There remain to be described the social “gennas,” which play such an
enormously important part in Lhota life. Beginning from the first small
“genna” they increase in costliness and importance till the ceremony at
which two stones are dragged is reached. Almost every one of them
entitles the doer to wear a distinctive cloth. The wealth and
consequently the importance of a man is gauged by the number of these
social “gennas” he has done, for the Lhota, like all Nagas and members
of not a few other races, is a great respecter of wealth. It is
therefore the ambition of every man to perform the full series if he
possibly can. At the first stone-dragging ceremony one stone is
dragged, and at the second, third and so on two stones are dragged.
There is a limit to the number of times the stone-dragging ceremony may
be done, which varies in different villages, but is so rarely reached
that it practically exists only in theory. The only man the writer has
ever come across who has reached the limit is Wonchă̤̱mo of Pangti, who
has dragged twenty-five stones. The only course open to him now if he
wishes to do any more social “gennas” is to “become a boy again” and
sleep in the champo and begin the whole series again from Wozütana, the
first small “genna.” This he does not propose to do. Though cases have
been known in the past of men reaching the limit, there is no tradition
of anyone who began the series again. [144] The “gennas” are public
feasts which the whole village attends, but the man who proposes to do
one must never announce his intention beforehand except in a whisper to
his nearest friend and the necessary religious officials. This custom
is strictly adhered to. Even a Lhota in Government employment who
wishes to go to his village to perform a social “genna” will never say
when he applies for leave what he wants it for. Were a man to announce
that he was going to do one of these ceremonies and then not be able to
do so it would, it is believed, entail a serious illness or some other
misfortune.