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Python: Real-World Data
Science
Table of Contents
Python: Real-World Data Science
Meet Your Course Guide
What's so cool about Data Science?
Course Structure
Course Journey
The Course Roadmap and Timeline
1. Course Module 1: Python Fundamentals
1. Introduction and First Steps – Take a Deep Breath
A proper introduction
Enter the Python
About Python
Portability
Coherence
Developer productivity
An extensive library
Software quality
Software integration
Satisfaction and enjoyment
What are the drawbacks?
Who is using Python today?
Setting up the environment
Python 2 versus Python 3 – the great debate
What you need for this course
Installing Python
Installing IPython
Installing additional packages
How you can run a Python program
Running Python scripts
Running the Python interactive shell
Running Python as a service
Running Python as a GUI application
How is Python code organized
 How do we use modules and packages
Python's execution model
Names and namespaces
Scopes
Guidelines on how to write good code
The Python culture
A note on the IDEs
2. Object-oriented Design
Introducing object-oriented
Objects and classes
Specifying attributes and behaviors
Data describes objects
Behaviors are actions
Hiding details and creating the public interface
Composition
Inheritance
Inheritance provides abstraction
Multiple inheritance
Case study
3. Objects in Python
Creating Python classes
Adding attributes
Making it do something
Talking to yourself
More arguments
Initializing the object
Explaining yourself
Modules and packages
Organizing the modules
Absolute imports
Relative imports
Organizing module contents
Who can access my data?
Third-party libraries
Case study
4. When Objects Are Alike
 Basic inheritance
Extending built-ins
Overriding and super
Multiple inheritance
The diamond problem
Different sets of arguments
Polymorphism
Abstract base classes
Using an abstract base class
Creating an abstract base class
Demystifying the magic
Case study
5. Expecting the Unexpected
Raising exceptions
Raising an exception
The effects of an exception
Handling exceptions
The exception hierarchy
Defining our own exceptions
Case study
6. When to Use Object-oriented Programming
Treat objects as objects
Adding behavior to class data with properties
Properties in detail
Decorators – another way to create properties
Deciding when to use properties
Manager objects
Removing duplicate code
In practice
Case study
7. Python Data Structures
Empty objects
Tuples and named tuples
Named tuples
Dictionaries
Dictionary use cases
 Using defaultdict
Counter
Lists
Sorting lists
Sets
Extending built-ins
Queues
FIFO queues
LIFO queues
Priority queues
Case study
8. Python Object-oriented Shortcuts
Python built-in functions
The len() function
Reversed
Enumerate
File I/O
Placing it in context
An alternative to method overloading
Default arguments
Variable argument lists
Unpacking arguments
Functions are objects too
Using functions as attributes
Callable objects
Case study
9. Strings and Serialization
Strings
String manipulation
String formatting
Escaping braces
Keyword arguments
Container lookups
Object lookups
Making it look right
Strings are Unicode
 Converting bytes to text
Converting text to bytes
Mutable byte strings
Regular expressions
Matching patterns
Matching a selection of characters
Escaping characters
Matching multiple characters
Grouping patterns together
Getting information from regular expressions
Making repeated regular expressions efficient
Serializing objects
Customizing pickles
Serializing web objects
Case study
10. The Iterator Pattern
Design patterns in brief
Iterators
The iterator protocol
Comprehensions
List comprehensions
Set and dictionary comprehensions
Generator expressions
Generators
Yield items from another iterable
Coroutines
Back to log parsing
Closing coroutines and throwing exceptions
The relationship between coroutines, generators, and
functions
Case study
11. Python Design Patterns I
The decorator pattern
A decorator example
Decorators in Python
The observer pattern
 An observer example
The strategy pattern
A strategy example
Strategy in Python
The state pattern
A state example
State versus strategy
State transition as coroutines
The singleton pattern
Singleton implementation
The template pattern
A template example
12. Python Design Patterns II
The adapter pattern
The facade pattern
The flyweight pattern
The command pattern
The abstract factory pattern
The composite pattern
13. Testing Object-oriented Programs
Why test?
Test-driven development
Unit testing
Assertion methods
Reducing boilerplate and cleaning up
Organizing and running tests
Ignoring broken tests
Testing with py.test
One way to do setup and cleanup
A completely different way to set up variables
Skipping tests with py.test
Imitating expensive objects
How much testing is enough?
Case study
Implementing it
14. Concurrency
 Threads
The many problems with threads
Shared memory
The global interpreter lock
Thread overhead
Multiprocessing
Multiprocessing pools
Queues
The problems with multiprocessing
Futures
AsyncIO
AsyncIO in action
Reading an AsyncIO future
AsyncIO for networking
Using executors to wrap blocking code
Streams
Executors
Case study
2. Course Module 2: Data Analysis
1. Introducing Data Analysis and Libraries
Data analysis and processing
An overview of the libraries in data analysis
Python libraries in data analysis
NumPy
pandas
Matplotlib
PyMongo
The scikit-learn library
2. NumPy Arrays and Vectorized Computation
NumPy arrays
Data types
Array creation
Indexing and slicing
Fancy indexing
Numerical operations on arrays
Array functions
 Data processing using arrays
Loading and saving data
Saving an array
Loading an array
Linear algebra with NumPy
NumPy random numbers
3. Data Analysis with pandas
An overview of the pandas package
The pandas data structure
Series
The DataFrame
The essential basic functionality
Reindexing and altering labels
Head and tail
Binary operations
Functional statistics
Function application
Sorting
Indexing and selecting data
Computational tools
Working with missing data
Advanced uses of pandas for data analysis
Hierarchical indexing
The Panel data
4. Data Visualization
The matplotlib API primer
Line properties
Figures and subplots
Exploring plot types
Scatter plots
Bar plots
Contour plots
Histogram plots
Legends and annotations
Plotting functions with pandas
Additional Python data visualization tools
 Bokeh
MayaVi
5. Time Series
Time series primer
Working with date and time objects
Resampling time series
Downsampling time series data
Upsampling time series data
Timedeltas
Time series plotting
6. Interacting with Databases
Interacting with data in text format
Reading data from text format
Writing data to text format
Interacting with data in binary format
HDF5
Interacting with data in MongoDB
Interacting with data in Redis
The simple value
List
Set
Ordered set
7. Data Analysis Application Examples
Data munging
Cleaning data
Filtering
Merging data
Reshaping data
Data aggregation
Grouping data
3. Course Module 3: Data Mining
1. Getting Started with Data Mining
Introducing data mining
A simple affinity analysis example
What is affinity analysis?
Product recommendations
 Loading the dataset with NumPy
Implementing a simple ranking of rules
Ranking to find the best rules
A simple classification example
What is classification?
Loading and preparing the dataset
Implementing the OneR algorithm
Testing the algorithm
2. Classifying with scikit-learn Estimators
scikit-learn estimators
Nearest neighbors
Distance metrics
Loading the dataset
Moving towards a standard workflow
Running the algorithm
Setting parameters
Preprocessing using pipelines
An example
Standard preprocessing
Putting it all together
Pipelines
3. Predicting Sports Winners with Decision Trees
Loading the dataset
Collecting the data
Using pandas to load the dataset
Cleaning up the dataset
Extracting new features
Decision trees
Parameters in decision trees
Using decision trees
Sports outcome prediction
Putting it all together
Random forests
How do ensembles work?
Parameters in Random forests
Applying Random forests
 Engineering new features
4. Recommending Movies Using Affinity Analysis
Affinity analysis
Algorithms for affinity analysis
Choosing parameters
The movie recommendation problem
Obtaining the dataset
Loading with pandas
Sparse data formats
The Apriori implementation
The Apriori algorithm
Implementation
Extracting association rules
Evaluation
5. Extracting Features with Transformers
Feature extraction
Representing reality in models
Common feature patterns
Creating good features
Feature selection
Selecting the best individual features
Feature creation
Creating your own transformer
The transformer API
Implementation details
Unit testing
Putting it all together
6. Social Media Insight Using Naive Bayes
Disambiguation
Downloading data from a social network
Loading and classifying the dataset
Creating a replicable dataset from Twitter
Text transformers
Bag-of-words
N-grams
Other features
 Naive Bayes
Bayes' theorem
Naive Bayes algorithm
How it works
Application
Extracting word counts
Converting dictionaries to a matrix
Training the Naive Bayes classifier
Putting it all together
Evaluation using the F1-score
Getting useful features from models
7. Discovering Accounts to Follow Using Graph Mining
Loading the dataset
Classifying with an existing model
Getting follower information from Twitter
Building the network
Creating a graph
Creating a similarity graph
Finding subgraphs
Connected components
Optimizing criteria
8. Beating CAPTCHAs with Neural Networks
Artificial neural networks
An introduction to neural networks
Creating the dataset
Drawing basic CAPTCHAs
Splitting the image into individual letters
Creating a training dataset
Adjusting our training dataset to our methodology
Training and classifying
Back propagation
