Part 9 (2/2)
Any one hearing Shokas sing for the first time would imagine that each singer was improvising as he went along, but on closer comparison it will be found that musical phrases, certain favourite pa.s.sages and modulations in the voice, constantly recur not only in each song, but in all songs.
They seem all of them based on the same doleful tune, probably a very ancient one, and only the different time in which it is given, and the eccentricities of the singer, give it a separate and special character.
One characteristic of Shoka songs--as of so many other Oriental tunes--is that they have no rounded ending, and this, to my ears, rather spoiled them. A similar abrupt break is a feature of their dances and their drum-beating. The song suddenly stops in the middle of the air with a curious grating sound of the voice, and I could not obtain any entirely satisfactory explanation of this: the only answer given me was that the singer could not go on for ever, and that as long as he stopped it did not matter how he did it. Further, they considered an abrupt ending most suitable to music (or dancing), as it immediately brought you back to your normal state, should your mind have been carried away. One pleasant feature was that their songs were never sung in a loud tone of voice, nor did they aim at notes too high or too low for their voices, but kept themselves well within their compa.s.s.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ON THE WAY TO THE RAMBANG]
[Ill.u.s.tration: SHOKA EARRINGS]
The only difference between solos given by men, and those sung by women, was that the former showed more plaintiveness and sentimentality, and greater mutability of thought, whereas the latter were more uniform, more lively, and less imaginative in their representation of feelings. The words of the love-songs, nearly always _impromptu_, can hardly be set down in these pages. From our standard of morality, and away from their own special surroundings, they might seem almost lewd, while in their place they certainly did not impress me as offensive. When singing, the Shokas usually raise the end of their white shawl or dress, and hold it by the side of the head.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SILVER EARRINGS OF TIBETAN ORIGIN, WITH CORAL BEADS]
Smoking was general, each couple sharing the same pipe. A few burning sticks of pine stuck in the rough wall formed the only illumination, save the fire in the centre of the room slowly burning out. Signs of sleepiness became evident as morning came, and soon they all retired in couples, and went to sleep in their clothes on a soft layer of straw and gra.s.s. There they slept peacefully in a row, and I retraced my steps to my diggings amidst a deafening barking of pariah dogs. At these gatherings every Shoka girl regularly meets with young men, and while she entertains the idea of selecting among them a suitable partner for life, she also does a considerable quant.i.ty of work with her spinning-wheel.
Eventually, when a couple consider marriage advisable, the young man, dressed in his best clothes, proceeds to the house of his intended father-in-law, carrying with him a pot of _chokti_ (wine), dried fruit, _ghur_ (sweet paste), _miseri_ (sugar-candy), and grilled grain. If the bridegroom is considered a suitable match, the parents of the girl receive the young man with due consideration, and partake heartily of the food and drink proffered by him. The marriage is there and then arranged, the bridegroom further disbursing to the father a sum of not less than five rupees and not more than one hundred. This is the etiquette of good Shoka society, and of all people who can afford it, the payment being called ”milk-money,” or money equivalent to the sum spent by the girl's relations in bringing her up. The marriage ceremony is simple enough. A cake called _Delang_ is baked, of which the friends of the two families partake. If either the bridegroom or bride refuses to eat a share of the cake, the marriage is broken off; if they both eat some of the cake, and later any dissension arises between them, all those who a.s.sisted at the function are called as witnesses that the marriage took place. Often even this primitive ceremony of eating cake is dispensed with, and Shoka marriages begin and continue as happy and faithful unions, without any special form of service or rite to solemnise the tie.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SHOKA WOMAN WEAVING]
They not only visit adultery on the guilty man himself by beating him, but the men proceed _en ma.s.se_ to the house of his parents and denude it of all furniture, stores of grain, and merchandise. They confiscate the sheep, goats, yaks, and all their valuable saddles and loads, and present the whole proceeds to the man whose wife has been seduced--a recompense for the shame suffered. Frequently the unfortunate and innocent relations of the evil-doer are bound and even beaten to death by the villagers.
