After the rites of planting, there are no further ritual activities until August when the rice crop has reached a height of approximately one metre and when rice grains begin to appear. When this happens, it is time to perform the rite that protects swiddens. This is individually held by households and does not require the presence of the headman or elders in Palokhi. It is performed by the head of the household.

The ritual has three purposes: first, to make an offering to pests and crop diseases in order to send them away; second, to induce a cool state in the swidden crop and household members; third, to make an offering to the rice itself so as to encourage its growth and maturation. In analytical terms, however, the overriding significance of the rite is the symbolism which it shares with the rite of planting the ritual basket of the yam and which it elaborates upon. The elaboration of this symbolism is based on logical extensions of the underlying processes reflected in the conceptual associations common to both rites. It is for these reasons that the analysis and interpretation of the meanings of the planting of the ritual basket of the yam and the protection of swiddens require the two to be taken together.

The description and discussion of the bghau hy’ rite that follows is based on a performance in the swidden of the headman, Tamu’. It was conducted by Tamu’ and his son-in-law, Gwa, who was the ritual owner of the swidden. Gwa prepared the various objects required for the ritual and made the chicken sacrifices integral to it while Tamu’ confined himself to saying the accompanying prayers because Gwa was not, as yet, proficient in them. The ritual is performed at mid-day after the preparation of the objects.

The first of these objects or items is an “altar” or “shrine” called tatoemau’ (see also Marshall 1922:78–9). This is sometimes described as the “house of the Old Mother Rice” (By Mo Pgha ’a’ doe’) but the term tatoemau’ itself means, literally, “thing of the one bowl”. It is a very simple bamboo structure consisting of a small platform raised on four posts with a ladder leading up to the platform from the ground. Like all Palokhi houses (and, indeed, Northern Thai rural houses), the ladder has an odd number of rungs, usually five or seven. The ladder is for the rice souls (by koela) to ascend to the platform to partake of the offerings that will be made to the rice. The house of the Old Mother rice is erected in the small plot in the swidden where the Old Mother Rice is planted.

The second item which is also made for the first stage of the rite is the ritual basket (tasae’) to replace the weather-worn one which was made earlier in the year for the planting ritual.

The third item consists of three articles which are collectively known as the toemau’ (“one bowl”) from which the “altar” or “shrine” derives its name. This consists of a small bamboo cup (tapolo’), a small stick “stirrer” placed inside the cup (mau’ bo, “stick of the bowl”) and a stylised plant made from bamboo (nade’ chu, literally, “nostril hairs”) which is also placed in the cup. The cup is filled with rice liquor if this is available; otherwise, some rice chaff (which is used to make the yeast necessary for the production of liquor) is used instead.

The ritual commences with an offering of a chicken (male or female) to the various elements which are believed to be a danger to the rice crop. The offering is made at the tasae’, the ritual basket into which these elements are collected and appeased. The prayer which accompanies the killing of the chicken begins with a line that, in fact, is addressed to rice.

This is followed by two lines which describe in dense metaphors all the ill-omens which portend disaster or calamity.

This is a list of what the Palokhi Karen believe are illomens that foretell disaster. They will not, for example, embark on a hunt if any of these signs are encountered. In this prayer, however, these portents serve to describe metaphorically the critical period in the growth of rice when the rice is thought to be vulnerable to the predations of pests, crop diseases and the elements.

The next part of the prayer elaborates on the preceding lines by describing what is being done to protect the rice, that is, the collection of the various dangers to the rice crop into the ritual basket.

At this point, the throat of the chicken is slit and rubbed all over the ritual basket in order to smear it with the blood of the fowl. The prayer continues as this is done.

At the end of the prayer, feathers are torn from the chicken and stuck on the blood smears on the ritual basket.

This prayer, like most Palokhi Karen prayers, consists of metaphors built around a simple theme which, in this case, is the containment of all that may endanger the rice crop. The most noteworthy feature of the prayer, however, is the recurrent references to “things that are slippery” (ta’a’ble). These references are based primarily on the idea that women who have just given birth, and new-born babies, are in a “slippery” condition. Slipperiness, however, is not merely descriptive of the physical condition of women and new-born babies; it also describes a general state that is believe to affect the whole community at childbirth. The Palokhi Karen have, for example, a prohibition on work outside the village on the day when a birth occurs. The reason for this prohibition, they say, is that if they do so, untoward consequences would result either for the mother and infant or for those who work outside the village. The belief and prohibition, quite evidently demonstrate that childbirth is a matter of concern to the community as a whole. In principle, it is similar to the belief that “crooked unions” would result in calamity and the destruction of rice crops for the whole community: the underlying logic of the two beliefs are similar in that the consequences of breaches of these prohibitions are transitive.

