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260 Visit to the Hills near the Soobanshiri River. QNo. 160. 



Next morning I proceeded to the village, and found them all busily en- 

 gaged in divination as to whether my visit was to bring them good or 

 evil. I was told that the auspices were favorable. A man sat apart 

 from the rest holding in both hands a puny chicken, and invoking all the 

 spirits of the woods by name. Those deities who delighted in the blood of 

 Myttons, and those who rejoiced in the slaughter of pigs ; those who 

 were propitiated by the sacrifice of fowls, or those who were content 

 with a vegetable offering, all are on such occasions invoked ; and after the 

 Chout is terminated, the chicken is cut open and the entrails examined, 

 from which they augur good or evil. Often as this " auspicium" to my 

 knowledge has failed them, they most pertinaciously adhere to the 

 practice ; and undertake no expedition, journey or work, without con- 

 sulting it. I was sketching, and when the " auspiciums" were being tak- 

 en, and when the ceremony was concluded, they sent to me to beg of 

 me to return to my hut to give audience. I desired for peace' sake to 

 give it where I sat ; but the Torbottiahs who wished to'pay their respects 

 in regular form, could not, they said, with propriety do so in Tema's vil- 

 lage. However, previous to deseeding I paid Tema's house a visit, to 

 which he made no objections. The house is seventy feet long, raised on 

 timbers, some perpendicularly and some diagonally placed, in which is 

 laid a platform of bamboos for a flooring. The roof has gable- ends, and is 

 pitched very high ; the thatch being composed of the leaves of a species 

 of cane as before mentioned. Under the gables a cross chopper covers 

 in an open balcony, one at each end. The interior consists of one 

 long apartment sixty feet by sixteen, from which a passage extending 

 the entire length is partitioned off. In the large apartment down the 

 centre no less than four fires were burning on hearths of earth. On 

 one side were ranged, with some appearance of order, their arms, 

 pouches, travelling apparatus, &c. ; another portion of the apartment 

 was decorated with trophies of the chase. In the centre between the 

 fires frames of bamboos suspended from the roof served as tables, 

 on which various domestic utensils were deposited. I had hoped that the 

 passage which was partitioned off from this apartment contained the 

 dormitories of the family, but on examination it was found to be the 

 mhud cellar. In it were ranged conical baskets lined with plantain 

 leaves, in which the mhud is fermented, and received in vessels placed 

 underneath : in the large apartment the whole family eat, drink and sleep. 