Predicting words
Improving accuracy using a dictionary
Ranking mechanisms for words
Putting it all together
9. Authorship Attribution
 Attributing documents to authors
Applications and use cases
Attributing authorship
Getting the data
Function words
Counting function words
Classifying with function words
Support vector machines
Classifying with SVMs
Kernels
Character n-grams
Extracting character n-grams
Using the Enron dataset
Accessing the Enron dataset
Creating a dataset loader
Putting it all together
Evaluation
10. Clustering News Articles
Obtaining news articles
Using a Web API to get data
Reddit as a data source
Getting the data
Extracting text from arbitrary websites
Finding the stories in arbitrary websites
Putting it all together
Grouping news articles
The k-means algorithm
Evaluating the results
Extracting topic information from clusters
Using clustering algorithms as transformers
Clustering ensembles
Evidence accumulation
How it works
Implementation
Online learning
An introduction to online learning
 Implementation
11. Classifying Objects in Images Using Deep Learning
Object classification
Application scenario and goals
Use cases
Deep neural networks
Intuition
Implementation
An introduction to Theano
An introduction to Lasagne
Implementing neural networks with nolearn
GPU optimization
When to use GPUs for computation
Running our code on a GPU
Setting up the environment
Application
Getting the data
Creating the neural network
Putting it all together
12. Working with Big Data
Big data
Application scenario and goals
MapReduce
Intuition
A word count example
Hadoop MapReduce
Application
Getting the data
Naive Bayes prediction
The mrjob package
Extracting the blog posts
Training Naive Bayes
Putting it all together
Training on Amazon's EMR infrastructure
13. Next Steps…
Chapter 1 – Getting Started with Data Mining
 Scikit-learn tutorials
Extending the IPython Notebook
Chapter 2 – Classifying with scikit-learn Estimators
More complex pipelines
Comparing classifiers
Chapter 3: Predicting Sports Winners with Decision Trees
More on pandas
Chapter 4 – Recommending Movies Using Affinity Analysis
The Eclat algorithm
Chapter 5 – Extracting Features with Transformers
Vowpal Wabbit
Chapter 6 – Social Media Insight Using Naive Bayes
Natural language processing and part-of-speech tagging
Chapter 7 – Discovering Accounts to Follow Using Graph Mining
More complex algorithms
Chapter 8 – Beating CAPTCHAs with Neural Networks
Deeper networks
Reinforcement learning
Chapter 9 – Authorship Attribution
Local n-grams
Chapter 10 – Clustering News Articles
Real-time clusterings
Chapter 11 – Classifying Objects in Images Using Deep
Learning
Keras and Pylearn2
Mahotas
Chapter 12 – Working with Big Data
Courses on Hadoop
Pydoop
Recommendation engine
More resources
4. Course Module 4: Machine Learning
1. Giving Computers the Ability to Learn from Data
How to transform data into knowledge
The three different types of machine learning
Making predictions about the future with supervised learning
 Classification for predicting class labels
Regression for predicting continuous outcomes
Solving interactive problems with reinforcement learning
Discovering hidden structures with unsupervised learning
Finding subgroups with clustering
Dimensionality reduction for data compression
An introduction to the basic terminology and notations
A roadmap for building machine learning systems
Preprocessing – getting data into shape
Training and selecting a predictive model
Evaluating models and predicting unseen data instances
Using Python for machine learning
2. Training Machine Learning Algorithms for Classification
Artificial neurons – a brief glimpse into the early history of
machine learning
Implementing a perceptron learning algorithm in Python
Training a perceptron model on the Iris dataset
Adaptive linear neurons and the convergence of learning
Minimizing cost functions with gradient descent
Implementing an Adaptive Linear Neuron in Python
Large scale machine learning and stochastic gradient
descent
3. A Tour of Machine Learning Classifiers Using scikit-learn
Choosing a classification algorithm
First steps with scikit-learn
Training a perceptron via scikit-learn
Modeling class probabilities via logistic regression
Logistic regression intuition and conditional probabilities
Learning the weights of the logistic cost function
Training a logistic regression model with scikit-learn
Tackling overfitting via regularization
Maximum margin classification with support vector machines
Maximum margin intuition
Dealing with the nonlinearly separable case using slack
variables
Alternative implementations in scikit-learn
 Solving nonlinear problems using a kernel SVM
Using the kernel trick to find separating hyperplanes in
higher dimensional space
Decision tree learning
Maximizing information gain – getting the most bang for the
buck
Building a decision tree
Combining weak to strong learners via random forests
K-nearest neighbors – a lazy learning algorithm
4. Building Good Training Sets – Data Preprocessing
Dealing with missing data
Eliminating samples or features with missing values
Imputing missing values
Understanding the scikit-learn estimator API
Handling categorical data
Mapping ordinal features
Encoding class labels
Performing one-hot encoding on nominal features
Partitioning a dataset in training and test sets
Bringing features onto the same scale
Selecting meaningful features
Sparse solutions with L1 regularization
Sequential feature selection algorithms
Assessing feature importance with random forests
5. Compressing Data via Dimensionality Reduction
Unsupervised dimensionality reduction via principal component
analysis
Total and explained variance
Feature transformation
Principal component analysis in scikit-learn
Supervised data compression via linear discriminant analysis
Computing the scatter matrices
Selecting linear discriminants for the new feature subspace
Projecting samples onto the new feature space
LDA via scikit-learn
 Using kernel principal component analysis for nonlinear
mappings
Kernel functions and the kernel trick
Implementing a kernel principal component analysis in
Python
Example 1 – separating half-moon shapes
Example 2 – separating concentric circles
Projecting new data points
Kernel principal component analysis in scikit-learn
6. Learning Best Practices for Model Evaluation and
Hyperparameter Tuning
Streamlining workflows with pipelines
Loading the Breast Cancer Wisconsin dataset
Combining transformers and estimators in a pipeline
Using k-fold cross-validation to assess model performance
The holdout method
K-fold cross-validation
Debugging algorithms with learning and validation curves
Diagnosing bias and variance problems with learning curves
Addressing overfitting and underfitting with validation curves
Fine-tuning machine learning models via grid search
Tuning hyperparameters via grid search
Algorithm selection with nested cross-validation
Looking at different performance evaluation metrics
Reading a confusion matrix
Optimizing the precision and recall of a classification model
Plotting a receiver operating characteristic
The scoring metrics for multiclass classification
7. Combining Different Models for Ensemble Learning
Learning with ensembles
Implementing a simple majority vote classifier
Combining different algorithms for classification with
majority vote
Evaluating and tuning the ensemble classifier
Bagging – building an ensemble of classifiers from bootstrap
samples
 Leveraging weak learners via adaptive boosting
8. Predicting Continuous Target Variables with Regression Analysis
Introducing a simple linear regression model
Exploring the Housing Dataset
Visualizing the important characteristics of a dataset
Implementing an ordinary least squares linear regression model
Solving regression for regression parameters with gradient
descent
Estimating the coefficient of a regression model via scikit-
learn
Fitting a robust regression model using RANSAC
Evaluating the performance of linear regression models
Using regularized methods for regression
Turning a linear regression model into a curve – polynomial
regression
Modeling nonlinear relationships in the Housing Dataset
Dealing with nonlinear relationships using random forests
Decision tree regression
Random forest regression
A. Reflect and Test Yourself! Answers
Module 2: Data Analysis
Chapter 1: Introducing Data Analysis and Libraries
Chapter 2: Object-oriented Design
Chapter 3: Data Analysis with pandas
Chapter 4: Data Visualization
Chapter 5: Time Series
Chapter 6: Interacting with Databases
Chapter 7: Data Analysis Application Examples
Module 3: Data Mining
Chapter 1: Getting Started with Data Mining
Chapter 2: Classifying with scikit-learn Estimators
Chapter 3: Predicting Sports Winners with Decision Trees
Chapter 4: Recommending Movies Using Affinity Analysis
Chapter 5: Extracting Features with Transformers
Chapter 6: Social Media Insight Using Naive Bayes
 Chapter 7: Discovering Accounts to Follow Using Graph
Mining
Chapter 8: Beating CAPTCHAs with Neural Networks
Chapter 9: Authorship Attribution
Chapter 10: Clustering News Articles
Chapter 11: Classifying Objects in Images Using Deep
Learning
Chapter 12: Working with Big Data
Module 4: Machine Learning
Chapter 1: Giving Computers the Ability to Learn from Data
Chapter 2: Training Machine Learning
Chapter 3: A Tour of Machine Learning Classifiers Using
scikit-learn
Chapter 4: Building Good Training Sets – Data Preprocessing
Chapter 5: Compressing Data via Dimensionality Reduction
Chapter 6: Learning Best Practices for Model Evaluation and
Hyperparameter Tuning
Chapter 7: Combining Different Models for Ensemble
Learning
Chapter 8: Predicting Continuous Target Variables with
Regression Analysis
B. Bibliography
Index
Python: Real-World Data
Science
Python: Real-World Data
Science
A course in four modules

