PART I

THE LHOTA NAGAS

BY

J. P. MILLS, I.C.S.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES BY

J. H. HUTTON, C.I.E.

HON. DIRECTOR OF ETHNOGRAPHY, ASSAM

Published by direction of the Government of Assam

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON

1922

PREFACE

I have attempted in this monograph to give some account of the Lhota

Nagas, a tribe whose dour attitude towards inquirers has caused them to

be somewhat neglected in the past. Boasting no great knowledge of

anthropology, I have avoided theories and confined myself to facts.

During some three years’ residence at Mokokchung as Assistant

Commissioner I have had considerable opportunity of becoming acquainted

with the habits and customs of this tribe, many individual members of

which are now my personal friends.

The generosity of the Assam Government has made the publication of this

monograph possible, and my thanks are due to my many friends who have

assisted me in the preparation of it. But for the encouragement and

advice of Mr. J. H. Hutton, Deputy Commissioner of the Naga Hills and

Director of Ethnography in Assam, it would probably never have been

written. He has helped me throughout in every possible way, and has

contributed a most valuable introduction and notes. I am further

indebted to Mr. Hutton for six photographs and a drawing, while for two

other photographs my thanks are due to Mr. S. G. Butler. I have further

to thank Miss A. M. Grace of Hove for the coloured frontispiece and

Miss E. M. Paterson for the drawing of the median bands of the two

types of rükhusü. Lt.-Col. J. Shakespear has been kind enough to do the

index for me.

It is through the hearty co-operation of my Lhota friends that I have

been able to make some record of their tribal customs and beliefs, and

my thanks are especially due to Etsisao and Chongsemo of Okotso, Asao

and Chamimo of Pangti, Santemo of Niroyo, Ranchamo of Seleku, Yanasao

of Akuk, and Shambemo of Tsingaki. Tsansao, of the staff of the

Sub-divisional Officer, Mokokchung, gave me invaluable assistance in

recording folk-tales and typing my manuscript.

The only previous account of Lhota customs which I have seen is that

given by Mr. Hutton on pp. 362–370 of The Angami Nagas (Macmillan,

1921). Other investigators of Naga customs have, as a rule, dismissed

them with a few words. Dr. W. E. Wither’s Outline Grammar of the Lhota

Naga Language (Calcutta, 1888) I found most useful.

J. P. Mills.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction xi

PART I

General 1

Introductory—Origin and Migrations—Appearance—Dress—

Ornaments—Weapons—Character.

PART II

Domestic Life 21

The Village—The “Morung”—The Head-Tree—The House—The

Contents—Manufactures—Trade—Loans—Agriculture and the

Ceremonies connected with it—Live-stock—Hunting—Fishing

—Food—Drink—Medicine—Drugs—Games—Music—Daily Life.

PART III

Laws and Customs 87

Exogamy—Polity and Village Organization—Property—

Inheritance—Adoption—Settlement of Disputes—Oaths—

Friendships—War and Head-hunting—Slavery—Position of

Women.

PART IV

Religion 113

Religion—Deities and Spirits—The Soul and Life after

Death—Magic—Religious Officials—Public Ceremonies—

Individual Ceremonies—Ceremonies for Illness—Social

“gennas”—Birth—Marriage—Divorce—Death—Miscellaneous

Beliefs.

