v THE LAKHER OR MARA CLAN 221

attributes and the names of the lesser spirits vary from village
to village and individual to individual, this great spirit has a
firmer outline and permits of some attempt at description.
The picture they draw is primitive, almost touching in its
childishness. The Khazang or Loitha is small and brown and
almost hairless. He is capable of sexual love and has children.
He is material in his essence, but superior to natural laws such
as those of time, space, and gravity. He is immortal, and
has an immaterial wife and immaterial children. For his
continuance the world exists with its revenue. In their own
phrase he f eats' the domains of the lesser spirits through all
nature as a chief c eats' villages (i.e., receives tribute in
supplies from villages). He regards individual men much as
these same men regard individual ants. Nearer to the heart
and farther from the intelligence of the Lakhers is the mysterious
Pi-leh-pu, the all-mother and all-father (strictly translated
'grandmother' and 'grandfather,' the term is generally used
for ancestors)—a being not anthropomorphised or materialised,
partaking in some shadowy way of the functions both of
guardian angel and of originator of the human race."

In the course of my enquiries I did not come across any
references to Pi-leh-pu, but there seems good reason to think
that the term is applied to the mythical ancestor of the clan.
In the Lushai Mi-thi-rawp-lam, it will be remembered that in
the centre of the frame round which the effigies of the
ancestors of the celebrants are fastened there is a white effigy
to represent the mythical ancestor of the whole clan. In some
respects Pi-leh-pu seems to resemble the Lushai Sakhua.

The Ram-huai of the Lushais are known as "Hri-pa"and the
Lashi as " Sakhia." After death the spirits pass to Mi-thi-khua,
the road to which is by the village of Lunchoi and passes up a
precipice. It is so narrow that women with child have to
widen it as they go, for which purpose a hoe is buried with
them, or at least laid beside the corpse during the funeral feast.
Pial-ral is called "Pe-raJ," and to reach it all sorts of animals must
be killed and the Ai ceremony performed for each. The
Khuangchoi feast is also considered, if not absolutely necessary,
at least very useful. Triumphs in the courts of Venus will not
help the spirit to pass to Pe-ra'. Women can only reach that