Unleash the power of Python and its robust data science

capabilities with your Course Guide Ankita Thakur

Learn to use powerful Python libraries for effective data processing

and analysis

To contact your Course Guide

Email: <ankitat@packtpub.com>
Meet Your Course Guide
Hello and welcome to this Data Science with Python course. You
now have a clear pathway from learning Python core features right
through to getting acquainted with the concepts and techniques of
the data science field—all using Python!

This course has been planned and created for you by me Ankita
Thakur – I am your Course Guide, and I am here to help you
have a great journey along the pathways of learning that I have
planned for you.

I've developed and created this course for you and you'll be
seeing me through the whole journey, offering you my thoughts
and ideas behind what you're going to learn next and why I
recommend each step. I'll provide tests and quizzes to help you
reflect on your learning, and code challenges that will be pitched
just right for you through the course.

If you have any questions along the way, you can reach out to
me over e-mail or telephone and I'll make sure you get
everything from the course that we've planned – for you to start
your career in the field of data science. Details of how to contact
me are included on the first page of this course.
What's so cool about Data
Science?
What is Data Science and why is there so much of buzz about this in
the world? Is it of great importance? Well, the following sentence
will answer all such questions:

"This hot new field promises to revolutionize industries from business to government, health care to
academia."

--The New York Times

The world is generating data at an increasing pace. Consumers,

sensors, or scientific experiments emit data points every day. In
finance, business, administration, and the natural or social sciences,
working with data can make up a significant part of the job. Being
able to efficiently work with small or large datasets has become a
valuable skill. Also, we live in a world of connected things where
tons of data is generated and it is humanly impossible to analyze all
the incoming data and make decisions. Human decisions are
increasingly replaced by decisions made by computers. Thanks to
the field of Data Science!

Data science has penetrated deeply in our connected world and

there is a growing demand in the market for people who not only
understand data science algorithms thoroughly, but are also capable
of programming these algorithms. A field that is at the intersection
of many fields, including data mining, machine learning, and
statistics, to name a few. This puts an immense burden on all levels
of data scientists; from the one who is aspiring to become a data
scientist and those who are currently practitioners in this field.

Treating these algorithms as a black box and using them in decision-

making systems will lead to counterproductive results. With tons of
algorithms and innumerable problems out there, it requires a good
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
the guardian of the north, one in Kangjupkhul, the village site of my informants, one on
Makong hill and one in the valley of Manipur. Twice a year the Rampu of Kobra is
honoured with the sacrifice of a dog, while pigs, fowls, or goats are offered to the others.
In July a dog is killed in honour of the first three and a pig in honour of the last-named.
In case of very serious illness, when the Daibawl sacrifices have proved unavailing,
special sacrifices are made to the three chief Rampus above mentioned. These four
Rampus are evidently nearer to local godlings than the multitudinous and ill-defined
Huais of the Lushais. In July Pathian also is honoured, a pig being killed on behalf of the
whole village, while each household sacrifices a fowl. The day is held sacred, no work
being done. It is known as Chapui-chol-lai—i.e., holiday in the great heat. The four
Rampus can only have come into prominence since the settlement of the hamlet at
Kangjupkhul, and it is probable that different ones are worshipped by other hamlets. The
Chiru also perform Sakhua sacrifices as the Lushais do. The Tikhup denied all
knowledge of any devils or semi-divine beings, saying that they worshipped Pathian and
him only. Every year in Phalgun they sacrifice a pig and a cock to Pathian, and much zu
is drunk. In cases of sickness sacrifices of pigs or fowls and offerings of flowers, eggs,
and rice are made to Pathian. Dogs are never sacrificed. I think this is the only clan in
which they are not. I failed to find out the cause of this.

In the other clans the sacrifices are combined with festivals either in connection with the
crops, the dead, or Thangchhuah, and are not simply in honour of the god.

The puithiam of the Lushais becomes “thempu” and in some clans “khulpu.” The last
name seems to indicate his responsibility for protecting the village from all ills and
misfortunes by performing the necessary sacrifices (khul = village, pu = protector). He
appears here as one of the village officials, which is the natural result of the inhabitants
of each village being all of the same clan, instead of many clans, as among the Lushais.
The functions and methods of the thempu and khulpu appear to be the same as those of
his Lushai confrère. There are various restrictions imposed on pregnant women. Among
the Anal she may not eat chillies or honey, and her husband must not touch a snake or a
corpse. The Kolhen prohibit her from killing a snake, attending a funeral ceremony, and
eating a crab, eggs, and a certain vegetable called “chak” in its young state. The
Lamgang also debar her from touching a corpse, but the prohibited articles of food are a
sort of fish called “ngarin” and a small animal which I have not succeeded in identifying.
The birth ceremonies are much alike; in every clan there is a period during which the
woman, and in some cases the house, is “sherh.” During this time the mother’s
movements are restricted in some way.

Among the Aimol the period is five days in case of a boy, and three in case of a girl;
among the Anal and Purum, three days in both cases; among the Chawte, Kom, and
Vaiphei, five. Among the Chiru the period is extended to ten days, during which the
mother must not go out and no one but near relations may enter the house. Among the
Kolhen the period is also ten days, but all women of the village may enter the house; the
mother must eat no flesh, and fowls only may be sacrificed. Cohabitation is prohibited
for three months. Among the Tikhup the restriction on the mother’s movements lasts
only till the disposal of the afterbirth by special persons who clean up the house; till this
is done no one may take a light from the fire or remove any article from the house. In
every case at the conclusion of this period there is a sacrifice. The custom of the Aimol
is for the “thempu” to pour out a libation of zu and herbs in front of the house and
invoke the child’s spirit to take up its residence within the new-born infant. The name is
given at the same time, the father’s family choosing the name of a son and the mother’s
of a daughter. On the day of the birth of an Anal child, the “khulpu” is called, and after
he has muttered certain incantations, zu and fish are distributed to the whole village. All
sacrificing is prohibited for three days, and cohabitation for three months. When
distributing the zu and fish, the household gods—i.e., the Sakhua—are invoked and the
soul of the child is summoned. Among the Chawte the thempu attends on the day of the
birth, and sacrifices a fowl and sips zu. He then mutters incantations over a piece of
turmeric which is then thrown out of the house. On the fifth day a fowl is killed, and as
the name selected is pronounced three grains of rice are dropped into a cup of water, and
if they sink the name is approved, but if they float another one must be selected and
tested in the same manner.

The Chiru ceremonies are more elaborate. After ten days the thempu comes to the house,
a rakeng tree is planted in front of it, and then the thempu sacrifices a hen on behalf of
the mother, and a cock or a hen, according to the sex of the child, on its behalf. The
parents eat the flesh of the birds, and the sherh and bones are buried in the house. Two or
three pots of zu are consumed by married persons. The thempu, taking some zu in his
mouth, goes round inside the house, blowing it out on the walls and muttering charms.
The mother can now leave the house, but for three or four days must not leave the
village. The “keng-puna” or “ming-puna”—i.e., “name-giving”—takes place almost
immediately. Two cocks or hens, according to the sex of the infant, are killed by the
thempu, and their blood smeared on the infant’s forehead and navel, some of the feathers
being tied in its hair. The Kolhen pierce the child’s ears and give the name on the tenth
day, the ceremony being the same as among the Chiru on that day. The maternal
grandfather is expected to give the child a pair of brass earrings, bracelets, leg
ornaments, and a string of glass beads, and it is generally named after him—a custom
also followed by the Koms, who combine the name-giving and ear-piercing, giving a
feast for the purpose, on the expiration of the five days’ sherh. The ear-piercing is done
by the paternal aunt. The Lamgang ceremonies are the same as those of the Anal, but the
father is prohibited from eating the flesh of fowls during the sherh period, while the
mother is under no restriction as regards diet. No other animal may be sacrificed during
that time, and cohabitation is not allowed for one month. The Purum customs are
severely simple. The thempu comes and mutters charms on the day of the birth, and
returns on the third day and makes a libation of zu. No sacrifices are allowed. The name
is given on the second day by the midwife, and the ears are pierced on the seventh day,
but in neither case is there any ceremony. The Tikhup give the name at a feast, to which
the elders of the community are invited; a cock is killed and zu dispensed freely. In case
of the parents being poor, this feast may be postponed till the child is two years old.

The custom of summoning the child’s soul reminds one of the Lushai prohibition of
labour on the part of the parents for seven days after the child’s birth, lest its soul, which
hovers around them during that period, be injured.

Ceremonies connected with marriage. Where

marriage is by service, it is only natural that the
actual ceremony should be of little importance, for the couple have been living as man
and wife during the whole time; but there are exceptions.

At an Aimol wedding two thempus are necessary—one of the bridegroom’s, and one of
the bride’s family. Each kills a cock, the feathers of which are tied round the necks of the
happy pair, after which there is the usual orgy. The Chiru and Tikhup custom is almost
identical, but the village thempu officiates alone. Among the Kolhen, the young man’s
mother makes six visits to the parents of her future daughter-in-law, taking an offering of
zu, and being accompanied by her eldest son-in-law or other male relative, and on the
last occasion by two or three women. Two days after the last visit, the price is fixed, and
the day for the ceremony chosen by the bridegroom’s father and the village officials. The
bridegroom, on the day before that fixed for the marriage, goes to the girl’s house,
accompanied by several male friends, and makes a present of three pots of zu to her
parents. The next morning the bride, accompanied by the unmarried girls of the village,
goes to her future home, taking with her two jars of zu, a hen, a piece of ginger, a dog, a
strap for carrying loads, a new cloth, and a bracelet. She parts from her friends, with
many tears, on the doorstep of her new home. The khulpu decapitates a fowl and throws
it down; if the right leg falls over the left a happy married life is assured. The night is
spent in singing and dancing, and the following night in the same way, but in the house
of the bride, who on the next morning quits her father’s house for good. On the day of
the marriage the bride and bridegroom must not leave the village. This taking of omens
by killing a cock is practised by the Lamgang and Kom. Where marriage is not by
service the preliminaries in all clans resemble much those among the Kolhen. Among the
Vaiphei, and, I think, in some other clans, the young man has to give a feast to the young
men frequenting the same dormitory. A similar custom is described in Fielding Hall’s
“The Inward Light,” page 104, as existing in Burma. “It is an old custom for the village
boys to band themselves together in a company.... But when one marries he ceases to
belong to the company, for he is about to enter into another and a wider life. He is a
deserter and a traitor to his fellows. Therefore they lay in wait for him and caught him as
he went home at night, and, taking him without the village gate, they tried him and
found him guilty. With mock ceremony he was condemned to be turned out from their
ranks, and to pay a fine wherewith his comrades might drown their sorrow at his
desertion. Then with laughter and song, to the light of torches, they took him home in
long procession.”

