ABORS AND GALONGS. 77 



Schoolcraft an exceedingly interesting example of this doctrine as it is definitely 

 believed by the Ojibwa Indians and follows it up by citing a Border parallel in the 

 grim Lyke Wake Dirge. 



The Galong and Dafla rites and beliefs are practically similar to those of the Abors. 

 On a man's death, so I was informed in the Galong country, a mithan is strangled and 

 the soul of the dead man adjured; " We have given you an animal, so trouble us no 

 more.' ' For the dead man might be angry if he had* none of his cattle with him. It 

 is held that he would, unless pacified by this offering, return to his own house in 

 company with the spirit who took his life, and slay the remainder of the household. 

 The animal sacrificed is eaten by the mourners who formed the funeral procession, 

 and the dead man's share is laid aside for him and he is told that it is his.' In the 

 case of a poor man, or a slave, a fowl is killed and thrown away, without being 

 eaten (according to the Abor practice). Apparently it has to be thrown from the left 

 hand. The well-to-do have metal utensils, rice, apong and a fire kept on their graves 

 for five days. The Dallas of the Subansiri Valley have the strongest possible horror 

 of being buried away from their homes. This is also noted by Dalton. I have found 

 no such prejudice amongst the Abors. Mishmi burial rites are not unlike the Galong 

 and Abor ceremonies described above, but it must be remembered that they 

 burn the bodies of people of importance and are said to throw dead slaves into 

 the river. These remarks apply especially to the Digaru and Meju tribes. A Chuli- 

 kata grave seen on the pathway and near a village in the Mishmi country was 

 described to me as a mound surrounded by a bamboo palisade about 6 foot high. 

 Hanging from this fence were two old bird-skins and a plantain leaf bag, which 

 was not investigated, but most probably contained grain for making wine. 



There is a general belief in the existence of an unseen world inhabited not only 



by the almost uniformly malevolent spirits of Nature, the 

 demons whom the tribesmen worship, but by the souls of 

 human beings and of animals, all of whom go to dwell with the spirits who deprived 

 them of life. The souls of the Abor miriis go to Boki and Bogo, of men to Kpom, 

 of women and hunters to Nipong, who are considered responsible for their deaths. 

 When animals are sacrificed their spirits go to the deities to whom they are devoted. 

 Mithan killed during funeral ceremonies go, it is believed, to the soul of the dead 

 owner, who lives with the spirit who took his life. All the spirits of animals eaten as 

 food during life accompany the dead person's spirit at death. Animals found dead 

 in the jungle, so I was told by the Minyongs, must have been deprived of life by some 

 spirit and to that deity the spirit of the animal goes at death. The Galongs told me 

 that if any one who is dead is seen in a dream, it is believed that the soul has died,* that 

 is to say, it has left the companionship of the spirit that took the life of its earthly body. 

 It is held that the soul may be born again into the company of some other spirit. 

 Whether this mutation can be repeated, or whether this regeneration brings the soul 



1 See Buddhism of Tibet, Waddell, p. 491 ; Tylor, Primitive Culture, Vol. II, pp. 30, 31. 

 : ' See Tylor, Primitive Culture, Vol II, p 23. 



