io8 THE LUSHEI CLANS CHAP.

feed it. After a time it was not content with goats and pigs,
but demanded children. One day a Chin who was travelling
noticed his host and hostess weeping, and on asking the reason
was told it was the day for giving a child to the snake. " I will
kill the snake," he replied, and, being provided with a goat, he
slew it, and wrapped its flesh round his dao and forearm and
offered it to the ralpui. When his forearm had been
swallowed, by a quick turn of his wrist he disembowelled the
monster. The place where this took place is on the Aijal-
Champhai road, some forty miles from Aijal. The Biate or Bete
claim to have been the people who fed the snake.

If a " thingsir" (a snake of which the female is very light-
coloured and the male dark) enters a house, it is very
" thianglo."

The entry of any snake into a house is looked on with
suspicion, and either portends misfortune or it denotes that
the sacrifice to Sakhua is urgently needed. If this sacrifice is
not performed speedily death may ensue.

To see a snake with legs is " thianglo." The Lushais believe
there are such creatures. My informant says it is only nowa-
days that this is "thianglo," inferring that formerly such
creatures were common and therefore attracted no attention.
It is the unusualness of the thing which makes the Lushai
think it " thianglo."

Omens. In the section dealing with superstition the subject of omens
of misfortune has been fully dealt with, and there is no need to
say much more, but the following extract fromf< Asiatic Disserta-
tions," II, 1792, is interesting—it is from a description of the
" Mountaineers of Tipra."

" If at any time they see a star very near the moon they say,
* To-night we shall undoubtedly be attacked by some enemy/
and they pass the night under arms with extreme vigilance."

This belief may be accounted for by the superstition that
projects undertaken on such occasions are likely to succeed.

Once when starting on a night expedition to capture a rebel
chief, I noticed my guide staring up intently at the moon, and
he expressed great satisfaction at seeing a star quite close to
its edge, and exclaimed that our expedition was now sure to
succeed, which I am glad to say proved true.