1849.] Kdcch, Bodo and Dhimdl people. 731 



that Pochima and Timai have a two-fold character, one of river gods 

 (Dhorla and Tishta), and one of supreme gods ; and that they are 

 adored, separately, in these two characters, the Pochima paka or home 

 rite of October, being appropriated to them in the latter capacity, or 

 that of supreme gods. I have not witnessed the Pochima paka, and 

 therefore speak with hesitation. The Ai hiino* is performed as follows. 

 The friends and family being assembled, including as many persons as 

 the master of the house can afford to feast, the Deoshi or priest enters 

 the enclosure or yard of the house, in the centre of which is invariably 

 planted a Sij or Euphorbia, as the representative of Batho, who is the 

 family as well as national god of the Bodo. To Batho thus represented 

 the Deoshi offers prayers, and sacrifices a cock. He then proceeds into 

 the house, adores Mainou and sacrifices to her a hog. Next, the priest, 

 the family and all the friends proceed to some convenient and pleasant 

 spot in the vicinity, previously selected, and at which a little temporary 

 shed has been erected as an altar, and there, with due ceremonies, an- 

 other hog is sacrificed to Agrang, a he-goat to Manasho and to Biili, 

 and a fowl, duck or pigeon (black, red, or white, according to the special 

 and well known taste of each god) to each of the remaining nine of the 

 Nooni madai. The blood of the sacrifice belongs to the gods — the flesh 

 to his worshippers, and these now hold a high feast, at which beer and 

 tobacco are freely used to animate the joyous conclave, but not spirits 

 nor opium, nor hemp. The goddess Mainou is represented in the interior 

 of each house by a bamboo post about 3 feet high, fixed in the ground, 

 and surmounted by a small earthen cup filled with rice. Before this 

 symbol is the great annual sacrifice of the hog above noted, performed ; 

 and before this, the females of the family, once a month t make offerings 

 of eggs. For the males, due attention to the four annual festivals is 

 deemed sufficient in prosperous and healthful seasons. But sickness or 

 scarcity always beget special rites and ceremonies, suited to the circum- 

 stances of the calamity, and addressed more particularly to the elemen- 

 tal gods, if the calamity be drought or blight or devastations of wild 

 animals — to the household gods, if it be sickness. Hunters, likewise, 

 and fishers, when they go forth to the chase, sacrifice a fowl to the 

 Sylvan gods, to promote their success ; and lastly, those who have a 



* Ai or Aya, is the goddess Kamakya or Kamrup, vis genetrix naturae, typed by 

 the Bhaga or Yoni. 



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