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The spirits are not thought to reside here, but do come to partake of the food and drink placed in it. It is attached to the roof of the dwelling or in the balaua or kalangan. New offerings are placed in the kalang, before the men go to fight, or when the Sayang ceremony is held. Kalangan: the place of the kalang.
A spear with a colored clout is stuck into the ground close by; and usually an inverted rice mortar also stands here, and supports a dish of basi. In the mountain village of Likuan it is built alone as a cure for sickness. Kalang: A wooden box, the sides of which are cut to resemble the head and horns of a carabao.
The sides of the thigh are tatued with a beautiful design of circles and scrolls termed KERIP KWE, flight feathers of the Argus pheasant, and on the back of the thigh is a scroll design borrowed from the decoration of a grave and known as KALANG SONG SEPIT. The knee is left untatued.
The shield was fastened to the wall, new offerings of basi were placed in the kalang, and after it had been swung over the head of the patient, it was again fastened above the house beam near to the roof. For the next hour the mediums summoned spirits to them. The first five had little of interest to offer, except that each demanded that his liquor be served to him on a head-axe.
The outbreak of the first Burma War, in 1824, brought us into closer relations with the Raja of Jaintia, and in April of that year Mr. David Scott, the Governor-General's Agent on the frontier, marched through his territory from Sylhet to Assam, emerging at Raha on the Kalang river, in what is now the Nowgong district.
MENING. MUJAN. x Oyu Irang's Door. Pakat. Kupit. Other members in the Room. Balu Usan's Door. Balu Buah's Door. Oyong Kalang's Door. Ngau. Uya. Sidi Jau's Door. Kuleh. Libut. Balari = UDING. x x Other People in the Room. BALA KEYONG = Aban Batu. Oyu Baung. Oyu Lalu = ? LUJOK. Aban Tingan's Door. Kalang. Paran. MUJAN. x Brothers. Tama Lim Balari = ? Balari. Livang. Wan. Slaves. URAI. SUAI. Nurang.
Some other examples of the KERIP KWE design are given on Pl. 90, and of the SONG SEPIT on Pl. 91; some of the SONG SEPIT designs recall the KALANG KOWIT designs of the Baloi Kayans. A; it appears to be a composition of four heads, and in appearance is not unlike SILONG LEJAU of the Uma Lekan, figured by us.
The kalang, or spirit box, was then redecorated, food was dropped through the slits in the floor for visiting spirits, and finally the medium held the shield over the heads of the family, beat upon it with a head-axe, while in a loud voice she asked the spirits that, since the family was now celebrating tangpap, they would please make them well again.
They are flowing scroll patterns containing many spiral and S-shaped curves in which no animal or plant forms can be certainly traced, though suggestions of the KALANG ASU may be found.
It seems probable that, although the name KALANG ASU continues to be commonly used to denote all this group of allies, many of those who use the term, and even of those who carve or work the patterns, are not explicitly aware in doing so that the name and the patterns refer to the dog, or are in any way connected with it; that is to say, both the words and the pattern have ceased to suggest to their minds the meaning of the word dog, and mean to them simply the pattern appropriate to certain uses.
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