v FOLK-LORE 109

The Lushais are firm believers in witchcraft. There are 5 Witch-
several ways of bewitching your enemy. Colonel Lewin has a craft-
tale in which the wizard takes up the impression of a person's
foot in the mud and puts it to dry over the hearth, thereby
causing the owner to waste away. Clay figures into which
bamboo spikes are thrust also figure in all cases in which a
person is accused of this offence. To cut off a piece of a person's
hair and put it in a spring is certain, unless the hair is speedily
removed, to cause his death. Several tragedies have occurred
on account of the belief in witchcraft. In 1897 three whole
families were massacred because it was thought that they were
bewitching a very aged chieftainess. The livers of the wizards
were cut out and portions carried to the sufferer, but un-
fortunately she died before being able to taste them and thus
prove the efficacy of the remedy. So strong was the feeling
about these wizards that four or five households of their
relatives had to be given a special and isolated site, as no
village would receive them.

The following translation of a Lushafs account of how man-
kind first learned the black art is specially interesting, as it
introduces Lalruanga and Keichalla, who are the heroes of
many of the oldest of the Lushai tales. Colonel Lewin gives
some excellent stories in his " Progressive Colloquial Exercises/'
Keichalla is the man who can become a tiger at will, and
appears in many tales :—

" Dawi witchcraft was known to Pathian. Vahrika also was
something like Pathian. Vahrika had a separate water supply,
and Pathian's daughter was always disturbing it. Vahrika
said,' What can it be ?' and lay in ambush. Pathian's daughter •
came, and he caught her and was going to kill her, but she said,
' Don't kill me; I will teach you magic/ So she taught him,
and Vahrika taught it all to Keichalla, Lalruanga, and Hrang-
sai-puia. Then Lalruanga went to court Zangkaki, and
Zangkaki, who was a friend of Pathian's daughter, bewitched
Lalruanga, who had forgotten his " dawi bur " (magic gourd), and
he said to Chaichim (the mouse), * Go and fetch my dawi bur
which I put in my basket/ So the mouse went to fetch the
dawi bur and got it, but the Tuiruang (Barak) river rose very
high. The mouse took the dawi bur in his mouth and started