Читать книгу Soo Thah: A Tale of the Making of the Karen Nation - Alonzo Bunker - Страница 10

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IT is difficult to realize the conditions, unfavourable to everything good, in which our hero received his early education. Could we forget all knowledge of a loving and care-taking God, with all the good that comes to us from this knowledge, and at the same time have all hope which comes from Him taken away; and instead be forced to live constantly alert, lest we offend some of the hostile spirits that we believed to be ever about us, then could we better understand Soo Thah's life.

The elders of the village as well as his father had taught him many things about the vast multitude of nats, which he must on no account offend, if he wished to live. These nats have already been introduced to us by Soo Thah's grandmother. The laws governing men's intercourse with them were many and hard to keep. "Where do they not take up their abode? One can't turn about without offending these miserable spirits," said Soo Thah. So it was. Some, as we have seen, lived in the roof of the house, and altars were kept standing in one corner for offerings to them to keep them good natured. Were one to doubt their presence, he would, as sure proof, be shown their tracks in fine ashes, which had been placed in a flat dish on the altar. The doubter might think the tracks had been made by mice, but he could not make the people think so. They were made by nats, and that ended the matter.

Some nats lived in the dark and gloomy recesses of the forest, others had their abode in the rocky cliffs, others in the water-fall, or in some great tree, as the banyan. Then there were the field-nats, which fed on the Kala of the rice. If you sought to run away from these evil spirits in any one place, you were sure to find others just as wicked wherever you fled.

Soo Thah well remembered how he once went with his father and little sister to look at some fish-snares near a large water-fall. The little girl caught cold, and in the afternoon became quite ill with fever. It was all because of that wicked nat of the water-fall, said the father, and so they must go that night and make offerings to it to save the girl's life. These consisted of a tiny house of bamboo, like a doll's house, in which were put bits of food; and then a prayer was offered to the nat to release the little girl's Kala, which he had seized, and another to the Kala, beseeching it to return lest the girl die.

How much time, money and anxious care were spent by Soo Thah's father in trying to appease all these nats, that the family might escape sickness, and the crops might not fail! It thus appears that all this nat worship sprang from fear. How could they love such wicked spirits, that were only selfish, and never sought one's good?

Sometimes the remembrance of the great Yuah would arise, especially at feast times, when the prophets and story tellers recited the ancient traditions concerning him. But, as has been said, they firmly believed that he cared no longer for his rebellious children.

Besides Yuah, there were said to be fairies, about which there were many pleasing stories: how they helped men, as their friends; and as they were friendly, no offerings were required to propitiate them. Indeed, there was no place for gratitude in their religion, as we have in ours. While we give thanks and offer acceptable praise to God, these jungle people never conceived such a thing in their worship.

Soo Thah believed all that the elders had said about nats, and was very unhappy over it. He felt there was a great injustice somewhere, but concluded it all came from rebellion against Yuah--a natural conviction. But one thing always made him angry with the nats. His father had lost an eye in his boyhood, and he always said an angry nat had done this, though he could never account for its anger. This seemed to Soo Thah so cruel, that his wrath was aroused as often as he thought of it.

Soo Thah however became very skillful in all the ways of nat worship, for he was quick to learn, and though only a boy, he was often asked to assist at nat feasts, especially when any one was sick, or the crops were poor; and this because of his proficiency in reciting the prayers.

During these early years, he was much under the care of an aged aunt, who had never married. The reason given for her remaining single was that she had an enlarged neck--a deformity often found among mountain people in some parts of India. This aunt, named Miss Kaw Do (Miss Big Neck), had picked up much knowledge about nats and all sorts of things; and she was thoroughly skilled in all these superstitions. Her stories of ghosts and witches were so thrilling, Soo Thah said, that even when he had learned a better way, the recollection of them would sometimes make the cold chills run through him. As for fairy stories, she revelled in them to the delight of all the young people who had the pleasure of her acquaintance. She never tired telling these stories. Soo Thah spent much time with this old aunt, and her stories formed a large part of his early education.

It should be known that in India, where these events happened, there are only two seasons each year,--the wet and the dry. There is no autumn, nor winter. Frost is never seen, except on the highest mountains, and the people call it "the heavenly flowers." The southeast wind blows seven months in the year, and then the northwest wind fights with it till it conquers. In fact twice in the year there are, in the mind of the Indian people, terrible battles between the mighty wind-nats, in which the "great nat of the fire" and the "rain-nat" take a large part. At the changes of these winds, called the change of the Monsoon, these fierce battles rage overhead, and the fiery darts of the one, and the floods of water poured out by the other to quench these fiery darts, with the cyclonic winds of the wind-nat, all made a grand and fearful strife in the heavens, which to the mind of this simple people is only a battle of the nats.

The goddess or nat of fire was called Law-pho, and Miss Kaw Do used to tell Soo Thah how Law-pho had great wings, and that when the lightning flashed across the face of the sky, it was Law-pho flapping her wings. When a thunder bolt struck a tree, she said that Law-pho had dropped her golden axe; and that if any one would only dig in the ground at the foot of the stricken tree, he would surely find it and become very rich.

She told him also that the banyan tree was the chosen home of the nats, and that he must never talk aloud under it, nor pick up sticks, nor build a fire there. She further assured him he would become rich, if he could only get a piece of a rich man's blanket, who had died, and make for himself a purse of it. Another of her sayings was, that crowing hens must be killed, or they would bring sickness upon their owners.

There were many rules about strangers coming up into a house, which must be carefully observed by them, or accident or illness would befall some member of the family. Moreover the stranger who had transgressed these rules must pay a fine.

She told him of persons with whom she was acquainted who had dared to eat flesh while harvesting their rice, and that their rice had wasted away, or did not last nearly as long as it otherwise would. Another of her whims was, that monkeys were specially dangerous to the crops during harvest, so that the reapers must never call them while engaged in their work, lest the rice should disappear. And if, while harvesting, chickens were hatched, or a child was born into the family, all work in the field must be stopped forthwith; but, added Aunt Kaw Do, the reapers should never omit eating chicken or wildcat curry with new rice from the field, in a new hut outside the village, where they would be free from the contamination of strangers. If a stranger should come among the harvesters while storing rice, he must not be allowed to depart until the work should be finished. And when hulling the rice for food, none must be left until dark unfinished; for the old aunt said there was a bird in the forest which would begin her night-song at dark, and any one eating rice cleaned after it began its song would surely become ill. This she knew from observing many instances of the kind.

Then she taught Soo Thah all about the wonderful Kala; declaring that it often wandered away from the body, especially during sleep, thereby causing dreams, and also some kinds of sickness, in case it did not return promptly. She also assured him it was dangerous to awaken any one suddenly, as this sometimes caused insanity; because in the sudden return of several Kalas to their respective bodies, they became mixed, and thereby some got into the wrong homes.

Even the rice-bins and rice had their Kalas, she said, which caused much trouble by their wanderings. One of the neighbours failed to make his rice-bin strong enough to hold the rice put into it, and it broke down. Aunt Kaw Do was sure the Kala of the rice had become offended in some way, and was going to desert them. So they called a nat doctor, and went through the usual offerings and prayers to appease his offended lordship. In the meantime the young men repaired the bin, making it stronger, and the nat was propitiated.