Widows are allowed to remarry, but as a rule the brothers of the deceased husband have
a prior claim, and if the woman marries anyone else before the annual feast in honour of
the dead she has to pay a fine, which in some clans is as much as Rs. 120/-, to her
brother-in-law. Until this annual feast has come round she must remain in her late
husband’s house, but when that has been performed she may return to her father’s house
if she wishes to, but in that case the brother-in-law will take the dead man’s property and
children.

Ceremonies connected with death. All

these clans bury their dead in special cemeteries outside
the village, and unnatural deaths or deaths in childbirth are universally considered signs
that the deceased has failed in some way, and the corpses of such unfortunates are buried
outside the cemetery and with scant ceremony.

Among the Aimol, the corpse of the khul-lakpa is carried round the village before being
taken to the grave. The corpse of one who has gained honours equivalent to
Thangchhuah among the Lushais is enclosed in a rough log coffin and kept for two days
amid much drinking and feasting, which recalls the funeral ceremonies of a Lushei chief.
With a rich man many cloths are buried and with a poor man at least one. In addition
some cooked rice, zu, a dao, some meat, and a bow and arrow are deposited in the grave.
The bow and arrow are a survival, for such weapons have been long obsolete. Over the
grave a small house is built in which some meat and zu are placed to attract the
“Khawhring.” Spears are then thrust through the house, which is then thrown away. I am
not quite clear whether the “Khawhring” in this case is supposed, as among the Lushais,
to have inhabited the body of the deceased, or whether it is believed to be a disembodied
spirit which is on the lookout for the soul of the deceased.

Three days after the burial a wild animal is killed and zu and rice are offered, and the
spirit of the deceased is asked to go away and not to trouble the living who have
sacrificed and made an offering of zu and rice. The Anal make a distinction between
deaths in childbirth and deaths by accident or in war. In the former case the body is
buried in the cemetery, the grave being dug by those of her household, and food and
drink and domestic utensils are deposited therein. The husband has to sacrifice a pig and
feast the village before the burial, and the village is “sherh” for that day. The first stones
and earth are placed in the grave by aged men, and the filling then completed by young
men. The thempu having muttered some charms, the young men and women sing and
dance for the deliverance of the soul. In cases of ordinary death the grave is dug by men
not of the household, but in case of unnatural death only old grey-headed men may
perform the task, and the grave is dug in the jungle and no dance or song terminates the
funeral, but the village is not “sherh.”
The Chawte make their cemetery some distance from the village. The dead are buried on
the day of death. Over each grave a mound is raised and fenced round with a bamboo
trellis-work. A small post carved faintly to resemble the human form is placed over the
grave of a man, while a hoe, axe, and winnowing fan denote the grave of a woman. On
each grave rests a flat basket containing some flowers and a small jar of water. Behind
each grave is a rough representation of a house raised some four feet from the ground,
which is also ornamented with flowers, and some of the deceased’s clothes hang from it,
while inside are placed a bamboo full of zu and a small cup, which is filled with clean
water, and a handful of raw rice. These are changed every third or fourth day till the Thi-
duh ceremony comes round in May, when there is a feast, and portions of meat and some
zu are placed on each fresh grave.

On the death of a Chiru, guns are fired and gongs beaten, and a fowl, pig, and goat are
killed at once. There is the usual funeral feast, and food and personal effects, including
his comb, are buried with him. The house is “sherh” for three days, during which rice is
placed in a small basket in the house and then thrown on to the grave. On the third day
the house is purified by the thempu sacrificing a cock. In nearly every clan the house has
to be purified by the thempu besprinkling it with either consecrated water or zu, and in
many cases the funeral party are similarly purified. The Kolhen bury the bodies of those
who die natural deaths in front of their houses, as do the Lushais, and the funeral feast
closely resembles that held by the Lushais. The body of a khul-lakpa is carried three
times round his memorial stone, from left to right. A bow and arrow are placed in the
grave. The village is “sherh” for three days for any death. The Lamgang follow the same
customs as the Anal, but the bodies of women who die in childbirth are not buried in the
graveyard. The Kom and the Purum have the curious custom that the duty of digging the
grave in case of an unnatural death falls on the son-in-law of the deceased. They say that
the spirit of the dead cries out at the place where he met his death until appeased by an
offering of tobacco leaves and rice. The Tikhup funeral is exactly the same as that of an
ordinary Lushai. The Vaiphei dress up the corpse and strap it on to a bamboo frame, as
do the Lushais, and feast around it for three days if food and drink suffice for so long. At
the end of the feast the thempu pours some zu down the throat of the corpse and bids the
spirit go in peace, and the body is carried to the grave, but if the deceased has attained
Thangchhuah honours, it is first earned round the village. The household of the deceased
abstain from washing or dressing the hair till some wild animal has been killed. The
custom of giving something to the maternal grandfather or uncle on the occasion of a
death, known among the Lushais as “lukawng,” is found among several clans. Among
the Tikhup and Kolhen, for instance, he receives the neck of the animal killed on the
occasion of the funeral, and in the last-named clan he also receives a pipe or Rs. 2/-. The
custom known among the Kabui and other allied tribes in Manipur as “mandu,” which
ordains that a widower shall pay his deceased wife’s father a certain sum as the price of
her bones, is only found among the Kolhen, with whom it is usual to pay Rs. 5/- or 6/-.
Among the Kolhen a child dying within ten days of its birth is buried under the eaves of
the house, and is called “thichhiat” equivalent to the “hlamzuih” among the Lushais.

1. Connected with Crops.—The Tikhup, the only monotheistic clan in the hills,
Festivals.
have no ceremonies connected with the crops, but allow no dancing, singing, or music in
the village between the sowing and the reaping.

Among the other Old Kuki clans there is a great resemblance between the festivals, and
their connection with the Lushai “Kuts” can be easily traced—in some cases, as among
the Kom, the name being actually the same.

A festival which is common to several clans and generally takes place in the spring,
though sometimes later, and is supposed to ensure good crops and good luck generally, is
known by various similar names, all meaning “Pulling the Creeper.”

Kolhen “Keidun” Festival.—This occurs in April. The first day, called “Karamindai,” or
“Changritakhoi,” is occupied by the young men going off to bring in two long creepers.
A fowl and a pig are sacrificed and the creepers are hung over a post. On the next day
the creepers are brought to the khul-lakpa’s stone, and he, saying certain charms, pours
out a libation of rice beer, and then a tug of war takes place between two parties selected
as follows:—On one side are all the young men of the khul-lakpa’s family—viz., the
Chongthu—and on the other those of the Jete, to which the lup-lakpa belongs. With the
Chongthu pull the young men of the following families—viz., Tulthung, Maite, Tiante,
Laishel, Songchungnung, while with the Jete are associated the young men of the
Lunglai, Rembual, Mirem Tumtin, and Vanbie. The girls of each family pull on the
opposite side to the young men of their family. While the pull is in progress the khul-
lakpa sings a song, and when he reaches a certain point the rope is cut in two by a man
who stands waiting with a dao. The pull is repeated with the second creeper, and each
party carries off the ends it has retained. Marriages are only allowed between the young
people who pull on the same side, with the exception of the Chongthu, who, being of the
chief’s family, may marry a girl of any family except their own. During the festival no
work of any sort must be done, but otherwise there are no restrictions as regards
villagers or strangers, but the khul-lakpa must abstain from work and from cohabitation
for two or three days before. Should a death occur a day or two before the date fixed for
the festival, the fact will not be recognised till the completion of the feast, when the
funeral ceremonies will take place as if the death had occurred on that day, the corpse
being kept outside the village during the interval.

The Anal and Lamgang, as usual, observe the festival in a similar manner. The creeper
having been brought to the gate of the village, the headmen and the thempu receive it,
and the latter, muttering prayers, pours over it a libation of rice beer, and then ties a piece
of it to the gate. The remainder is cut up and a piece is tied to each house in the village.
The thempu goes round at night throwing a piece of turmeric into each house and calling
out as he throws each piece, “From to-day may all evil and misfortune run away from
this house.”1

The Purum celebrate the festival in August, and the unmarried girls take a prominent part
in the ceremony. A raised platform is made before the house of the eldest unmarried girl
in the village. (In a community where there is no dearth of husbands, and every girl is
sure of being married in due course, the prominence given to the eldest spinster is not
objected to as it might be in an English village.) On this platform the girls assemble, and
the creeper after the usual ceremonies is tied to the platform, and there is a great feast
with much dancing between the young folk.

The similarity between these festivals and the “Koi-hrui-an-chat,” mentioned under the
Ngente, bears out the truth of the tradition that these clans long ago were near
neighbours.

The Chiru at the time of cutting the jhums go in procession with drums and gongs to the
place chosen and on their return drink much rice beer. In March or April, before the
sowing, a festival called “Arem” is celebrated. On the first day a dog is killed at a stone
to the west of the village, and a pig to the north in the direction of the hill Kobru. All the
men attend, but no women. The animals are killed by the thempu. The flesh is eaten
there by the whole party, and the “sherh” are left at the place of sacrifice. There is then a
drinking party in the house of the thempu. On the second day all the young men go and
catch fish, and on their return they are entertained with two pots of rice beer by the
unmarried girls. On the third day the lup-lakpa gives a feast of meat and rice, washed
down by much rice beer, to the men only, and later all dance in front of the “chhirbuk”—
i.e., Lushai zawlbuk.

