The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

26 Anthony R. Walker
TEXT SEVEN-FORMAL TRANSLATION
1. Oh old man Ca Shi, you who rule over the heavens, you who know
all things, and you also Ca Da, your children here on this side
have prepared for you this food and drink, so come and eat this
food and drink which they offer to you.
2. On this day of the new year, day of the new month, tell all your
group to dress and come here and eat.
3. Oh you who rule in the heavens, you who know all things, once
again bestow and cover [the people] within this house on earth with
the boon that they may suffer no troubled thoughts.
4. As the earth does not decay, so may the lives of the womenfolk and
the lives of the menfolk suffer no decay; since we once again beg for
life as enduring as the earth, once again grant it for the women's
lives; cover the men with life as enduring as the heavens, once
again grant [them] life as eternal as this earth.
5. Shield and protect from all kinds of disease the husbands and wives,
their children, their animals and all their possessions.
6. Three times in one day, three times in one night, you who know all
things, you who are all-true, once again open upon us and bestow
the boon that when we are working in our fields, if we work for one
day in the fields there will be enough to eat for ten days, and if we
work for one year in the fields there will be enough to eat for ten
years.
7. Once again -grant and cover the lives of the womenfolk and the
lives of the menfolk that they may be as enduring as the life of the
earth, as enduring as the life of the stone kaw-mo-taweh up there.
(a) Ca Shi and Ca Da are ancestors of the people offering the feast. "The heavens"
here refers to the land of the dead, and the reciter of the prayer calls these,
ancestors "rulers" in order to flatter them.
(b) Thatis, "all the other ancestors up there in the land of the dead".
(c) The white stone post which is the divine prototype of the sacred wooden posts
jn the courtyard of!! Lahu Nyi temple (cf. WalkQr 19701;>; 205-6).