What is significant about the two beliefs and their associated prohibitions, it must be emphasised, is that both link cultural definitions of reproductive processes to the cultivation of crops, as well as the relations between individuals involved in such processes and the entire community. In the context of the rite of protection, the association between childbirth and the state of the rice crop at this stage of the swidden cycle possesses, as I shall show, a very specific significance.

However, it may be noted here that apart from the illomens which are mentioned, the image of the dangers that threaten the rice growing in swiddens is also evoked through the primary meanings attaching to the idea of a slippery state that comes about at childbirth. These meanings are further extended to fructivorous animals such as rats, squirrels, birds and so on, and also to people. There is no special significance to the term “coughing people” which is, here, an extension in the imagery of “slippery people” who are thought to be people who may steal the rice crop as well as those who through their “slippery” condition may bring about untoward consequences to the crop. The significance of the other referents in the prayer are less obscure and have to do with actual conditions which represent a destroyed crop, for example the trampling of the rice by feral pigs, deer, and so forth, and the crushing of the crop by the slipping of the charred remains of felled trees, and so on. The containment of “not eating to fullness, not drinking to fullness’ is, of course, an alternative expression of the wish or desire that the year’s harvest will be sufficient for the needs of the household.

The next stage of the ritual consists of two parts. The first part is the induction of a cool state in the swidden crops and members of the household. This is yet another expression of the belief — central to the Head Rite, marriage, “crooked unions” and the rite of planting — that a cool state is essential for the successful growth of rice and other swidden crops. The second part of the ritual follows from the first and consists of encouraging the growth of rice. In this stage of the ritual, a hen is offered to the Old Mother Rice. The choice of a hen clearly indicates the essential feminine nature of rice through a concordance of sex categories. It is a further example of how in certain ritual performances (of which the ‘au’ ma xae ritual is one), the Palokhi Karen maintain distinctions in gender through the sex of chickens that are used in these performances.

The first part of this stage of the ritual entails a prayer that is addressed to fire which is propitiated in order to achieve the cool state that is necessary. As only one chicken is offered (that is to say, the chicken for the Old Mother Rice), it may be asked why the Palokhi Karen do not also make an offering to fire. The reason is that they do not necessarily conceive of fire as an entity in the same category as the Old Mother Rice and other tutelary spirits. The reference to fire is, in point of fact, part of the ritual language which is for all practical purposes a verbal ritual, as a performative, designed to induce the cool state that is regarded as being so crucial for the growth of rice and swidden crops. The prayer goes as follows:

The prayer continues in this vein in a highly repetitive manner. The single, dominant theme here is very clearly the creation of a cool state. It is extremely significant, however, that the induction of this state that is so necessary for the successful growth of crops also entails cooling all the members of the household who are carefully identified in the prayer. The identification of the household, or domestic group, with the crops that it cultivates which underlies the practice of the ritual ownership of swiddens is, thus, expressed here in a different form. At the same time, the identification of household members individually recalls the manner in which they are similarly referred to in ’au’ ma xae prayers where they are also associated with subsistence activities. The almost litanical form of these references in prayers from quite different ritual contexts is a clear confirmation of the strength and pervasiveness of the associations that they express and establish simultaneously.

At the end of the prayer, the next part of the ritual begins with a prayer addressed to rice. The opening lines of this prayer are:

These lines are difficult to translate but they are crucial to an understanding of the significance of the toemau’ in the ritual. The use of ghe (“good”, “beautiful”) and gwa (“white”, “pure”) is, of course, a common feature of Palokhi ritual language. As we have seen from the Head Rite, they stand together for a state that is auspicious and harmonious. What is interesting in the first line, however, is its syntax in which the adjectives ghe and gwa are used as verbs in order to represent the transference of attributes from the toemau’ onto rice. Adjectival verbs are not uncommon in Sgaw Karen and, for that matter, in other Karen dialects.^[16] Here, however, they are used with particular effect. While the English terms “beautify” and “purify” may seem adequate enough, nevertheless, they do not quite convey the sense of the Karen. The construction of the Karen suggests rather more. The verbalisation of the adjectives ghe and gwa in this context carries with it a sense of “becoming” and “being for” or “being unto”, so that the overall meaning of the line also contains the suggestion of a transference of the attributes denoted by the adjectives.