PART V

Folk-tales and Songs 174

PART VI

Language 207

PART VII

Appendix A—The Lhota Calendar 226

Appendix B—Mensuration 228

Appendix C—Human Sacrifice 230

Naga-Assamese Glossary 232

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TO FACE PAGE

AN ELDERLY MAN OF LUNGITANG WEARING LUNGPENSÜ AND

BIG EAR-PADS 7

YOUNG MARRIED WOMAN (OF OKOTSO) 7

ORNAMENTATION OF MEDIAN BAND OF RÜKHUSÜ 10

SOUTHERN LHOTAS IN FULL DRESS 13

CHAMIMO OF PANGTI 13

A LHOTA WARRIOR IN FULL DRESS 14

TYPES OF OBSOLETE DAOS (YANTHANG) 16

A LHOTA VILLAGE—HUMTSO 23

THE DOYANG RIVER FROM BELOW CHANGSÜ 23

A LHOTA MORUNG 25

A LHOTA HOUSE 31

SPINNING 39

WEAVING 39

FISHING 71

MINGETUNG 108

VILLAGE OHA AT THE FOOT OF MINGETUNG 108

AN OPYA BRISTLING WITH BAMBOO SPEARS THROWN AT IT AT

THE OYANTSOA “GENNA” 123

MORUNG (CHAMPO) AT PANGTI 123

“GENNA” STONE TIED ON TO A BAMBOO FRAME-WORK READY TO

BE CARRIED UP TO THE VILLAGE FOR THE STONE-DRAGGING

CEREMONY 142

GRAVE OF A WARRIOR DECORATED WITH HIS ORNAMENTS AND A

TALLY OF THE HEADS HE HAS TAKEN (NORTHERN LHOTAS) 142

FORKED POST (TSONGZÜ) AT YEKHUM, PUT UP INSTEAD OF A

“GENNA” STONE 144

THE TWO PUTHIS OF AKUK COLLECTING RICE FOR THE TUKU

CEREMONY 144

ENO 160

NRITANGPENG OF A MAN WHO HAS KILLED AN ELEPHANT 160

A MEDICINE MAN (RATSEN) IN A FIT 164

A DANCER AT THE REBUILDING OF A MORUNG 164

MAPS

SKETCH MAP TO SHOW TRIBES AND PLACES MENTIONED IN THE

INTRODUCTION xl

MAP SHOWING LHOTAS AND NEIGHBOURING TRIBES at end

MAP OF THE LHOTA COUNTRY

INTRODUCTION

When I made over charge of the Mokokchung Subdivision of the Naga Hills

to Mr. Mills in November 1917, I urged him to study in particular the

Lhota tribe with a view to writing a monograph on them. The reason why

I selected the Lhotas was that it appeared to me that they, more than

any other tribe in the Naga Hills District, were beginning to lose

their distinctive features and were in danger of early

denationalization between the upper and the nether mill-stones of

Christianity, as taught by the American Baptist Mission, and Hinduism,

as practised by the Nepali settler or by the Assamese who are the

neighbours of the Lhota on the plains side. It was already a very rare

thing to see a Lhota in ceremonial dress, and it was a, to me,

unpleasantly common thing to have Lhota ceremonies and the officials of

the Lhota hierarchy spoken of in spurious terms of Hinduism. The

Baptist Mission, with its headquarters at “Impur” in the Ao country,

was at work in the north, and one of the first disputes I had to deal

with when I went to Mokokchung in 1913 was a complaint from the village

of Pangti that a missionary had been initiating his converts by

immersing them in the village spring, to which the village elders

objected both on sanitary and religious (or, if you will,

superstitious) grounds on the lines of Tennyson’s Churchwarden when he

complained of the Baptists—

“They wesh’d their sins i’ my pond,

an’ I doubts they poison’d the cow.”

The Hindu tendency was most noticeable in the south, and it was at

Kohima that one of my Lhota interpreters, by his office the natural

guardian and exponent of tribal customs, came to me to ask for leave,

as his village was about to perform the “Lakshmi puja,” by which he

meant the Rangsikam.

I am happy in thinking that not only have Mr. Mills’ efforts in

investigating the customs and beliefs of the Lhota tribe succeeded in

putting them on record while there was yet time, but they have also

incidentally contributed not a little to revivify their observance. For

there is no question but that they had begun to lose their hold. The

prohibition of head-hunting alone was bound to act in that direction.