The fourth day is spent in visiting each other, drinking and singing at each other’s
houses. As soon as it is dark men and women meet before the chhirbuk and dance round
the stone drinking; then they go to the lup-lakpa’s house and drink again, and then to a
house where all the unmarried girls are collected and drink again, and then bring the
girls to the chhirbuk and dance round the stone again, drinking as they go. This is a
pretty heavy day’s work, and it speaks well for the young folk if many of them have the
energy to complete the programme by drinking and dancing together on the fifth day.
During the festival the village is “sherh.”

The Chawte, before cutting their jhums, sacrifice a pig and go down to the stream and
sharpen their daos—“Trust in God, but keep your powder dry.” The above festivals
correspond to the “Chap-chār-kut” of the Lushais, and the following resemble the “Mim-
kut.” The Purum in September observe “Chulkut” for five days, making and exchanging
rice cakes and drinking rice beer, but not sacrificing any animals. The Kolhen observe
“Chamershi” for two days in the middle of the rains—viz., in July or August. A pig and a
cock are sacrificed in the khul-lakpa’s house and eaten there by men only. Old men
dance, and rice beer is drunk. This feast is supposed to expel evil spirits. The Chiru in
July sacrifice a pig on behalf of the village to Pathian, while each household offers him a
fowl. This feast is called the “feast of the hot season rest”—i.e., the few days of leisure
after the second weeding of the crops.

The Aimol, after burning the jhums, celebrate a feast they call “Lo-an-dai.” Three fowls
are killed and eaten in the khulpu’s house, and rice beer is drunk, but no gong-beating or
singing is allowed.

After the harvest, feasts corresponding to the Lushai “Polkut” are held, but among the
Purum a feast called “Shanghong” has to be celebrated in October, just when the grain is
filling in the ear. Every householder has to bring a small sheaf of the green rice, which is
presented to the village god, and feasting and drinking goes on for three days, during
which time the village is “sherh.” The Kolhen, before reaping the crop, carry the khul-
lakpa or lup-lakpa out of the village towards the fields with beating of drums, and later
drink at his expense.

The Kom call the harvest festival “Lam-kut.” It lasts three days. No sacrifice is
performed, but the young men and girls dance and drink together.

Among the Chawte the custom is practically the same as among the Purum, save that the
feast only lasts one day.

The Lamgang and Anal harvest festival is practically the same. In each case the best crop
in the village is reaped by the whole community going to the field with dance and song,
and subsequently the lucky owner of the crop has to entertain the village for three days.
It would appear that all good Lamgangs and Anals must pray to have the second best
crop. On the second day of the feast the consumption of meat and tobacco, the carrying
of water and wood, and working with axes or hoes are tabu. The feast closely resembles
the “Buh-Ai” of other clans. The Aimol custom is very different from that of the other
clans. All the men go out in search of game, the flesh of which is eaten in the evening,
and drums are beaten and songs sung while the rice beer circulates freely, in contrast to
the feast at the sowing time. Dancing is, however, tabu. The harvest feast is called
“Sherh an long.”

The Lamgang have an extra feast, or rather period of rest, when the grain is all garnered,
when for ten days no one may enter or leave the village, and no work can be done, the
whole energies of the community being concentrated on eating and drinking well.

2. Feasts Corresponding with the Thangchhuah Feasts of the Lushai.—The idea of

“Thangchhuah” is found in some form or other in all clans. Even in those clans who
have no very clear conception of a special abode for the spirits of those who have earned
good fortune in the world beyond the grave by feasts and killing men and animals here
below, we find feasts the giving of which confers on the giver special consideration
among his fellow-villagers and entitles his corpse to special funeral honours. All these
feasts seem more or less connected with the erection of some form of memorial—either
a post, such as the Lushai “she-lu-pun,” which finds its counterpart among several Old
Kuki clans, but among them the erection of the memorial is the important part of the
ceremony, whereas among the Lushais the killing of the animal is the more important
and the feast is named after that, not after the planting of the post; or a stone or a heap of
stones, or a paved platform. All these are erected during a man’s life and are quite
distinct from the memorials erected in memory of the deceased, and thus connect the
Lushai-Kuki race with the Nagas, among whom the erection of stones is a very
important function.

The “Mi-thi-rawp-lām” is not included in the Thangchhuah series by any of these clans
—in fact, it seems to be omitted by all clans not living under Lushei chiefs. These all
have a special annual ceremony to lay the ghosts of those who have died during the
preceding year. The explanation of this seems to be that among the Lushais the clans
have all been broken up and are scattered in different villages, and therefore an annual
clan ceremony is not possible, and it has become a virtuous act for some wealthy
member of the clan to celebrate the feast in honour of the dead of the clan. Among the
clans which have retained their corporate existence the annual ceremony is natural, and
therefore it is excluded from the Thangchhuah series.

The Tikhup can earn consideration after death by giving a single feast. The young men
and maidens collect a big heap of stones and arrange a seat of honour near it for the
giver of the feast, who is carried down on a litter. The young folk dance and sing and
drink before him, and then he is carried back to the village and has to present a mithan to
the young men, who feast on it for a day and a night at the house of their leader. A song
is composed in honour of the giver of the feast, which is sung at all subsequent feasts.

The Lamgang, Kom, Kolhen, and Anal put up wooden posts, the Chawte erect a post and
pave a piece of ground in front of it, while the Aimol put up a stone and make a
pavement. Mithan and pigs are killed, and a feast given which lasts several days, the cost
being met by the person ambitious of fame.

The Chiru alone seem to have no idea of Thangchhuah, and, as noted before, have no
idea of a special abode for good spirits.

The Vaiphei have to give two feasts, at the first of which one, and at the second two or
more, mithan are killed. The Kolhen, on occasion of putting up the post, sacrifice a
mithan thus:—The thempu first throws an egg at the forehead of the mithan, muttering a
charm to drive away all evil; the animal is then speared until blood is drawn, after which
it may be shot. They also give the following feasts as part of the Thangchhuah
ceremonies:—“Khuang-that”—i.e., “making a drum.” The first day is occupied in
bringing the log which is to be hollowed into the drum; on the second there is a dance
outside the house of the giver of the feast; on the third the mithan is killed after a thempu
has broken the egg on its forehead, and then another thempu invokes its spirit, blowing
rice-beer over the body, as at the Fanai festival, p. 138. The fourth and fifth days are
occupied with feasting.

“Lungainai”—i.e., “collection of stones”—this is very similar to the Tikhup festival,

with the carrying of the giver omitted; a mithan is killed as above described. The Aimol
have also the drum-making feast, and another in which the giver is carried on a litter, but
no heap of stones is made. On each occasion much rice-beer and flesh has to be
consumed.

3. Other Feasts.—Mostly annual, if necessary provisions are forthcoming. Some of

these probably have reference to the crops.

The Purum celebrate “Yarr” in February for seven days. Dancing begins each evening at
sundown, and is kept up all night with feasting and drinking. In March they keep
“Kumyai” for three days, the young men and maidens dancing and drinking together, but
no animals are killed. This seems probably equivalent to the “Chap-chār-kut” of the
Lushais, but both it and the Yarr are said to be to please the village god, without any
special reference to the crops. The Lamgang have a peculiar feast early in May, when the
young men plant a very tall bamboo, from the end of which hangs a wooden
representation of a bird, at which every man in turn, commencing with the thempu and
the khul-lakpa, shoot with bows and arrows. Mithan are killed and eaten. No woman is
allowed to join this festival.

The Chiru and Kolhen celebrate a somewhat similar festival called “Ratek” in the middle
of August. A pig and a dog are sacrificed by the thempu outside the village, on the side
towards Kobru, and then two or three days later an offering of zu is placed in a small
bamboo tube beside the water supply, and the drum is beaten for some time; the party
then return to the khul-lakpa’s house and are treated to a drink. The following day a tall
bamboo is planted in the village with a wonderfully ornamented basket hanging from it,
and much zu drunk. The following year the bamboo is taken up and thrown away, the
festival being named “Ratek poiyi” (cf. Lushai “pai,” to throw away). Before the feast
young men go hunting, and if they are successful good luck is sure to follow. The first
day of the feast a pig and a dog are sacrificed, and zu drunk; on the second, the bamboo
is thrown away and more zu drunk in the house of the khul-lakpa. On the third day the
unmarried girls of the village give a drinking feast to the young men, and both dance
together. Should the zu suffice this portion of the festival may be prolonged for several
days.

It is believed that unless these two festivals are carried out every year in their proper
rotation, there will be serious mortality among the elders of the village.

Since writing the above, I have found two more small clans, which evidently belong to
the Old Kuki group—Lonte or Ronte, of whom there are only nine households, living
alongside of the Burma road, close to the Chawte hamlet, with whom they are classed by
the Manipuris; and Tarau, eighteen households living slightly to the south of the Burma
road.

The Ronte clan is divided into two families, called Lanu and Changom. Marriages can
only be made with members of the other family of the clan. They say that they came
from the Ngente hill far to the south (v. Ngente clan), and claim some connection with
the Chiru and Aimol.

The Tarau clan is divided into four families, and marriages are restricted as among the
Chawte, Chiru, and Kolhen.

A youth of the Pachana family must marry a girl of the Tlangsha family.