The symbolic function of the toemau’, suggested by these adjectival verbs, becomes more apparent in the next line. The reference to the “spreading leaves” of the toemau’ has to do, in fact, with the exaggerated, stylised leaves of the bamboo plant (na’de chu) placed within the cup (tapolo’). The “sap” of the toemau’, on the other hand, refers to the rice liquor, or the substitute rice chaff, which is also placed within the cup. At the heart of this reference to the “sap” of the toemau’ are images and metaphors which are derived from the process of making rice liquor. The yeast which is made from rice chaff and flour that is necessary for the production of rice liquor, if it is well made, and the successful fermentation of the liquor, for example, are both invariably described as having “risen well” (thau ghe). It is an expression which is also used to describe the successful growth of the rice crop. It may be noted also that in this second line the transference of the properties of the toemau’ onto rice are expressed in an idiom of consumption, that is, eating. It is yet again a further indication of the importance of the idiom in representing structural relations in symbolic form which, as we have seen, occurs elsewhere in ‘au’ ma xae, the Head Rite, and day-to-day patterns of commensalism.

The rest of the prayer enlarges on the theme established in these first two lines.

At the end of the prayer, the throat of the chicken is slit and its blood is smeared on the ladder, posts and platform of the “house of the Old Mother Rice”, after which feathers are stuck onto the blood smears.

The two chickens are then cleaned, dressed and cooked in the field hut. Next, small pieces are taken from the extremities of the chickens, namely, the wing tips, the claws and tails which stand for the whole chickens, and these are wrapped up with some rice in banana leaves. These food offerings are placed on the platform of the shrine. A brief prayer, similar to the one above, is recited as this is done. Thereafter, the ritual officiants and other members of the household may proceed to eat.

The last stage of the ritual is relatively simple and involves the making and setting of three apotropaic devices within the plot where the Old Mother Rice is planted and another at the beginning of the path leading from the boundary of the swidden to the field hut.

The symbolism of these devices is, at a certain level, readily apparent. With one exception, they represent weapons of one kind or another. The three instruments set in the plot of the Old Mother Rice are the “elephant spears” (bau koe’cau), the “throat squeezers” or “throat chokers” (tathi’khau’) and the “anus eater” (ta‘au’khi). The “elephant spears” are three long, sharpened bamboo sticks placed in the ground equidistant from one another and bound roughly two-thirds of their lengths from the ends implanted in the ground. The “throat squeezers” are two bamboo poles which are split in two at their upper ends. They are stuck in the ground facing each other and the split ends are brought together around a short bamboo staff which is set into the soil mid-way between the bases of the “throat squeezers”. The “anus eater” is a single bamboo pole split four ways almost to the base which is pushed into the ground. The four quarters of the upper portion are then bent over backwards and forced into the earth.

In Palokhi, there are two interpretations of the meaning of the “anus eater” which is the only device that does not resemble a weapon. The first view is that it represents a gaping mouth, much like the mouth of a trap, and if it encounters intruders (in a metaphorical sense), then the four arms of the “anus eater” spring back trapping the intruders. The other view is that the “anus eater” symbolises the fate that would befall intruders, that is, their anuses would be split four ways.

I suggest, however, that there is a deeper symbolism running through the assemblage of apotropaic devices than that which is ostensibly portrayed by the apparent shapes of these devices. While the “elephant spears” do, indeed, suggest the symbolic impalement of intruders, pests, and so on, the “throat squeezers” and “anus eater” symbolise perhaps rather more which, quite conceivably, is related to the idioms of consumption that are a consistent and recurrent feature of Palokhi rituals. Both devices have, as their foci, the extremities of the alimentary canal and their “manifest” symbolic functions are to effect a dysfunctioning of these extremities in a general sense. Accordingly, the protection offered by these apotropaic devices would therefore be no other than that which is founded upon a latent image of non-functioning or “closed” alimentary canals in predators. It is an image which would be wholly consistent with a perception of such predators as competitors in the consumption of rice. In the rite called “wrist-tying at the reaping of rice” (which I discuss later [pp. 408–13]), for example, the rice souls are called upon to return from “within the throats of rats”.