In one small and decaying village (Lisio) Mr. Mills found that there

had been no Puthi, and therefore presumably no communal ceremonies, for

twenty years. There is now a Puthi and the ceremonial life of the

village has acquired fresh vigour, and I have some hopes that the decay

that had set in may be thereby staved off, for it cannot contribute to

healthy life to be deprived entirely of all public and communal

ceremonies, and to revive them may do good. Again, at Okotso, when I

first knew it, about a third of the village had turned Christian: the

remainder, having observed that no immediate disaster seemed to follow

the forsaking of ancestral customs, but being in no wise desirous to

take up the burden of the angel of the Church of Impur, who looks with

disapproval on tobacco and the national dress and insists on total

prohibition as regards fermented liquor, had lapsed into a spiritual

limbo in which they observed no religious customs at all. The “morungs”

had fallen into decay and the young men would not take the trouble to

renew them; the village ceremonies, if observed at all, were observed

in the most perfunctory manner, and the community as a whole took

neither part nor interest, giving at best an apathetic conformity not

perhaps entirely unparalleled in modern Britain. How far it is due to

Mr. Mills’ interest in Lhota custom I do not know, but the

non-Christian population of Okotso has certainly reformed, rebuilt its

“morungs,” and re-instituted the Oyantsoa in its fullness.

The hill country in which the Lhota lives is a very beautiful one

indeed. I am sitting on the banks of the Dayang as I write, and if the

Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, are one whit as lovely as

the Dayang and the Chebi, then verily had Naaman the right of it. But

the Lhota himself has not been fortunate in his critics. From Lieut.

Bigge, the first to make his acquaintance, in 1841, down to even Col.

Woods, whose acquaintance with the Lhota ended in 1912, he has been

stigmatized as surly, sullen, or sulky. Yet it is most undeserved.

Absurdly sensitive to ridicule, and, partly no doubt for that reason,

extremely reticent, he is not near so readily moved to hilarity as his

neighbour the Sema, or even the Angami. Dour he is, and very canny;

hardly could even Mr. Punch’s Aberdonian better him in the virtue (or

is it “vice”?) of thrift. If the Sema among Naga tribes be likened to

the Irishman (I think the comparison is Mr. Mills’ originally), then

the Lhota is the Scot among them. He is far from inhospitable and I

think he has been misjudged, because his critics, while having more

than the casual acquaintance which is predisposed to be attracted by

the manly hill man, and having discovered that he is not so delightful

a person as one would like to believe, have never penetrated to the

real intimacy which would have ended in a very mutual esteem. Possibly

too they may have judged him in some cases from the point of view from

which La Fontaine writes of his cat,

“Cet animal est très méchant;

Quand on l’attaque il se défend!”

and it must be admitted that the Naga, suspicious of strangers as he

is, is a little apt to defend himself before he has been attacked at

all. However that may be, I can state without reserve that Mr. Mills,

during the three and a half years in which he has had to decide their

disputes and deal with the Lhotas in various ways, has fully gained

their confidence—without it this book could not have been written—and

has doubtless found them, as I have myself, very pleasant companions,

particularly on the river or in the jungle or after dangerous game.

The Lhota occupies to some extent a midway position among Naga tribes

between the cultures typical of the north and of the south, and is

particularly interesting as retaining very clear indications of the

composite origin of the tribe. The main body are perhaps of the same

origin as the Sangtams, and hence from the south, perhaps from the

Chindwin valley in Burma to which the Southern Sangtams trace their

origin. Thence there are traditions of Lhota sojourners at Kezakenoma

(Keshur) and at Kohima in the present Angami country, and at Themoketsa

and the extinct village of the hero Pembvo in the Rengma country.

