76 THE LUSHEI CLANS CHAP.

ThlaJco (The Calling of the Spirit*).—Sometimes a Lushai
returning from a shooting expedition experiences a sudden
feeling of fear near the water supply, and on reaching
his house feels ill and out of sorts. He then realises that
he has lost one of his " thlarau," or souls, in the jungle.
So he calls in the puithiam and requests him to call
back the wanderer. The puithiam then hangs the head of a
hoe on to the shaft of a spear and goes down to the water
spring chanting a charm and calling on the spirit to return.
As he goes the iron hoe head jingles against the iron butt of
the spear and the spirit hears the noise and listens. The
puithiam returns from the spring to the. house still chanting
and calling, and the spirit follows him, but should the
puithiam laugh or look back the spirit is afraid and flies
back to the jungle.

Epidemics.—The appearance of cholera, or any similar

disease, is the signal for the evacuation of the village. The

sick are abandoned and the people scatter, some families taking

up their abode in the jhum huts, others building huts in the

jungle. The neighbouring villages close their gates to all

coming from the infected neighbourhood, and to terrify the

Huai, who is supposed to be responsible for the epidemic, a

gateway is built across the road leading to the stricken villages,

on the sides and arch of which rude figures of armed men made

of straw with wooden spears and dahs are placed. A dog is

sacrificed and the sherh are hung on the gateway.1

5. Chhim.—This is generally performed if a woman does not

flees to become enceinte in the first year of married life. A white hen

remove has to be caught just as it has laid an egg, but as this is

ness In" a somewkat difficult feat, and as the demons, though malevolent,

women, are supposed to be easily imposed upon, a white hen is often

caught and put into a nest basket with an egg and fastened

there till the puithiam arrives and says, " Oh, ho! so your hen

has laid an egg! " Then the hen is killed at the head of the

sleeping platform (khumpi), under which the sherh are

placed in a basket till sunrise next morning, when they are

thrown away. The flesh is cooked on the hearth and eaten.

1 For a somewhat similar instance of trying to ward off cholera, vide Khasi
Monograph, p. 35.—P. R. G.