
chickens and the bundles of “madhu” and rice were taken down and left
in the Puthi’s house. He did not eat them himself, but gave them to old
people.
It was most important that every Lhota should either take a head or at
least touch an enemy’s corpse, for unless he had done so he could not
put on the ornaments of a warrior: hornbill tail feathers in his
bearskin wig, boar’s tush necklace, red-fringed gauntlets, red
dao-belt, and dark blue lengta with red lines. One hornbill tail
feather could be worn for each head-taking ceremony, but a man rarely
wore more than six or eight at the outside, however many times he had
performed the ceremony.