iv RELIGION 79

which in one of the folk tales is said to have the magical
property of driving away any evil spirit at which it is pointed.

The Ai of a man requires the sacrifice of a mithan and a
small pig. If an enemy is killed and no Ai performed the
slayer is very likely to go mad.

If you. perform the Ai you can take your enemy with you
(as a slave) when you die; if you do not perform the Ai you
cannot do so, and the spirit of your deceased enemy will haunt
you in this life.

TRANSLATION OF A LUSHAI ACCOUNT OF THE SAKEI-AI.

"When Bengkhawia's village was at Thenzawl, a tiger
beset the village and in one day killed a mithan and two
goats. The crier called on the people to surround it, and
they did so. Thangbawnga shot it and performed the Ai
ceremony; the night before he must not sleep. A young man cut
its tail off; he also must keep awake all night. The next day
he performed the Ai ceremony, sacrificing a mithan. Thang-
bawnga, who was performing the Ai, dressed himself up as a
woman, smoked a woman's pipe, wore a woman's petticoat and
cloth, carried a small basket, spun a cotton spindle, wore ivory
earrings, let his hair down, and wrapped a mottled cloth, which
was said to be of an ancient pattern, round his head as a turban.
A crowd watched him and yelled with laughter, but it would
have been ' thianglo ' for him to laugh. Presently he took off
his turban and carried it in the basket. Then he took off his
woman's disguise and dressed himself as a man, and strapped
on a fighting dah and carried a gun. He also took' sailungvar'
(white flints) and put them into the tiger's mouth while he ate
eggs. c You eat the sailungvar,' he said; ' who will swallow
them the quicker ?' f I have out-swallowed you, you have
not swallowed yours; I have swallowed mine. You go by the
lower road; I will go by the upper. You will be like the
lower southern hills; I shall be like the high northern ones.
You are the brave man of the south; I am the brave man of
the north,' he said, and cut the tiger's head three times with
his dao. Then the men buried the body of the tiger outside
the village." If the tiger has killed men, his eyes are gouged
out with skewers or needles and thrown away ; it is " thianglo "