Indeed it is now no longer quite clear whether this chief was a Lhota

or a Rengma, and whether he protected against the pursuing Angamis the

rearguard of the Lhotas crossing the Dayang northwards, or that of the

Rengmas migrating westwards to the Mikir Hills, but the Lhotas of the

neighbouring villages jealously preserve his memory and all that

touches him, while Chankerhomo, who is associated with him in legend

and who slew in one day thirty Angami warriors of Phekekrima, only to

be eventually captured and tortured to death by them, was undoubtedly a

Lhota and the site of his execution is still shown. Indubitably the

Lhotas have been subject to the influence of the same cultures as the

Angamis, and it may be seen in their practice of the erection of

monoliths on the performance of certain ceremonies, in the practice of

burial and in the manner of taking omens, which both Angami and Lhota

do by dropping chips cut from a reed instead of by the fire-stick like

other Naga tribes. Like that of the Angamis too is the Lhota social

organization into three phratries, though it is conceivable that in

both tribes the use of the word apfu for mother, as in one phratry, is

of southern or eastern origin and the use of azo or oyo by the others

is of the western immigration from the plains of Assam, where ayo is

still the Assamese word for ‘mother.’ The Rengmas, however, very like

the Lhotas in many respects, and having a similar dual system, seem to

have migrated generally from east to west, the bulk of the Rengma tribe

having moved from the Naga Hills westward across the Dhansiri valley to

the Mikir Hills only a hundred years ago.

Alongside the traces of immigration from the south we have the clear

tradition among the Lhotas of an origin from the Himalayas and the

plains of Assam, and the use of the cross-bow, the tradition of the

tsonak and the strictly preserved yanthang “daos” alike connect the

Lhota with the north bank of the Brahmaputra, or with the Singphos.

Thirdly, we have stories of fighting stones and of girls that came out

of oranges or bamboo shoots [1] almost identical in form with stories

told by the Khasis, [2] and traceable perhaps to Bodo or Mon-Khmêr

survivals. The Lhotas too are prolific in families descended from

“jungle men” caught and kept as slaves.

In the remaining pages of the Introduction I have endeavoured to give a

general idea of the composition of the Naga tribes with a view to a

better appreciation of the position among them of the Lhota tribe

itself, and of the significance of many points in Mr. Mills’ account of

that tribe.

It is generally assumed in a vague sort of way that those tribes which

are spoken of as Nagas have something in common with each other which

distinguishes them from the many other tribes found in Assam and

entitles them to be regarded as a racial unit in themselves. It has

been asserted that the Naga tribes are marked by a very strong

affection for their village sites in contradistinction to the Kukis and

perhaps other tribes like the Garos and Hill Kacharis. [3] But this

love of old sites, even if true of most Naga tribes, is certainly not

true of all and really exists in a very marked degree rather among the

Angamis than among Nagas as such, while even the Angamis can recount

their genealogies back to a time when their tribe was still in that

migratory stage still characteristic, more or less, of Kukis, Garos and

the Sema Nagas, and probably not far distant in the past of the Kacha

Naga tribes. The truth is that if not impossible it is exceedingly

difficult to propound any test by which a Naga tribe can be

distinguished from other Assam and Burma tribes which are not Nagas.

[4]

The expression “Naga” [5] is, however, useful as an arbitrary term to

denote the tribes living in certain parts of the Assam hills, which may

be roughly defined as bounded by the Hukong valley in the north-east,

the plains of the Brahmaputra valley to the north-west, of Cachar to

the south-west and of the Chindwin to the east. In the south the

Manipur valley roughly marks the point of contact between the “Naga”

tribes and the very much more closely interrelated group of Kuki

tribes—Thado, Lushei, Chin, etc.

This area now occupied by the Naga tribes is known to have been subject

to at least three great immigrations of races from different

directions. Thus there is known to have been (1) immigration from the

direction of Tibet and Nepal; [6] the Singphos are known to have come

from this direction, and it is probable that the Akas, Mishmis [7] and

other tribes of the north bank of the Brahmaputra did also, while the

Bodo tribes—Garos, Mikirs and Kacharis—certainly came from the same

direction. There has also been (2) immigration from the direction of

Southern China across the valley of the Irawadi, [8] of which movement

the Tai races—Shans, Ahoms, Tamans, etc.—formed part. And at the same

time there has been (3) immigration from the south which has barely

stopped now, for the Lushei-Kuki migration was still progressing

northwards until 1918, when it was only just prevented from spreading

into the unexplored area north of the Ti-Ho (Nantaleik) river by

driving the newly-formed colonies on the north bank back across the

river at the end of the rains in 1918 before the operations against the

Kukis opened in the following cold weather. By that time the Kukis in

their attempt to migrate north had already attacked Makware.

