| caption: |
feasts of merit now abandoned in Wakching |
| text: |
Our departure did not take place under a lucky star. Kauffmann did not feel quite all right yet he did not want to cancel the tour. The weather was glorious and already quite warm. Kauffmann even found it unpleasantly hot. With Chinyang I had a talk about the feasts of merit which once were customary in Wakching as well. He himself had seen such feasts as a small boy. Today they are not held any more as those clans which may hold them are not rich enough. Only Ang people may give them. Initially two buffalo, two pigs and several chickens were needed. Later on one buffalo was frequently replaced by a mithan. Maubus, that is people who have held the Mauba were allowed to build a field house of the long stretched out shape with a curved roof as the field houses of Great Ang's show. The daughters of people who had held the Maubu once would wear two thorns in each ear, three if their father had given it twice etc. (34) Men without children gave no feasts of merit. A forked post was set up in front of the house of a Maubu. Chinyang knows nothing about erecting a stone. |
