ABORS AND GALONGS. 97 



mats, that distinctly resemble the figure of Buddha and recall the images that Tugden 

 said/ were plastered over the rock at Bombda Simbu on the road between Tsari and 

 Lhasa. The Memba, like the Abor, believes in the efficacy of boughs planted round a 

 house to avert disaster. High stout posts connected by long cane ropes seen in 

 several Angong villages were noticed in one Memba village. 1 The Abors look upon 

 them as a counterblast to sickness, and regarded the Union Jack of the escort troops 

 as a similar "medicine." In Janbo village rough figures were fastened to the tops 

 of the masts. 3 These had their counterpart in a most realistic scare-crow outside 

 Didung and overlooking the river far below; it had been given black clothes and 

 provided with a bow and arrows. This, we were told, was to guard the community 

 against the river God, possibly a far-off echo of the folklore told by the Minyongs of 

 Kebang. Another minor point of resemblance lies in the fact that the Membas make 

 procession (and turn their prayer- wheels) from left to right clockwise. The Abors 

 move the same way in their dances. 



The Abors bury their dead ; the Membas either bury or burn the body with the 

 exception of the bones of the skull that are kept as relics and made into rosary discs, 

 and possibly the thigh bones are sometimes turned to the uses of the temple in the 

 form of trumpets. The well-to-do have a chhorten set up over the grave, the poorer 

 a banner. The pauper's grave is the Tsanpo. One body we found jetsam, of a long- 

 haired man/ was stark naked save for a brand-new wooden coolie-yoke and carrying- 

 strap. He may have fallen in by accident — a Tangam Abor from below the gorge. 

 On the other hand we were told that corpses are sometimes thrown into the river. 

 No wound was visible and the man, of strong thick-set physique, appeared to be 

 in good condition. The Abors are known to throw bodies (generally of their enemies) 

 into the Tsanpo that they call Si-ang and we, of the plains, know as the <f Dihang." 



Beyond all this the fundamental idea of both religious beliefs is the propitiation, 

 through fear, of malevolent spirits. In the one case it is overlaid with ritual and 

 the aids of civilization, in the other it is not. 



Similar though the inhabitants of Kopu and Geling are to the Abors of such 

 northern villages as Tuting, the Membas deny absolutely that they intermarry with 

 the tc Lo' people. Certainly the sept names are dissimilar. The Memba septs as 

 given to me are — Kaling-bo, Brim-tsi-pa, Narang-po, Dung-tsam-bo, Sher-pa and 

 Basor-pa. The Angong Abor septs in Tuting are Rigu and Paling, other septs dis- 

 tributed in Miging, Ninging and Panggo being Nitik, Tagin, Lonchung, Nijo, Medo, 

 Koting, Mirga, Panye, Pangge, Ugeng, Tedo and Dugong. The Membas are not 

 apparently exogamous, but all Abors observe the marriage taboo within the sept. 



The local mixed village club, or Rambang, was not identified unfortunately, but 

 a reference to Mr. Sherring's "Memoir on the Bhotias" 6 would appear to throw 

 light on an institution closely paralleled amongst the Abors. 



i See p. 3 of Memoir. 2 This may be compared with the worship of the Tibetan deity Dhamsal. 



3 Sherring's Memoir on the Bhotias (p. ioo) affords a parallel in the worship of Dhurnia. 



* The Membas keep their hair cut short. The Pobas wear their hair long (see p. 7 of this Memoir). 



» p. 105. 



