38 THE LUSHEI CLANS CHAP.

After standing a few minutes the liquor is drawn off by a syphon
into a brass or wooden bowl, out of which it is handed round to
the guests in horns or small bamboos. The principal guest is
served first, and as he tosses off tHe cup he names the one in
whose honour he drinks, who in duty bound must drink next,
naming another to follow him. While the important person-
ages are thus ceremoniously entertaining each other the rank
and file sitting round in a circle are each in turn receiving a
brimming horn full. As the supply in the jar gets low, more
water is added, so that the quality of the liquor steadily
deteriorates. Occasionally, instead of drawing off the zu, a tube
is inserted and each toper in turn sucks up his allowance, the
appearance of the top of a peg, inserted in the layer of leaves,
giving him a hint when to leave off.

Should the zu not have been kept long enough, a cake of
yeast prepared from rice may be required to start fermentation.
Well prepared zu is by no means an unpalatable drink. It
contains much nourishment, and Savunga, one of our opponents
in the 1871-72 expedition, whom I found still living in 1898,
was said to have taken little else during the last two years of his
life. The drink naturally varies much in strength, but even
at its strongest it is not very intoxicating, and it has not the
exciting effect which the drink brewed from maize and
millet seems to nave on the eastern tribes, among whom
violent crimes, committed during drinking bouts, are very
common.
12, The songs which the folk seem never tired of singing are

Amuse- slow, solemn dirges sung by the whole party to the accompani-
ments. 1 r j j 11 - • *

ment of a drum, or gong, and are generally in praise of some

former home of the tribe or some departed hero.

The dances also are very slow and monotonous. A single
male performer enters the circle of drinkers and postures slowly,
keeping time to the drum or gong. There are one or two ex-
ceptions, such as the dances in which the performer imitates a
monkey or a bird, but generally speaking they are most unin-
teresting.

The men are fond of putting the weight; the stone used is a
light one weighing 10 to 12 Ibs. and the thrower is allowed to
follow on as much as he likes. Jumping and running races are