The Lushei, Thado and other Kuki tribes are perhaps themselves another

branch of the northern immigration, [9] but if so they must have turned

north again, for they drove up from the south in front of them both the

old Kukis—possibly non-Kuki tribes [10] already subjected to Kuki

influence—and that very different race which became the predominating

factor in the Angami Naga tribe, and which has probably entered to a

lesser degree into the composition of a number of its neighbours. The

Angamis or the ancestors of a section of what is now the Angami tribe

were undoubtedly located far to the south of the present Naga Hills.

In addition to these immigrants we have (4) still another element in

the Kol-Mon-Annam occupation which almost certainly extended over part

of the area now inhabited by Naga tribes. [11]

There is evidence to support a contention that traces of all these race

movements are to be found in the culture and composition of the tribes

now occupying the Naga Hills and known collectively as “Nagas.”

First of all we have the Naga traditions of origin themselves,

indicating, as one would expect to find, almost all the points of the

compass. From Tamlu northwards there are the various Konyak tribes,

whose traditions of origin at least include an ascription of their

origin to the hills to the north and to migration from the plains in

the west or north-west as well, though others, perhaps with Singpho

affinities, reached their present country from the north-east, while

one or two Konyak villages, indistinguishable from the Konyaks

generally in culture, claim an origin from the country to the south of

them at present occupied by Aos. Like the Konyaks, the Aos claim a part

origin from the plains to the north-west, though the bulk of the tribe

claims an autochthonous source at Chongliemdi. [12] The Khoirao again,

or some of them, for the Khoirao Naga villages are hardly uniform

enough to be described as forming a tribe, claim a western origin from

the plains of Assam, and this in particular is the case with Ngari and

perhaps one or two neighbouring villages, who have been less affected

by Memi Angami culture than the others, and of whose connection with

the Semas there can be no doubt. The Semas trace their origin to the

south, and may certainly be connected through the two villages called

“Swemi” (one of which is still Sema though surrounded by Angamis) with

the Khoiraos of Ngari and so with a western origin; [13] while a

connection is to be traced between the Sema with this western origin,

and the Kacharis, Garos, Lynngams and Bhois. The same probably applies

to the Kezami-Angamis, though the infusion of Angami blood and culture

has swamped the Sema characteristics. It is to be noted that Grierson

classes the Khoirao language as Naga-Bodo, and Kacharis, while allowing

Nagas, or at any rate Kacha Nagas, to eat and sleep in the porches of

their houses, refuse to allow Kukis inside them at all, giving as their

reason for this that the Kacharis and the Nagas were originally

descended from two brothers, whereas the Kuki is an alien entirely.

Possibly there may also be some connection between certain elements of

these Bodo tribes and the Manö and Southern Brè tribes of the Karens in

Burma. At the same time the Semas have absorbed numerous villages of

Sangtams who trace their origin to the south or south-east, the

Southern Sangtams putting it ultimately in Burma.

From the north-east or east, as has been mentioned, some of the Konyaks

derive their origin. The Kalyo-Kengyu tribe, with perhaps Singpho

affinities, trace their origin to the north in so far as can be

ascertained from the two or three villages on the Ti-Ho river with

which we are at present in contact. The Sangtam claim to a

south-eastern origin has been mentioned. The Northern Sangtams merely

point to the south, but the Southern Sangtams derive their origin from

the Chindwin valley to the south-east of them, and have a vague

tradition that their tribe has become separated into two parts of which

one went apparently west, while remnants are believed to exist in the

Chindwin valley still. It seems likely that the part of the tribe that

went westwards may be represented to-day in the Lhota tribe, who have a

similar if more definite tradition about the splitting of their tribe

into two parts, of which one stayed behind at the time of migration.

