no THE LUSHEI CLANS CHAP.

to swim ^over the river. The dawi bur was washed away by
the river till it stuck in the fish trap of the Thlangom tribe, who
said, ' What is this ?' The dawi bur was singing like anything.
The Thlangoms broke it open. No sooner had they opened it
than they each acquired knowledge of magic. Then the
Thlangoms were chanting the magic song. Some Mizo
(natives of these Hills) who were passing through the village
also heard the song of those who knew magic. The Mizo saw
a man eating rice. ' May you be bewitched !' they said. They
bewitched him in his rice eating, and for a year after whenever
he ate cooked rice it changed into dry uncooked rice, and it
swelled inside him till his stomach could not hold it and he
died. Thus the Mizo learnt about magic. Nowadays also
there is magic, but those who know it won't teach it without
payment."

The Lushais maintain that the tribes to the north of them,
such as Paihte, Bete, &c., are very proficient at witchcraft,
while the Chins consider the Lushais such experts at the craft
that when Captain Hall, 2nd Gurkhas, and I forced our way
from the west through the then unexplored hills and joined
General Symons at Haka in 1890, th& chiefs of that village
besought the General not to allow any of our Lushai followers
to go within sight of it, lest they should, by merely looking
at it, cause fearful misfortunes. The belief in the man tiger
is common through the Hills and also in Nepal. When a
man-eater gave much trouble in Lungleh, our Gurkha Sepoys
maintained that it was a man, one of three friends who had
assumed this shape and were travelling by different shapes to a
previously selected rendezvous, on reaching which they would
resume their human forms.

Khuavang ^crai.—The Lushais believe that certain persons—
both males and females, but more generally females—have the
power of putting themselves into a trance and are in a state of
communication with Khuavang. This power is called " zawl,"
and a person who possesses it is called " zawlnei." During their
trances they are said to be able to elicit from Khuavang
information regarding the particular sacrifice required to cure
any sick person, and their information is supposed to be more
reliable than the opinion of the puithiam, who bases his state-