A youth of the Tlangsha family must marry a girl of the Thimasha family.

A youth of the Thimasha family must marry a girl of the Khulpu-in family.

A youth of the Khulpu-in family must marry a girl of the Pachana family.

In both clans the young men sleep in any house, except their parents’, in which there are
unmarried girls. The Ronte say that formerly they built zawlbuks like the Lushais.

The price of a Tarau girl is a gong or Rs. 30/-, or five years service in the girl’s father’s
house. The Ronte maiden’s price is two gongs, and her proper husband is her maternal
first cousin. In both clans a fowl has to be killed by the khulpu at the time of the
marriage, and the Ronte tie some of its feathers round the necks of the couple. Should a
Tarau maiden be led astray both parties are fined a pot of rice-beer, which the villagers
share, and the seducer pays the girl’s father one pig. The child, when old enough to leave
the mother, becomes the property of the father. A Ronte mother must not leave her house
till five days after the birth of a daughter and seven after that of a son. On the day of the
birth there is a feast, and on the fifth or seventh day, according to the sex of the child, a
fowl is killed by the khulpu, and the child’s hair is cut, its ears pierced, and its name
decided on, the choice being made from the names of its forefathers. The house is
purified by being sprinkled with zu by the khulpu.
Among the Tarau, the period during which the mother may not leave her house is
prolonged to ten days, at the expiry of which the khulpu kills a cock for male child and a
hen for girl, and then purifies the house.

In both clans the dead are buried in a cemetery situated to the west of the village, while
the corpses of those who have died unnatural deaths are buried elsewhere with no
ceremony. Women dying in childbirth among the Tarau are buried by old men, who have
no further hope of becoming fathers, far from the village, while persons being killed by
wild animals, or by some accident, such as a fall from a tree, are buried where they die.
Persons who are drowned are buried on the bank of the river where the body is found,
the grave being dug at the spot where some water thrown up by hand from the river
happens to fall. This custom also exists among the Shans of the Upper Chindwin, which
lends some colour to the tradition that the Tarau sojourned in Burma before entering
Manipur. Among the Ronte, women dying in childbirth, and all children dying under a
year of age, are buried to the east of the village, while accidental deaths necessitate the
burial being made to the south. The funeral takes place on the day of death except in the
case of old men, whose corpses are kept for a day while their friends eat, drink, and
dance before them. Whatever animals can be spared are killed in the honour of the
deceased, and their sherh are buried with him, together with some rice. Every day till the
“Papek” feast, in honour of those who have died within the year, rice and zu are placed
on the grave. At Papek a platform of bamboo is constructed near the cemetery, and on it
are placed such offering of flesh as the family can afford; much zu is drunk and all
dance. The Ronte Sakhua sacrifice consists of a goat, dogs and mithan being prohibited.

Although the Tarau, from their language, are evidently closely allied to the Lushais, they
are the only Old Kuki clan I have met which does not worship Pathian. They denied all
knowledge of that name, affirming the name of their god was “Rāpu,” to whom the
Manipuri name of “Sankhulairenma” has been given. Rāpu has a shrine just above the
Burma road near to Tegnopal, where every year fish, rice, and zu are offered to him.
When the rice begins to fill in the ear there is a five days’ feast in the village, during
which time the young people dance and drink. A pig is killed, and the liver, ears, feet,
and snout are offered to Rāpu. These are called “sar” (cf. Lushai “sherh”). Before the
cutting of jhums commences a small pig or a fowl is sacrificed to Rāpu so that no one
may be cut with a dao during the clearing of the jhums. Dogs are not eaten or sacrificed
by the Tarau or the Ronte; the latter also consider the mithan unfit for a sacrifice. In
these particulars they form an exception to the general custom of Kuki clans.

The Ronte have a feast called “Va-en-la,” which is given with the idea of enhancing the
giver’s importance in this world and assuring him comfort in the next. A pig is killed and
thirty pots of zu are prepared, and the whole village makes merry. A long bamboo is
planted in front of the house of the giver of the feast. Throughout its length this bamboo
is transfixed with crosspieces of bamboo about 18 inches long; from its end depends a
bamboo representation of a bird, whence the name of the feast—“va,” in Ronte, as in
Lushai, meaning “a bird,” and “en,” “to see.”

To show the similarity between the Tarau and the Lushai language I give a few words of
each.

English. Lushai. Tarau.

One Pa-khat Khat.
Two Pa-hnih Ni.
Three Pa-thum Thum.
Four Pa-li Ma-li.
Five Pa-nga Ranga.
Six Pa-ruk Kuruk.
Seven Pa-sari Siri.
Eight Pa-riat Tirit.
Nine Pa-kua Ku.
Ten Shom Shom.
Father Pa Pa.
Mother Nu Nu.
Son Fa-pa Sha-pa. (Thado, “chapa.”)
Daughter Fa-nu Sha-nu.
House In Im.
Sun Ni Ni.
Moon Thla Thla.
Water Tui Tui. To carry water, “tui choi,” in both dialects.
Dog Ui Uh.
Mithan Shial Shil.
Tree Thing Thing.
Jhum Lo Lou.

The east and west in Tarau are called “ni-chhuak-lam” and “ni-thlak-lam,” which are
pure Lushai for “the direction of sun rising and sun setting.”

Folklore.
1. Legends.—A large number of tales have been collected by Babu Nithor Nath Banerji,
of the Manipur State Office, from which I select the following. They have all to a certain
extent suffered by being told to the Babu in Manipuri instead of in the vernacular of the
relaters. This accounts for Manipuri names being used in some cases.

The following is a tale told by the Anals:—“Once upon a time the whole world was
flooded. All were drowned except one man and one woman, who ran to the highest peak
of the Leng hill [this is interesting, as Leng is the name of one of the highest hills in the
present Lushai Hills], where they climbed up a high tree and hid themselves among its
branches. The tree grew near a large pond, which was as clear as the eye of a crow. They
made themselves as comfortable as they could, being determined to spend the night
there. They passed the night, sometimes exchanging whispers, and in the morning they
were astonished to find that they had become a tiger and a tigress. [This changing of
human beings into animals reminds one of the Lushai Thimzing legend.] Pathian, seeing
the sad state of the world, sent a man and a woman from a cave, which was on the hill, to
re-people it. The man and the woman emerging from the cave were terrified at seeing the
two huge animals, and addressed Pathian thus: ‘O Father, you have sent us to re-people
the world, but we do not think that we shall be able to carry out your intention, as the
whole world is under water, and the only spot on which we could make a resting place is
occupied by two ferocious beasts which are waiting to devour us; give us strength to slay
these animals.’ After which they killed the tigers and lived happily and begat many sons
and daughters, and from them the world was re-populated.”

The following tale told by the Kolhen resembles in many particulars the story of
Kungori told by Colonel Lewin, which is given below:—

The Story of Fachirang and Rangchar.

“Once upon a time there lived a widow; she had a daughter whose beauty attracted many
young men of the village. One day a tiger came in the shape of a man and asked to marry
the girl. She was much frightened and kept silence. The tiger-man was angry at her
behaviour, and recited a charm which made her ugly. Her mother said, ‘Look! my
daughter who was the most beautiful girl in the village has become ugly; if a man can
restore her beauty he may marry her, and if a woman can do it she shall be my friend.’
On hearing this, the tiger-man came to the old woman and said, ‘Oh! Granny, I am a
stranger, and have come from a distant village; let me put up in your house.’ The old
lady agreed, and after a few days he said, ‘Oh! Granny, why are you so sad? Tell me the
cause of your sorrow. Perhaps I can remove it.’ ‘Alas, my boy, it is beyond your power
to do so,’ she replied. The tiger-man, however, pressed her to tell him, and at last she did
so, whereupon he replied, ‘All right, if I cure her you will give her to me,’ and in a few
days he had restored her beauty, and they were married and lived together in her
mother’s house for many years. At length he asked permission to take his wife to his
own home, and they started, but no sooner had they passed the village gate than he was
changed into the shape of a tiger, and his wife wept much at seeing him thus. An old
woman of the village saw them and came and told the people that a tiger was carrying
off the girl, so the villagers assembled to consult, but no one would volunteer for the task
of rescuing the girl. At last Fachirang and Rangchar, two brothers, set off with a dao and
a spear to kill the animal, but after going a very little way Fachirang, the elder brother,
said, ‘Oh! Rangchar, I don’t know what is the matter, but my heart beats so fast that I
must remain here; you go and see if you can kill the beast alone.’ So the younger brother
went on alone till he came to the place where the tiger and the girl were living happily.
Rangchar thrust his spear into the breast of the tiger, and it died at once, and Rangchar
carried off the girl and returned to where his brother was waiting, and they all three set
out for home together. The elder brother married the girl, and they all lived happily
together.”

The Story of Kúngóri.

(From “Progressive Colloquial Exercises in the Lushai Dialect” by Captain H. Lewin,

1874.)

Her father, who was unmarried, was splitting cane to make a winnowing basket when he
ran a splinter into his hand: the splinter grew into a little child; (after a time) the child
was brought forth motherless and they called her Kúngóri. They fed her with single
grains of millet and rice, and so little by little she grew big. Two or three years passed by
and she attained puberty; she was very pretty, and all the young-men of the village
wanted to marry her, but her father refused them all. Then the young tiger-man, Keimi,
took up the impression of her foot and wrapped it up and placed it on the bamboo
grating over the house fire to dry. Then Kúngóri became ill.

