FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70  
71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   >>   >|  
atives by marriage. They wanted him to kill you. All your kin are women. [They say this in order to deceive Aliguyen into avenging himself.] They can't avenge you. You will have to avenge yourself! There is _orden_ [law]; no one can kill them but you! Take them all! "This calling on Aliguyen's soul never ceased. When an old woman got hoarse, another took her place. As the procession came to the house it filed past Aliguyen and its leaders stopped and shouted words to the same effect. The key-note of the whole ceremony was vengeance. It is true that both persons who were involved in killing Aliguyen were themselves killed, but the people of a _rancheria_ regard themselves as being about the only real people in the world and hold that three, four, or five men of another _rancheria_ are not equal to one of theirs. "Nagukaran being the _rancheria_ that speared and nearly killed my predecessor, Mr.----, I explained my presence to the people there by saying that the soldier, being an agent of our Government, was in a way a relative of mine. The explanation was a perfectly natural one to the people, and they treated me with the greatest courtesy and helped me to see whatever was to be seen. "Toward noon they told me that they were going to perform the feast which looked towards securing vengeance for Aliguyen's death. They went to where the people had built a shed to protect them from the sun's fierce rays on a little hillock some distance from any house. Two pigs were provided there, one being very small. Only the old men were permitted to gather around the pigs and the rice-wine and the other appurtenances of the feast. The feast began by a prayer to the ancestors, followed by an invocation to the various deities. The most interesting and the principal part of the feast was the invocation to the celestial bodies, who are believed to be the deities of War and Justice, Manahaut (The Deceiver), a companion of the Sun God, was first invoked. The people cried: Who-oo-oo! Manahaut, look down! Come down and drink the rice-wine and take the pig! Don't deceive us! Deceive our enemies! Take them into the remotest quarters of the sky-world; lock them up there forever so that they may not return! Vengeance for him who has gone before!' Then an old man put his hands over his forehead and called: 'Come down, Manahaut.' Manahaut came and possessed him, causing him to call out: 'Sa-ay! sa-ay! I come down Manahaut; I drink the rice-wi
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70  
71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

people

 

Aliguyen

 

Manahaut

 

rancheria

 

killed

 

deities

 

vengeance

 

invocation

 

deceive

 
avenge

prayer
 

securing

 

ancestors

 
hillock
 

provided

 

distance

 
protect
 

gather

 
fierce
 

permitted


appurtenances
 

Deceiver

 

return

 

Vengeance

 

forever

 

quarters

 

causing

 

possessed

 

called

 

forehead


remotest

 

enemies

 

Justice

 
companion
 

believed

 

bodies

 

principal

 
celestial
 

Deceive

 
looked

invoked
 
interesting
 

procession

 

hoarse

 

ceased

 

effect

 

leaders

 

stopped

 
shouted
 

avenging