The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-12-06

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 Mats, according to people who say they know, are Kachin gods. More correctly, they're Kachin dev- ills. At any rate, they're evil char acterS and the Kachin religion, in- formed sources say, is based 'on ap- peasing the mats so disaster won't fall about the heads of the KachinS, their crops, and particularly at the present, their war against the Jap aneSe.
 The Kachins have dealt the Jap anese untold misery. They can be perhaps compared with the Amer ican Indian in their methods ot fighting and their knowledge of na- ture and the jungles. They fight war of ambush and on one occa- sion killed 120 of 200 ambushed Japanese. At least, 120 bodies were all that were found.
 Now most of the LevieS have gone home for their first leave in two years. But before they went, they staged ceremony celebrating their departure and appealing to the mats to be good characters and leave well enough alone.
 1000 Sit on Stake According to informed sources, the Kachins place sharpened bam- boo stakes in the ground as resting places for the mats. They believe the mats sit on the stakes. A thou sand or more can sit on one stake at the same time, which probably accounts for the respect they re- ceive.
 The main purpose of this recent festival and ceremony was to keep the mats on the stakes and away from dabbling in the affairs of men The celebration included tribal dances to the monotonous rhythm of gongs and small leather drums, drinking of rice beer, rice wine and 140-proof distilled bamboo juice, and the sacrifice of COWS. The cows were sacrificed by Stabbiag them to death with sharpened bamboo spears.
 The ceremony began in a large circular enclosure about 100 feet in diameter, fenced in by a low woven bamboo fence. In the center we're several symbols of religious nature, about a foot wide and F feet tall, covered with parachute cloth on which were painted intri- cate but not artistic designs, each having its own private meaning.
 Blast from Cops Whistle
 A British officer who kept up with such things said that a tall symbol in the center represented the religious head man. On each side were his assistants and be- yond each of them was a symbol representing an assistants wife. Before the officer could point out the location of the head mans wife, the ceremony began with a shrill blast from a policeman's whistle and a bang on gong.
 The dances, one by each of the seven tribes represented in the Kachin levies, were simple rhythm 1c affairs, with the participants hopping or stepping or waving their arms in time with the slow gong beat. One such, with the dancers forming a long line, looked like an early morning rhumba line made up of people too tired to go home Another, circular, jumping bus. mess accompanied by yells and ges- lures, was something like American Indian war dances. Most exciting was 8 solo dance by a man armed with two long razor-sharp knives which he brandished about his head. seemingly making passes at his own throat. He completed his routine unscathed.
 After the dances came the speeches, which everyone cheered, and then the sacrifices. Then the meat was carted away, part to be distributed about in the jungle for the mats, the rest to be cooked for eating.
 Then. the serious drinking, after which the party broke up like gay parties everywhere else-the par- ticipants went home to their wives.