Kúngóri’s father said, “If there be anyone that can cure her, he shall have my daughter.”
All the villagers tried, but not one of them could do any good. Then the young tiger-man
came. “I will cure her, and I will marry her afterwards,” said he. Her father said, “Cure
the girl first and you may then have her.”

So he cured her; the footprint which he had placed to dry on the fire-shelf he opened out
and threw away. Kúngóri became well and Keimi married her. “Come, Kúngóri,” said
he, “will you go to my house?” So they went; on the road Keimi turned himself into a
tiger, Kúngóri caught hold of his tail, and they ran like the wind. Some women of the
village were gathering wood and they saw this, so they went back home and said to
Kúngóri’s father, “Your daughter has got a tiger for a husband.” Kúngóri’s father said,
“Whoever can go and take Kúngóri may have her,” but no one dared to take her.
However, Hpohtir and Hrangchal, two friends, said, “We will take her.” Kúngóri’s father
said, “If you are able to take her you may have her,” so Hpohtir and Hrangchal set off.
Going on they came to Keimi’s village. The young tiger-man, Keimi, had gone out
hunting; before he reached his house Hpohtir and Hrangchal went to Kúngóri.
“Kúngóri,” said they, “where is your husband?” “He is gone out hunting,” she said, “but
will be home directly.” On this they became afraid, and Hpohtir and Hrangchal climbed
up on to the top of the high fire-shelf. Kúngóri’s husband arrived. “There is the smell of
a human being,” said he. “It must be my smell,” said Kúngóri. Night fell; everyone ate
their dinners and lay down to rest. In the morning Kúngóri’s husband again went out to
hunt. A widow said (to the two friends), “If you are going to run away with Kúngóri take
fire-seed, thorn-seed, and water-seed (with you).” So they took fire-seed, thorn-seed, and
water-seed, and they took Kúngóri also and carried her off.

Kúngóri’s husband returned home. He looked and found Kúngóri was gone, so he
followed after them in hot haste. A little bird called to Hrangchal. “Run! run! Kúngóri’s
husband will catch you,” said the bird. So (the friends) scattered the fire-seed, and the
jungle and undergrowth burnt furiously, so that Kúngóri’s husband could not come any
further. When the fire subsided he again resumed the pursuit.

The little bird cried to Hrangchal, “He is catching you up.” So they scattered the water-
seed, and a great river rose. However, Kúngóri’s husband waited for the water to go
down, and when the water went down he followed after them as before.

The bird said to Hrangchal, “He is after you again—he is fast gaining on you; sprinkle
the thorn-seed,” and thorns sprouted in thickets, so that Kúngóri’s husband could not get
on. By biting and tearing the thorns he at length made a way. and again he followed after
them. Hrangchal’s2 party became bewildered and hid in a clump of reeds. Hpohtir cut
the tiger down dead with a blow of his dao. “I am Hpohtir,”2 said he. So the tiger died.

Hrangchal and the others went on again until they came to the three cross-roads of
Khuavang, and there they stopped. Hpohtir and Hrangchal were to keep guard turn
about. Hrangchala went to sleep first while Hpohtir kept watch.

At night Khuavang came. “Who is staying at my cross-roads?” he said. Hpohtira (spoke

out boldly). “Hpohtira and Hrangchala (are here),” said he, “crouching under the reeds.
We cut off the tiger’s head without much ado.” Khuavang, hearing and becoming afraid,
ran off. So Hpohtira (woke up Hrangchal, saying), “Hrangchal, get up; you stay awake
now. I am very sleepy; I will lie down. If Khuavang comes you must not be afraid.”
Having said this he slept. Hrangchala watched; presently Khuavang returned. “Who is
this staying at my cross-roads?” he said. Hrangchala was frightened; (however), he
replied, “Hpohtira and Hrangchala (are here); they killed the tiger that followed them
among the reed-roots.” But Khuavang was not to be frightened by this, so he took
Kúngóri. Kúngóri marked the road, trailing behind her a line of cotton thread. They
entered into a hole in the earth, and so arrived at Khuavang’s village. The hole in the
earth was stopped up by a great stone. In the morning Hpohtir and Hrangchala began to
abuse each other. Said Hpohtira to Hrangchal, “Fool man!” said he, “where has Kúngóri
gone to? On account of your faintheartedness Khuavang has carried her off. Away! you
will have to go to Khuavang’s village.” So they followed Kúngóri’s line of white thread
and found that the thread entered (the earth) under a big rock. They moved away the
rock and saw Khuavang’s village below them. Hpohtira called out, “Hoy! give me back
my Kúngóri!” Khuavang replied, “We know nothing about your Kúngóri, whom you
were taking away.” “If you do not (immediately) give me Kúngóri I will use my dao,”
said Hpohtir. “Hit away,” answered Khuavang. With one cut of the dao a quarter of the
village died right off. Again Hpohtir cried, “Give me my Kúngóri,” Khuavang said,
“Your Kúngóri is not here.” On this Hpohtir and Hrangchal said, “We will come in.”
“Come along,” said Khuavang, so they went in and came to Khuavang’s house.
Khuavang’s daughter was a very pretty girl. “Here is Kúngóri,” said they. “This is not
she,” said Hpohtir; “give me Kúngóri herself.” So (at last) they gave her to him.

They took her away. Kúngóri said, “I have forgotten my comb.” “Go, Hrangchal, and
fetch it,” said Hpohtir; but Hrangchala—“I dare not. I am afraid,” said he. So Hpohtir
went (himself) to fetch (the comb). While he was gone Hrangchal took Kúngóri out and
closed the hole with the great stone. After this they arrived at the house of Kúngóri’s
father. “You have been able to release my daughter,” said he, “so take her.” Kúngóri,
however, did not agree. Said Kúngóri’s father, “Hrangchal is here, but where is
Hpohtira?” “We do not know Hpohtira’s dwelling-place,” he said. So Hrangchala and
Kúngóri were united. Though Kúngóri did not wish it, he just married her.

Hpohtira was married to Khuavang’s daughter. Beside the house he sowed a koi-seed. It
sprouted and a creeper sprang (upwards like a ladder). Hpohtira, when he was at
Khuavang’s, had a child (born to him), and he cooked some small stones, and when his
wife was absent he gave the stones which he had cooked to the child, saying, “Eat.”
While it was eating Hpohtir climbed up the stalks of the koi creeper and got out. He
went on and arrived at the house of Kúngóri’s father. They had killed a mithan, and were
celebrating the Khuangchoi and dancing. With one blow Hpohtira cut off the head of
Hrangchal!

Kúngóri’s father cried, “Why, Hpohtira, do you cut off Hrangchala’s head?” “I was
obliged to decapitate him,” said Hpohtir. “It was I who released Kúngóri from Keimi’s
village—Hrangchala dared not do it. When Khuavang carried off Kúngóri also
Hrangchala dared not say him nay—he was afraid. Afterwards we followed Kúngóri’s
line of cotton thread, which led us to Khuavang’s village. Kúngóri (after we had released
her from there) forgot her comb; we told Hrangchal to go and fetch it, but he dared not.
‘I am afraid,’ said he, so I went to get it. He then took Kúngóri and left me behind,
shutting the hole in the earth with a great stone. They went away. I married Khuavang’s
daughter, and while she was absent I climbed up the stalks of the creeper and came
here.” On this, “Is it so?” said they. “Then you shall be united.” So Hrangchala died, and
Hpohtira and Kúngóri were married. They were very comfortable together, and killed
many mithan; they possessed many villages, and lived happy ever after. Thus the story is
concluded.

I condense the following tale told by the Kolhen from the obviously embellished version
supplied to the Babu:—

A widow had seven sons and one daughter, called Ringchanghoi, who was very
beautiful, and much beloved by her brothers. To prove the truth of their professions of
love she sent them off to catch the sun and the moon, that she might wear them as her
necklace. Before their departure they built her a fortified house, and told her to remain
within it until their return. They also left with her some unhusked rice, which had
magical properties, turning red whenever the brothers were in danger. Ringchanghoi one
day was sitting in the verandah cleaning her hair when she was seen by the king, who
quickly added her to the number of his wives. The youngest brother, returning alone,
found the house empty, and at once rejoining the others in the sky, where they were still
hunting the sun and moon, told them of the disappearance of their sister. They all
returned home, and on entering the house the youngest brother was changed into a
parrot, while the others fell down dead. The youngest brother finds his sister and is
captured and presented to her, and tells her what has happened, whereupon she sends off
her husband, who by a powerful charm restores the dead to life and the youngest brother
to his original form, and all ends happily.

