The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXXI, Part 1-2, 1983 - Khamkoo

LAHU NYI (RED LAHU) RITES FOR ESTABLISIDNG A NEW VILLAGE
161
returned home and saw that the hairs [i.e. the quills] of the porcupine
.were so long, she said, "Even when I get small.hairs, I give him some
of the flesh to eat. His hairs are so big and so long, but he does not
share the flesh. He is no good. I will not. live together with him."
So saying, she went away to the east. It is for this reason that, when
a Lahu builds a house, he must not cover the ends. One day, so it is
said, the sister [i.e. her descendal)ts] may return and then they will build
an extension to the house and give it to her to live in. Today, all the
people l~ving here are descendants of the brother.29
Lahu Nyi houses (Pl. 2; Fig. 2) are raised on stout wooden piles, both to
facilitate drainage and to bar access to the domestic animals which roam the village
area--chickens, ducks, pigs, cows, horses, the odd goat and perhaps a mule. Many of
29. Interestingly,.Harold Young (sa. :4), son of the American Baptist pioneer missionary among
the Lahu, William Marcus Young, and longtime resident among the Lahu of Yunnan and
Burma, attributes a similar story to the supposed separation of the Lahu and Karen people.
He writes:
Through a misunderstanding within their own ranks, the two
brotherly tribes Lahu and Karen were finally separated and weakened.
Before this, both groups had regarded the chiefs of their t:espective tribes
with the same respect, and paid the same tribute to each. It was the custom
to set aside a portion of the meat taken during the- hunt for each chief. One
day the Lahu hunters shot a large sambar deer and sent a portion of the
meat to the Karen chief.' The following day the hunt was not successful.
After hunting all day, the only animal shot was a porcupine. As usual they
divided up the meat and sent a share to the Karen chief with a large quill
sticking in it. When the Karens saw the small portion of meat. with a very
large hair on it, they thought they had been cheated, for surely an animal
with hair of that size should be very large ! They said to the Lahu,
"Yesterday you sent our chief a large portion of meat from the day's chase,
and the hairs sticking to the wrappers were very small, but today you have
sent only a very small portion, yet the hair is that of a great animal. Why
have you cheated our chief in this way and thus shown your· disloyalty ?"
The Lahu t~ied their best to explain that the porcupine was a small animal.
with very large quills, but the Karens would not believe them. After the
dispute the Karens took their women lind children and all their livestock
and left for the south.