Ponyiratsen divides the “chungas” into two equal heaps and puts the egg between them, with a parcel containing thirty pieces of meat on each side. They then go to the younger Ponyiratsen’s house, and having divided up the rest of the meat there the elder one goes home. That night the couple for whom the ceremony is being done must sleep apart. Next day the Ponyiratsen come again and take the omens in the same way, except that two hens are used instead of two cocks. After swinging the basket containing the bracelets and mumbling the charm, the elder Ponyiratsen lays a bamboo mat on the ground outside the door on the side farthest away from the Road of the Dead. By the mat she lays the two worn garments which she took the day before, the husband’s to the right and the wife’s to the left. She sits at the right end of the mat, facing her assistant Ponyiratsen, who sits at the left end, and rolls an egg along the mat. Omens are drawn from the direction in which the pointed end lies when it comes to rest. If it points towards a hostile village the husband will get heads, if towards the plains money, if towards the house rice. It is a very bad omen if it points towards the Road of the Dead. The assistant Ponyiratsen rolls the egg back and the process is repeated eight times. A sickle is then slid along the mat eight times and omens are taken from the direction of its point, just as they were taken from the direction of the pointed end of the egg. When this is finished the elder Ponyiratsen shakes the two cloths eight times each to get rid of any evil there may be in them and returns them to their owners, and as she picks up the mat, gives it a flick and sends the egg, which is still lying on it, as far as possible in the direction opposite to that of the Road of the Dead, saying as she does so, “I am throwing away all evil fortune and poverty.” She then shakes the mat eight times, and both the Ponyiratsen go to their own houses. The wife rolls up the mat and stands it on end inside the door between the mpongki and the lhurhui. The couple must sleep apart that night, and the mat must not be removed before cockcrow next morning. This ceremony of the Ponyiratsen is regarded by Lhotas as a sort of initiation into married life. It is only performed for each individual once in his life. For example, were a bachelor to marry a widow it would be performed for him. Were a married man to take a spinster as a second wife it would be performed for her. But were a married man to take a widow it would not be performed at all.