In this tale there is some slight resemblance to the Lushai tale of Rimenhoi, as also there
is to the tales told by many clans to account for eclipses of the sun and moon. The Kom,
for instance, say that the god Awk-pa was drying his rice when the sun and the moon
came riding by and scattered it; this vexed Awk-pa, who lay in ambush in a cave, and the
next time they came he swallowed them. The resemblance between this tale and the
Lushai explanation of an eclipse is very marked. The name “Awk” is the same, and the
idea of swallowing is preserved. The Purum, while using the same word for an eclipse,
have quite a different story:—“Once upon a time there were seven brothers who went
into the forest to cut wood, and shot a deer, and ordered the youngest brother to cook it
while they went on with their work. The youngest brother, having cooked the meat, put it
on some leaves till his brothers should return. Some leaves from a tree fell on the meat,
whereupon the deer came to life again and ran away. The brothers returning got angry
and, not believing the tale told by the youngest, killed him and put his body under the
tree. Some leaves falling on the corpse, it came to life, and the brothers were much
astonished and went home, taking some of the leaves, roots, and bark of the tree with
them.” On their way they saw the body of a dog floating in a river which they had to
cross, and put some bark on it and the animal revived. When they reached home they put
the bark, leaves, and pieces of root to dry in the sunshine, leaving their dog to watch
them. The sun and the moon, perceiving the usefulness of the things, stole them all and
were chased by the dog. When the dog gets too near, the sun and the moon hide, thus
causing eclipses. The Kolhen have the same name for an eclipse, and their explanation
of the phenomenon is much the same. The god Rikumpu left his dog to watch his
garden, and the sun and the moon came to steal, and are still being chased by the faithful
hound. The Lamgang say that eclipses are caused by their god catching the sun and the
moon, who once stole his tobacco as it was drying. The Anal have much the same idea.
The story is worthy of being given at length:—“Once upon a time a very pious man who
devoted much time to worshipping God had a pet bitch. The sun and the moon, being
envious, tried to take his virtue from the man. To accomplish their wicked purpose they
promised to give him their virtue if only he would first entrust them with his. The saint
fell into the trap and the celestial rascals ran off with his virtue. The holy man, finding
himself defrauded, ordered his dog to catch the thieves. The dog brought a long pole and
climbed up it to reach the fugitives, being followed by her master. She reached the sky
and still chases the sun and moon, and sometimes catches them. Therefore, when an
eclipse occurs the Anal call out, ‘Release! Release!’ The poor pious man took so long
ascending the pole that before he accomplished the journey the white ants had eaten up
the lower end and the saint fell to the earth and was killed.” Thunder and lightning are
accounted for by some clans thus:—Wulai the lizard climbs a tall tree and shouts
defiance, whereupon God from the sky hurls his axe at him and he runs down, but the
tree is burnt up. The Anal and Kom have also a more poetic explanation of lightning—
viz., that it is the glitter of God’s sword as he plays with it in heaven, while the Purum
also say that it is the glitter of his robes.

Earthquakes are accounted for by assuming the existence of another world below the
surface of the earth. The Purum and Kom say that Yangmal the earth worm took a
present of a piece of earth to the king of these lower regions. On the way the earth was
changed into gold and silver, much to the delight of the monarch, who sent Yangmal
back to fetch more, but the worm made excuse that the upper world had been destroyed.
To test the truth of this statement the king shakes the world. The Anal and Lamgang say
that the people of the lower world shake the upper one to find out if anyone is still alive
up there, and so on, an earthquake occurring the Anal and Lamgang villages resound
with shouts of “Alive! Alive!” Rainbows are accounted for as the lips of God spread in
the act of drinking, or simply his glory.

Note.—I must acknowledge the assistance I have received in preparing the account of these Old Kuki tribes
from Babu Nithor Nath Banerji, head clerk of the Manipur State Hill Office. My information regarding the
Anal, Kom, Purum, and Lamgang was chiefly from his notes, and in a lesser degree I am indebted to him for
details regarding the Kolhen and Chiru.

Heads of Kuki Clans.

Purum. Purum. Khawtlang.

Lamgang Man and Woman. Aimol.

 Heads of Kuki Clans.

Chiru. Nautch Helmet of Hide. Chiru. Chiru.

Rangte. Anal. Anal.

Old Kuki Clans—Khawtlang and Khawchhak

The Old Kukis who appeared in Cachar about 1780 are described by Lieutenant Stewart
as being divided into three clans called Rhangkol, Khelma, and Beteh. The first and last
are known in the Lushai Hills as Hrangchal and Biate respectively, but the Khelma,
whom Dr. Grierson identifies as the Hallam, seem to have emigrated entirely. The
Hrangchal and Biate are two of many clans collectively known to the Lushais as Hmar—
i.e., North—from the position of their villages with reference to those of the Lushais,
and among themselves as Khawtlang and Khawchhak—i.e., Western and Eastern
Villages I have found representatives of 16 clans in the Lushai Hills and adjoining
portions of Manipur. The most important are Loitlang, subdivided into six families;
Hrangchal, with four families; Thiak, with five families; and Biate, with the same
number. The old village sites of many of these clans are still called by their names. The
Hrangchal are said to have had a large village at Vanlaiphai, in the centre of which valley
is a large memorial stone with many carvings on it, which is said to have been erected in
memory of Chonluma, a famous Hrangchal chief of bygone days. The Biate assert that
when they lived on the hill of that name they were attacked by huge eagles, and had to
build stone shelters in which to hide their small children. These erections are still to be
seen, and consist of three rough slabs of stone with a fourth as a roof, the whole structure
being only about 2 to 3 feet high. It was the Biate, also, who fed Rulpui, as has been
described in Part I., Chapter V, 3. The Lungthau, a minor family, attribute their downfall
to an attack by Chuckmahs, which led to their seeking refuge with the Sailo chief
Lalsavunga, and forming a village at Kelsi, near Aijal, where they were under his
protection.

When the aggressions of the Thangur chiefs disturbed the Khawtlang and Khawchhak
one section fled through the country of the Thados into Cachar, another took refuge
among the Chhinchhuan, a Thado family in the southern portion of the Manipur Hills, to
whom they paid tribute, and a certain number joined the Thangur villages. Between
those who fled to the Chhinchhuan and the Lushais hostilities were carried on until our
arrival in 1890, and, as in the case of the Vuite, we found many of them living in a state
of semi-slavery in the Sailo villages, whence they have mostly rejoined their relatives,
and there are now 296 households of these people in the south-west of the Manipur Hills
and more in the adjoining parts of the Lushai Hills. Lieutenant Stewart, in his description
of the “Old Kukis,” states that ordinarily the dead are cremated, warriors only being
buried. I have never heard of any clan in these hills which cremates its dead. The custom
may well have died out owing to the natural wish of the relatives to do honour to the
deceased by according him the honours of a warrior. Lieutenant Stewart describes a
regular marriage ceremony conducted by the headman of the village, at the foot of a
large stone erected in the middle of the village. As far as my enquiries go, the marriage
ceremonies differ very little from those of the Lushais.

The dress of the men is the same as among the Lushais, but the women wear a petticoat
with a broad white line between two narrower blue ones, and dress their hair in a long
plait wound round the head. Zawlbuks are not maintained, but in other respects their
villages resemble those of the Lushais. The village organisation is more democratic, the
chief being replaced by a headman. The honours of “Thangchhuah” and admission to
Pial-ral are obtained by three times celebrating the Buh-ai festival. There is no restriction
as to having windows.

When a young man wishes to marry he sends messengers bearing a blue and a white
cloth, a hoe, and a pot of liquor to the girl’s parents. This is called “In hawn.” If the
articles are accepted the marriage takes place as soon as the necessary amount of zu can
be prepared. The bride’s parents kill a pig and the two families feast together. The girl is
conveyed to her husband’s house by the men who arranged the marriage, the party being
pelted with dirt as among the Lushais.

In case of adultery, it is the seducer, not the woman’s relatives, who have to compensate
the injured husband. This is the common rule among non-Lushei clans.

A boy is named seven days and a girl five days after birth, a red cock being killed and zu
drunk. The maternal uncle gives the name.

In common with many Old Kuki clans, the dead are buried in a special cemetery outside
the village. The corpse of a “Thangchhuah,” dressed in fine cloths and the head adorned
with a chaplet of the tail feathers of the hornbill, is carried round the village on a bier by
all the old people of both sexes, encircled by a ring of dancers singing a dirge to the
accompaniment of drums, and followed by the widow dressed in the scantiest rags and
raising loud lamentations. A halt is called opposite the house of every person of
importance, and the inmate is expected to regale the party with zu. The circuit of the
village completed, the corpse is carried to the grave and buried with rice and other
eatables and a flagon of zu. A rough representation of a house is built over the grave and
food and drink are placed in it for a year. The grave is fenced round and the heads of any
animals which have been killed in the deceased’s honour are placed on posts. At the
close of a year a cane is stretched between poles over the grave, and from it are
suspended pieces of cloth, small baskets containing tobacco and linseed, and the bodies
of small animals and birds. This is the final ceremony, and the spirit is supposed to have
no further concern with this world.

The Biate in the Lushai Hills worship the images in the Bhuban caves, but I am told that
those in the North Cachar Hills differ in this respect. The three images are called
Bolawng Raia, Chhinga Raia, and Maituki Raia, Raia being a corruption of Rajah. A
fowl, a pig, two eggs, and two kinds of jungle vegetable called “chinghrut” and
“hruitung” are offered to these deities outside the village once a year. The following tale
is told to account for this worship of images, which is so opposed to general custom:—
Long ago Zatea stole a mithan belonging to two Biate chiefs, Chonlut and Manlal, and
on their trying to recover their property they were severely wounded. On their way home
they noticed that the leaves of the “bung” tree, a species of Ficus, attached themselves to
their clothes, and at night they dreamt that the leaves spoke, saying, “Do not throw us
away; we are sent by the gods of the Bhuban caves to heal you.” They applied the leaves
to their wounds and were soon healed, and then set off in search of these new gods.3 It is
probable that in the course of their wanderings the Biate at one time lived near the
Bhuban, and in that case their adopting the figures as local deities is quite in keeping
with what has happened in other clans. Thus the Chiru worship the god of Kobru, though
their settlement near that hill is of recent date. The Zote, a clan very closely allied to the
Biate, after sacrificing a mithan, place bung leaves in a basket at the foot of the
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