Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/480

found, all is well. On this occasion a curious white veining resembling ears of rice was found, which was thought to be a good sign. The flesh of the animal was eaten by such people as had not become Hindus. The hangjaba, being a Hindu, may not eat, but he must smell the cooked flesh, thus ceremonially sharing in the feast. A buffalo is given to the god, and his servant the lai-ma-nai makes good use of it. With reference to the rag doll which is thrown away during the ceremony at Kanachauba's lai-pham, I was expressly told that it was meant to represent a man offered in place of the Raja, and may be symbolic of a human sacrifice. Some years ago in the course of my work I had to take down a statement of a man who had been made a lai-ma-nai or slave to this very god Wāngpurel. I repeat it exactly as I took it down. "I received twenty-six rupees and a buffalo about one or two years old. I am a Moirang man. I was taken to Shuganu by the Raja and the Senaputti. I was taken to Wāngpurel's lai-sang. Then the maiba and the Raja said many charms, and a little blood was drawn from my foot, from the sole, and some of my hair, finger and toe nails were cut off and laid before the Lai and buried in the Lai's place. I was then let go. but I was unable to walk, I had been sitting so long, from daybreak till sunset, in such an awkward position that I could not move. I was not tied. I was told that it would spoil matters if I moved. A letter came round asking who would become a lai-ma-nai. I was told that I would be exempt from land revenue, forced labour, etc. This happened when the Raja was first going to Ajmir." Further enquiries elicited the fact that in the good old days, before the State was taken over by Government in 1891, if matters were not going well, a consultation of the maibas would be held, and, if they decided that the god required food, men would be told off to seize some solitary wayfarer after dark, in some unfrequented spot, and draw from the sole of his foot a