Yesterday, I began working at 9:00am. I was working seriously since it was a bit troublesome and tough part, which was to add a pattern on a scarf. Just then, I caught a sorrowful sound of, I guess, a goat from the outside. It sounded so sad that I could not help thinking "What is going on? What is happened?" With my heart beating rapidly, I was no longer able to focus on my weaving work, but every one of the girls there was careless about such tragic bleat and just working silently. Looking at them behaving that way, I felt that it would be inappropriate to make a fuss, and I could do nothing but kept weaving. At heart I actually was very nervous though.

But then, I happened to see male staffs running after a black goat with a strong-looking rope in one hand. Though the black goat was running around trying to escape, the boys caught it at last, tied its legs and hung it upside down. All the while, the goat kept bleating with awfully tragic sound, but the girls seemed as if such sound was not reaching their ears and were putting their hearts into their weaving work. By that point, even to me, it was clear what was going to happen. After drawing blood by putting an edge of a large knife on the neck of the goat being hung upside down, the boys put it down on the ground and scraped the fur off its body as pouring boiling water over. It then turned into an unimaginably tiny chunk of meat. The scene I happened to witness from behind a weaving machine was something I have never seen in my life, and while being astonished, I was a bit frightened at the same time, and yet blamed myself for not having a camera with me. But I also felt some kind of awe from the solemn atmosphere hanging in the air.

Today, as I saw Ms. Bienghkam who manages a textile gallery, I asked her about the yesterday's incident.

Bienghkam told me that she has a 64-year-old mother who has been in poor health and taking medicines prescribed by a doctor for a week, but yet there is no sign of recovery at all. Then, feeling the need for a ritual conforming to the Laotian tradition, she went to see a conjurator to get charmed. There she was told to carry out a ritual as soon as possible to get rid of the disease. The conjurator added that otherwise her mother's life would disappear. The oracle she received was to kill a goat, two ducks, and a chicken, offer them for one day, and then eat them altogether. By carrying out this ritual, her mother would be able to live healthily for seven more years. She was also told to offer a water buffalo as a sacrifice in seven years.

That made sense. I now see why the girls and boys were taking such a serious but a bit inapproachable attitude yesterday.

As I asked "How is your mother doing?" Bienghkam seemed relieved as cheerfully replying "She is getting a little bit better."

Translated by Maiko Noda