Thunder

Thunder-spirit classed as deity. Karei is the best-attested Semang divinity; English head-word 'Thunder' leads, native 'Karei' in term. He is aided by a female earth-deity (sometimes a pair of sisters) identified with the earth-supporting snake (Naga'). Across bands his relation to the creator Ta Pedn varies — sometimes coordinate, sometimes Karei is subordinate to or identified with Ta Pedn. Semang languages are unwritten; the term is a Latin/transcription form. 'lawac' (also lawah) is the term for the punishable transgression.

Domains

• thunder and lightning
• taboo and divine punishment
• moral order and atonement

Powers

• send the thunderstorm against breakers of taboo
• demand a blood-offering thrown to the sky

Epithets

• Karei latin · Karei · cultThe supreme thunder-god, who sends the storm against those who break the law (the blood-offering)Paul Schebesta, Among the Forest Dwarfs of Malaya; I. H. N. Evans (secondary)

Relations

• spouse: ManoidReciprocal of semang_manoid.spouse — Band-variable kinship: Manoid is the thunder-god's wife in some Semang tellings, while elsewhere she is the grandmother (Yak) paired with Ta Pedn.P. Schebesta, Among the Forest Dwarfs of Malaya (1929) (primary)

Sources

• Karei (Kari) is the thunder-god of the Semang, regarded as male (sometimes a pair of brothers), who punishes taboo-breakers with thunderstorms.: Ivor H. N. Evans, The Negritos of Malaya, Cambridge University Press, 1937 (ethnography); Paul Schebesta, Die Negrito Asiens, vol. II.1: Religion und Mythologie, 1957 (ethnography)
• The central Semang rite is the blood sacrifice: drawing one's own blood (from the leg), mixing it with water and throwing it toward the thunder-god and the earth-deity to atone for a broken prohibition and stop the storm.: Ivor H. N. Evans, The Negritos of Malaya, 1937 (ethnography); Paul Schebesta, Die Negrito Asiens, vol. II.1, 1957 (ethnography)