For the ceremonies where a mithan is sacrificed a black hybrid or black
bull may be substituted, but the substitute is invariably spoken of as
a mithan. The following defects [145] make an animal unfit for
sacrifice—a hole in the horn, one horn deformed or shorter than the
other, one horn missing, teeth missing or broken, white marks on the
body, white on the tail or forehead (though an animal with white both
on the tail and forehead may be sacrificed), deformed hoof and white on
the leg unless all four legs are white. It is believed that were a man
to sacrifice an animal with one of these defects he would almost
certainly die. Under no circumstances may the flesh of an animal which
has been sacrificed be eaten either by the sacrificer or any of his
household. It is believed that anyone who broke this rule would go mad.
There is a man in Pangti who is supposed to have become insane for this
reason. Whatever may be the real cause he is certainly afflicted with
madness, and of a kind particularly obnoxious to the writer, for it
takes the form of making interminable complaints about imaginary
wrongs. Again in Humtso the writer came across a case in which a woman
tried to poison her husband by scraping shavings off the horns of a
mithan he had sacrificed and mixing them with his “madhu.”
[The First Social “Genna.”] Like all social “gennas” the first one,
Wozütana, is usually performed in the cold weather when there is a
certain amount of leisure from work in the fields. It is a very simple
affair which is often performed by a man before marriage. He invites
all the men of his clan in the village who have done Wozütana, and
kills a bull of any colour behind the house. This is divided up among
the guests and much “madhu” handed round. Little presents of meat, too,
would ordinarily be sent to fellow-clansmen in neighbouring villages.
Next day the man who has done the “genna” must not give a drink of
“madhu” to a man of another village. The head of the bull sacrificed on
this occasion is not kept. The man who performs this “genna” is
entitled to wear the cloth called phangdrap.