Womlung – About Songs

Three recordings in which Mr Womlung Mossang and Mr Wanglung Mossang talk about the Wiheiux song. This consists of three sound files: nst-mos_20121111_01_SM_T_Womlung_AboutSongs nst-mos_20121111_02_SM_T_Womlung_AboutSongs nst-mos_20121111_03_SM_T_Womlung_AboutSongs The details of these recordings are as follows: nst-mos_20121111_01_SM_T_Womlung_AboutSongs_Duratioin 3’00”, About Wiheiux song; Wiheuix was a girl, at the time of the flood there were two mountains. Mueiuq Luimx they were called, and nobody was supposed to go there, but suddenly at one time one girl was found to be missing and people searched for her and could not found, and so finally they declared that she was dead somewhere. That girl’s name was Timyuec (who was Khalak/Lungkhe). In the course of time, when people were sleeping that girl’s spirit used to possess people while they were asleep, and they used to sing while sleeping; through that the song the girl would express where she was. At that time there was no Wihu song and people were shocked. Then she would possess more people, and they asked her who she was. She responded “I am not singing anything, I am enjoying my life in the sky with the birds and all my memories are in the world of civilisation”, she used to sing like that. The history cannot tell us when that girl was living. Long ago there was one man called Chomsham, who belonged to a subtribe called Keyam [keʒam]. They are existing today as one of the clans of the Kimsing/Chamchang. Timyuec the spirit used to call Chomsham as her grandfather, “I am enjoying in the lap of grandfather Chomsham”. In that song, actually the Tangsa / Hewa people as a whole used the song in praise of the bounty of the earth. nst-mos_20121111_02_SM_T_Womlung_AboutSongs_Duratioin 4’49”, (2nd recording) – continuation of the previous recording nst-mos_20121111_01_SM_T_Womlung_AboutSongs.wav nst-mos_20121111_03_SM_T_Womlung_AboutSongs_Duratioin 6’48”, Wanglung questioned Womlung. There are two kinds of songs, Wihu and Shamma. Wihu was invented by the girl called Timyuec who was possessed by the spirit of Chomsham and got lost in the mountains. She was from Lungkhi and Chomsham a Keyam. So in the song she expresses that she is in the lap of Chomsham, and whatever she sings is in the praise of all the bounties of the earth, like animals, fish, and her relations with all of those things. She said she doesn’t need anything from human beings – when she possesses someone she says that if people give her a chicken or a pig or a fish or any animal (by sacrifice) that will satisfy her soul or spirit. She sings in love of all the wonderful things of the earth, she can sing about love as well and she invented the love song (Ngoyo). About Shamma; all those who are possessed by Chomsham used to sing the Shammax song. Chomsham had been possessed by an evil spirit of the jungle called Tsuik-waz, and had died there. Since he was possessed by that evil spirit, whomever he then possesses such as those who see the omens, can perform augury &c, they used to ask why are you possessing this fellow. Then the spirit of Chomsham would say, “I need the blood of human beings”. So as a result people came to believe that whenever sickness occurs it is because of the possession by Chomsham’s spirit and then it would be necessary to sacrifice a human because Chomsham would say that unless he got human blood that sick person would be taken away and die. So the head of that sick person’s family would promise that “I would give human blood, to the best of my ability whenever I can get it”. And he would hang the dao in front of the house to show that he was not bluffing and would perform the sacrifice of human being. From that day onwards he would try to search from where he would get a human being. They would search out a stranger from another community or enemy community for sacrifice – not their own people. Like that human hunting became prevalent, in order to get relief from evil spirits they would try at any cost to find such a person. If he found an enemy in the forest he would kill them and bring back the head or the blood. So other tribes became away of this and stayed away, so later they would try to buy children or the neglected people of another community and with that dao that he had kept as a promise to Chomsham he would cut that person. With that dao, the sacrificed body would be tied together with the knife and thrown down from a mountain side. [The places where this was done can still be found] The person who is sacrificed is called daax. If there is no person to sacrifice, then for the well being of all the health of the community people would buy the flesh of those who had been killed in battle. And that flesh was also sold in small pieces. The message would be sent around that in some village there might be such flesh available at some price. During the sacrifice of the daaz there was another song called Tanmuex Shix and that is sung only by a person called the ralwaz who knows the song nicely. The sacrifice is performed by the luezwaungx, but he does not sing. The skull of the person sacrificed would be tied in the house fo the luezwaungx. The ralwaz gets the back side of the skull. Further information unrecorded [Womlung said that he saw with his own eyes the sacrifice in the village called Techal Kuk village in Burma near the Indian border and that family is called Shungkam clan. He was already an adult at that time. After independence this was still practiced in secret. So people would travel for up to a month to obtain the flesh of humans. When the flesh was brought they would show the flesh from house to house and make the offering in front of every house. At that time there would be a big celebration, everyone would prepare rice beer. That song’s name was Maishawx. In this song they would sing things like “You slipped from your mother’s lap; your father’s seed (semen) was not purposeful for your existence and that’s why you have died” It was decided not to record this because there was concern that harm might come because this was before the abolition of sacrifice]