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U ksew ruh u tip ba'n búd dien ia ki mrád, namar u sngewthúh ba ka dien ka khnap ka mrád baroh ka don ka jingíw-khong ba la sah ka jingíw nadúh kata ka pór ba ki iúh ia ka ktung rymbái jong u ha ka Iew Luri-Lura. The "Thlen." In olden days there was a market in the village of Langhiang Kongkhen, and there was a bridge sacred to the gods there.
The effect of cutting off the hair or the hem of the garment of a person by a nongshohnoh, to offer up to the thlen, is disastrous to the unfortunate victim, who soon falls ill, and gradually wastes away and dies.
When a thlen takes up its abode in a family there is no means of getting rid of it, though it occasionally leaves of its own accord, and often follows family property that is given away or sold. The thlen attaches itself to property, and brings prosperity and wealth to the owners, but on the condition that it is supplied with blood.
It is not, however, always possible to kill the victim outright for various reasons, and then the nongshohnoh resorts to the following subterfuge: He cuts off a little of the hair, or the hem of the garment, of a victim, and offers these up to the thlen.
Strange to say, according to Khasi ideas, this is one of the highest points in the hills; in reality Sophet Byneng is some 2,000 ft. lower than the Shillong Peak. As mentioned elsewhere, the Khasis are very fond of dogs; so I have given their version of how the dog came to live with man. The well-known thlen superstition will be found fully described under the heading of "Human sacrifices."
When the time for making an offering to the thlen comes, an hour is selected, generally at dead of night, costly cloths are spread on the floor of the house of the thlen keeper, all the doors are opened, and a brass plate is laid on the ground in which is deposited the blood, or the hair, or a piece of the cloth of the victim.
He told the following story to one of his fellow-servants, which may be set down here to show that the thlen superstition is by no means dying out.
The Syntengs also believe he is a kind of serpent, and there are some families and clans who keep him and worship him like a god. They sacrifice to him a pig only; they do not propitiate him with human blood as the Khasis do. Shaphang U Thlen.
By degrees the whole figure is disposed of by the boa constrictor. If the spirit be that of a person from whom the hair, or a piece of his or her cloth, has been cut, directly the thlen has swallowed the spirit, the person expires. Many families in these hills are known, or suspected, to be keepers of a thlen, and are dreaded or avoided in consequence.
The killing, however, of a nong shoh noh, i.e. a man who seeks for human victims to sacrifice to the monster, u thlen, is not considered murder, even now by the Khasis, and the slayer of the nong shoh noh only has to inform the Siem and deposit Rs. 5, and one pig in the Siem's court. The slaying of a robber also is dealt with in like manner.
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