These names are: Eh-nia, Keh-neh, Um-p'a-ma. The Nou-su
believe in ancestor worship, and perhaps the most interesting feature of
their religion is the peculiar form this worship takes. Instead of an
ancestral tablet such as the Chinese use, the Nou-su worship a small
basket (lolo) about as large as a duck's egg and made of split bamboo.
This 'lolo' contains small bamboo tubes an inch or two long, and as
thick as an ordinary Chinese pen handle. In these tubes are fastened a
piece of grass and a piece of sheep's wool. A man and his wife would be
represented by two tubes, and if he had two wives, an extra tube would
be placed in the 'lolo.' At the ceremony of consecration the Pehmo
attends, and a slave is set apart for the purpose of attending to all
the rites connected with the worship of the deceased person. The 'lolo'
is sometimes placed in the house, but more often on a tree in the
neighborhood or it may be hidden in a rock. For persons who are
short-lived, the ancestral 'lolo' is placed in a crevice in the wall of
some forsaken and ruined building. Every three years the 'lolo' is
changed, and the old one burnt. The term 'lolo,' by which the Nou-su are
generally known, is a contemptuous nickname given them by the Chinese in
reference to this peculiar method of venerating their ancestors.
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