These severe measures are resorted to in order to maintain a high standard of morality and honour, and there is little doubt that, primitive as these methods may seem, the good results obtained more than justify them. There are very few illegitimate births, with the exception of occasional Rambang children, and their arrival is a matter of such disgrace that they cannot be looked upon as seriously discrediting the social value of the Rambang.
[Ill.u.s.tration: RAMBANG GIRLS WITH ORNAMENTS]
CHAPTER XVII
FUNERAL RITES
Departure of the Soul--Cremation--Amus.e.m.e.nt of the dead man's soul--The lay figure--Feasting--Doleful dance--Transmigration of the soul--Expensive ceremonies--Offerings before the lay figure--Dancing and contortions--Martial dances--Solo dances--The animal to be sacrificed and the lay figure--Chasing the animal from the village--Tearing out its heart--The yak driven over a precipice--Head shaving--A sacred cave.
THE Shokas ascribe death to the departure of the soul from the body, and to this notion is due the curious reverence they show for the spirit or memory of their dead. I witnessed a funeral ceremony quaint enough to deserve record.
A man had died a painful death, the result of an accident. His friends were immediately sent for, and the corpse, having been smeared with b.u.t.ter (_ghi_), was dressed in his best clothes. They bent his body double before the rigor set in, and placed him on a hurriedly constructed wooden hea.r.s.e. He was covered with a blue-and-gold embroidered cloth, and a white one over it. At sunrise, the funeral procession left the house for the place of cremation. First came a row of ten women, their heads covered with a long strip of white cotton cloth, one end of which was tied to the hea.r.s.e. Among these were the near relations of the deceased, including his wife and daughters, crying and wailing the words, ”_Oh bajo! Oh bajo!_” (Oh father! oh father!), the rest of them sobbing and making great show of grief. The deceased having been somewhat of a favourite in Garbyang, the villagers turned out in force to render him this last tribute, and they took their place in the procession as it slowly wound down the cliff towards the river. The hea.r.s.e was carried by two men, and each male Shoka following bore a log or bundle of firewood.
We reached the Kali. The body was temporarily laid on the bank of the stream, while all the men, with heads uncovered, collected large stones and pieces of wood. With the stones a circular crematory oven, five feet high, six feet in diameter, with an opening on the side facing the wind, was erected by the water-side. The wife and daughters of the departed, with their hoods turned inside out and with covered faces, squatted down meanwhile by the hea.r.s.e, moaning and keeping a small fire alight. When all preparations were made, the oven being heaped up with logs of wood, the body was untied from the stretcher and lifted by two intimates of the departed on to the funeral pile.
[Ill.u.s.tration: WEEPING WOMEN UNDER WHITE CLOTH]
All valuables were removed, his gold earrings, his silver locket and bracelets; and a large knife was used for some purpose or other which I could not quite see, except in slitting the lobes of the corpse's ears to remove his earrings more quickly. Branches of pine-tree were deposited on the body, and a large pot of b.u.t.ter was set by its side. A bra.s.s bowl of _chokti_ (wine) was poured on the head, and then, in profound silence, fire was set to the pile.
A few white puffs showed that it had caught fire, and then a dense column of black smoke rose from it, filling the atmosphere with a sickening smell of singed hair and burning flesh. The wind blew the smoke towards me, and I was enveloped in it for some moments, during which I could see nothing of what was going on, and I felt my eyes smart and my nostrils fill with the smoke and the stench. Gradually a tall flame, over twenty feet high, leaked out, consuming the body and showing me, as the atmosphere cleared, the Shokas down by the river was.h.i.+ng their hands and faces to cleanse themselves of what they look upon as unclean, the contact with a corpse. Retracing their steps to the village, the women cried and moaned, carrying back to the house the clothes of the deceased and his bra.s.s bowls.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SHOKA FUNERAL PILE]
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