Red Lahu Rites of Spirit Exorcism
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lower reaches are called gui~ mi g’ui~ ya" wf {g’ui~ mi "downstream”, g’ui*
water”, ya" mi" "female [spirit]”).
3. Spirits Originating in Blood
The Lahu Nyi among whom I lived were particularly fearful of a number
°f malicious spirits, namely jaw, meh~, mvuh" and gu~, which are said to have
their origin in blood. It is the jaw and meh~ spirits with which this paper is
concerned. In order to understand the nature of these spirits it is necessary
to make a digression into Lahu mythology. Tradition (probably derived from
their Shan neighbours; cf. Milne 1910:201) states that a solar eclipse is
brought about by a celestial tiger eating the sun. Similarly, a lunar eclipse is
brought about when a celestial frog eats the moon. The myth states that at
such times, the blood of the sun and the moon falls to earth where it is trans
formed into the malicious jaw spirits. These spirits congregate on the trees in
the jungle. When a villager cuts some wood to build or repair his house, he
rnay well bring back on the wood some of these jaw spirits who will continue
to live in the house structure until exorcised in the jaw te ve rite described
below. The jaw are thought to be particularly eager to cause the household
rnembers to suffer bloody deaths.
The Lahu villagers distinguish between “good” and “bad” death. When
death can be accounted natural, through sickness or old age, the death is
good” and the soul of the deceased becomes an ancestral spirit. Provided an
ancestral spirit receives regular propitiation (cf. Walker 1972«) it does not
cause trouble to the living. But if death is violent and accompanied by the
loss of blood from the body, the death is deemed to have been “bad”. The
spirits of people who have died a bad death themselves become malicious
Wvuh", meh„ and gu~ spirits. My informants were uncertain whether these were
three distinct spirits, or three different names for one spirit, but everybody
a greed that all three were spirits of persons who had died “bad” deaths. The
exorcism of the meh„ spirits will be the second rite described below.
4. Pi ya"
Although in general conversation Lahu Nyi villagers are likely to mention
two distinct and opposed categories of supernatural, G’ui~ sha and the spirits
° r ne", there is one other great and powerful supernatural who fits neither categ-
° r y. This is Pi ya", a name which will become very familiar as we examine
the two exorcistic rites. Informants denied that Pi ya" partakes in the divinity
°f G’uu sha in the manner of Ai ma, but they also denied that he belonged to
the spirits’ side {ne" hpaw"). It seems likely that Pi ya" is a fairly recent addi
tion to the Lahu Nyi corpus of supernaturals, probably taken from their Shan
Neighbours. However, Pi ya" now figures prominently in the myth of creation,
^t first, according to Lahu myth, the earth was soft and muddy and unfit for
human habitation. It was Pi ya", strengthened for a period of three years in
G ui„ sha’s care by a diet of copper and iron, who magically solidified the earth
ky shooting his power like lightning against it.