ABSTRACT
The most important of the nats, and the most important of all the Burmese supernaturals, are the Thirty-Seven nats. Almost every house in Burma contains a coconut, hanging from the southeast pillar of the house, which is simultaneously a representation of, an offering to, and the residence of the most famous of the Thirty—Seven nats—Min Mahagiri, the house nat. Near the entrance to villages within a large district in Upper Burma is a small hutlike structure attached either to a tree or to a long pole and usually containing a cup of water, bits of food in a dish, flowers, and/or a bundle of leaves. Prior to the British conquests of Lower Burma it would have been difficult to determine whether the basis for the propitiation of a "mother's side-father's side" nat was hereditary or territorial.
