In the morning he dug it up and found that though when speared it
had the appearance of a man it was now a lizard. [130]
Respect rather than worship is paid to a huge boulder called Deolung on
the north-west side of the path between Lakhuti and Akuk. Everyone who
passes it lays a leaf on a stone in front of it. Lakhuti once
sacrificed a chicken to it, but the experiment was followed by many
deaths in the village and was not repeated. Formerly very solemn oaths
were taken on this stone. The story goes that long, long ago Deolung
was attacked by another huge boulder called Tarrlung, who cut his head
off. But Deolung’s friend Matishi, another boulder, was near, to whom
Deolung cried out, “Matishi, Matishi, Tarrlung has cut off my head. Go
and waylay him.” So Matishi took a sharpened bamboo as a spear and
waylaid Tarrlung and wounded him so seriously that he only had strength
to stagger away and toppled into the Doyang near Morakcho. Deolung’s
leg is supposed to be somewhere in the plains, but the wound where his
head was cut off, and his head itself, now a rough piece of stone, are
still pointed out. Close to Deolung and a little to the south is a flat
slab of stone known as the grave of Orhendhromo, Deolung’s son,
sometimes called Orhendhreni, his daughter. The little escarpment on
which Deolung stands is called “Deolung’s wall” (Deolung piku). Matishi
is now a big boulder a little distance below the Naga path and to the
south-east of it between Deolung and Akuk. It is regarded both as
Deolung’s friend still standing guard near him, and as his mithan. A
lowing sound heard coming from it forebodes some great disaster. A mark
in the sandstone in Akuk village is shown as the mithan’s track, and a
natural hole through a rock there as the place where the mithan was
tied up. Another rock called Napa is believed once to have been endowed
with life and to have walked up from the bed of the Doyang to the place
where it now stands on Pyopsü land. [131]
[Beliefs concerning the Soul and the Life after Death.] The Lhota
usually regards himself as having two distinct souls called
respectively omon and mongyi. The omon, which is visible in the form of
the man’s shadow and shows its good sense by disappearing into him when
the sky is cloudy and rain threatens, leaves the man some time before
death in cases of serious illness. It may just wander about, in which
case it can often be induced by the proper ceremonies to return, or it
may go straight along the Road of the Dead to the next world, in which
case the man dies.