ABORS AND GALONGS. 81 



large one and the blood is smeared on its helmet and body. This ceremony takes place 

 before going out to fight. If they are fortunate enough to capture any children they 

 make slaves of them and perhaps sell them ; they categorically denied sacrificing their 

 prisoners to Peka. 



The extracts from Robinson's " Account of Assam " given by Mackenzie 1 must 



be read with caution, but the following passage referring to 



the Mikirs, would apply equally to the Abors and Galongs 



on the right bank of the Brahmaputra (whom, in many ways, they resemble) and 



illustrates the difficulty of cataloguing the less important spirits or describing the rites 



associated with them. ' Propitiatory offerings have constantly to be made by in- 



' dividuals to evil spirits whose names and numbers are indefinite. They are demons 



' of the higher hills of the streams and even of large bits, or collections of water, and 



' some are household devils . . worshipped by way of disarming their malice. The 



' list may be increased at any time by the discovery of new devils The names 



' of the dead are also reckoned among the powers of evil." The propitiation of the 

 spirits of the dead that is considered necessary by both Abors and Tibetans 5, has 

 already been mentioned s ; the possibility of having to add yet another to the army 

 of spirits demanding propitiation is illustrated by the reply of an Abor to my inquiries 

 after the water god. ' Oh yes ! of course there is a spirit in the water, but I have not 

 yet worshipped him.' ' Passing over Motan Taran (the spirit of earthquake) and Mug- 

 ling the spirit of thunder (who may be worshipped with Doing Anggong, but with less 

 ceremony), we come to the demons of domestic animals and the spirit of the woods. 



If swine fever or some other epidemic attacks the pigs in a village, it is attributed 

 to the malevolence of a spirit Petpum, who is exorcised by what is called the Eg 

 Agam (eg meaning a pig and agam , "genna "). The elders decide on this ritual in 

 council, and the youths who act as the village criers announce it for the following 

 da> T . Next morning three of the villagers, each holding a stick, to which an egg is tied 

 and millet seed(apong) and ginger is bound, and followed by the criers, make a house 

 to house visitation, grunting and squeaking like pigs as they go. When the proces- 

 sion reaches the door of a house, the owner puts food, apong and ginger in the pigs' 

 trough, which the exorcisers devour keeping up as much as possible their imitation of 

 the animal. They then enter the house and eat and drink with the household. Every 

 house must be visited in this way before evening . When all the houses have been visited 

 the exorcisers go down to some neighbouring stream and throw the sticks into the 

 water. The next three days are observed as " genna." No one in the village goes 

 to the fields nor may rice be husked. 



Although not so clear an example of suggestive magic, or rather ritual, as the 

 Eg Agam, the yearly mithan festival, called Asho Agam, in its strengthening of the 

 cattle fences (against presumably an inroad of vast herds) possesses a similar 

 interest. The object of this agam, to discard the less satisfactory term of " genna", 



1 Mackenzie, North-East Frontier of Bengal, p. 537, et seq. 



2 Waddell, Buddhism of Tibet, p. 493. 3 p. 75. 



