204	THE NON-LUSHEI  CLANS	chap.
of a lower one. To see whether the union will prove
harmonious the thempu takes a hair from the head of each
and moistens them in zu and then twists them together. If the
hairs remain twisted all will go smoothly, but should they fly
apart many bickerings and disputes are to be expected. The
parents of the bridegroom give a feast to all concerned, and this
completes the ceremony, but the young couple do not at once
commence sleeping together. If they have not been previously
acquainted they often sleep apart for a month, and for lesser
periods according to the degree of their acquaintance.
Eligible brides are even now carried off and married against
the wishes of their parents, by ardent lovers belonging to
powerful families.
Immediately a death occurs guns are fired and a special
funeral chant called " La pi" (Lushai " Hla ") is sung three times.
The funeral ceremonies of ordinary people are practically the
same as among the Lushais, but in the case of those who have
performed the " Chong " the ceremonies last seven days, and each
day the corpse is carried in and out of the house seven times
with much shouting, and a mithan has to be killed on each day.
Every relative and slave has to attend and bring some animal
to be killed. The skulls of all these adorn the great man's
grave, and, in former days, at least one fresh human skull
taken specially for the occasion from some other clan had to be
added to the other trophies over a chiefs grave. Sometimes
the body of a great chief may be placed in a small house at a
short distance from the village and partially dried over a slow
fire; and a curious survival of the times of war is found in the
practice, now dying out, of severing the head and burying it in
an earthen pot in a separate place. This was done to prevent
the heads being found and removed as trophies, should the
village be raided. The entrails of the first animal killed in
honour of the deceased are placed on leaves at the foot of the
post against which the corpse rested during the funeral feast,
and are left there for several days, even up to one month, and
at every meal a handful of rice is taken out of the pot and
placed on the leaves, before anyone is allowed to eat. This
portion for the dead is called " thi an chhe." As among the
Eangte, efforts are made to obtain some wild animal or bird,