him as “Uncle” (Avo). It is believed that the water spirit can give people a lot of fish as food, and a Ta-oi legend has it that the water spirit creates fish by putting grains of rice in a banana leaf and dropping them into the brook, thus turning them into fish. It is reported that when they were still in Laos Mr Quynh Say, Mr Quynh Chay have seen the water spirit at the water sources. The Ta-oi believe that the water spirit has a special relationship with the water supply pipe of the village: when water is first brought to the village through lo-o bamboo pipes, no one is allowed to use it; the village head and the heads of family clans perform a ritual dedicated to the water spirit with a cock as offering, beseeching it to make sure that the water flow would never dry up and that water would not cause belly ache to those who drink it. Thereafter, the cock is slaughtered near the Rong house and its blood is buried in the place of arrival of water. In that very place, the pillar where is attached the village water pipe is beautifully decorated and is strengthened and repaired each year, and some chicken blood is buried there (sol rtang dak). Before using the water for the first time, a ritual must be performed by the village head with a pig and a goat and a chicken as offerings to the water spirit (aul – avo dak).The inhabitants of other villages are not allowed to use that water. The house spirit (giang an teng) In the past, the Ta-oi lived in long houses where each family had its own room, where it worships its house spirit. In his dream, the family head may see the house spirit integrating itself into a loin cloth, a “reng” piece of cloth or any other thing. Thereafter, he would put that loin cloth or reng cloth..into a kang (a shoulder basket made for this specific purpose) which is put at a corner of the house, and would slaughter a chicken and perform a ritual on the arrival of the house spirit (giang an teng) into his house. From then on, when the family holds a ritual in connection with a funeral, a wedding, a ritual dedicated to the forest spirit or the water spirit, the ritual must also