The Tamans, again, located round Tamanthi in the Chindwin valley were

at one time located in the hills to the east of them and returned to

the valley, leaving some of their fellow-tribesmen behind in the hills,

and might possibly be connected with those same Southern Sangtams. In

any case they trace their origin to China across the Irawadi valley,

and the descendants of part of their tribe are presumably still

somewhere represented among the Naga tribes.

Of tribes with a southern origin, the Angami is the principal if not

the only representative, though here again we find strong indications

of a mixed origin. To their present site they came from the south-east,

having come into their present country from the Tangkhul country to the

south of them, but unmistakable traces of terraced cultivation have

been found far to the south in the Lushai Hills, and it is possible

that the immigrants, who brought in this method of agriculture so

peculiarly the attribute of the Angami and, though in a less perfect

form, of their Tangkhul neighbours, came from further south still.

While a spirit in the sky is regarded by Angamis as the ancestress of

them all, one legend of their origin, a legend apparently of the

Kepepfüma division of the tribe, derives the Memi Angamis from the

daughter of a local god at Mekrima (Maikel) impregnated by a cloud that

came out of the south, and while a common Angami tradition points to a

village, in the Tangkhul country, known to them as Piwhema, as the

remotest place known to have been a fount of the Angami tribe, a

commoner legend still traces the two divisions of the Angami tribe, the

Kepezoma and the Kepepfüma, to two brothers who emerged from the bowels

of the earth at Mekrima just as the ancestors of the Ao tribe emerged

at “Six-Stones” on Chongliemdi Hill. In Kohima itself, however, the

biggest Angami village, one important clan, the Puchatsuma, came from

the west like the Khoiraos, while another clan claims to have come from

the south-west where the present country of the Kacha Nagas is. Part of

the Chang tribe again claims an origin from the south, though part

admits to a common origin with the Aos from Chongliemdi, perhaps due to

the Ao blood incorporated with the Changs in the course of their

extension westwards. They would seem also to have Konyak, Kachin, or

Singpho affinities in some respects. But the Changs have a very clear

and definite tradition of a complete change in their language, habits,

dress and everything else having taken place a few generations ago.

Their immediate origin several tribes place in the south. The Rengmas

thus migrated from the Kezami-Angami country, throwing out the Naked

Rengmas eastwards to Melomi, and ultimately sending the bigger portion

of the tribe westwards to the Mikir Hills. Tangkhuls point to the south

or to the east, Lhotas to the south with Rengmas and Angamis, though

there is one element in the Lhota country that points very definitely

to the snows of the Himalayas seen far to the north-west as the home of

their ancestors. All Naga tribes also have legends of clans descended

from indigenous women out of caves or wild men caught in the jungle and

tamed, whose descendants are now no longer distinguishable except by

this tradition from the rest of the tribe. Thus there are many Lhota

clans usually described as descended from jungle “spirits” [14]

captured by men of their tribe; the Phoms have a clan descended from a

woman with a child who emerged from a cave when they occupied the

country; the Angamis of Kohima have a clan descended from a far-distant

ancestor “of the wood-cutting generation” who was caught in the forest

and tamed by one of the earliest Angami occupants of Kohima village.

Again, just as each tribe, almost, contains traditions which cannot be

reconciled with a homogeneous origin, so marked differences of type and

physique are everywhere traceable, not only as between different

tribes, where they are in some cases most pronounced, but as between

individuals in the same tribe. Of course within the tribe each village

tends to form its own type, and after some experience of any tribe it

is possible to locate with some accuracy the villages of persons met by

the shape and appearance of their faces, but beyond this the physical

types are different. The Angami is tall and well proportioned, the

Tengima and Memi sub-tribes in particular having straight eyes and a

nose sometimes even aquiline, [15] but in any case features that are

far more regular than the very Mongolian-looking Sema, whose tendency

is most decidedly towards a flat nose and oblique eyes, combined with a

figure shorter and squatter than the Angamis. Another distinguishing

mark of the Angami among Naga tribes is the huge calves he has on his

legs. This is so marked that it finds a place in Sema folk-lore and is

a proverbial characteristic of the Angami. Yet one can see no reason in

external circumstances for the development of the calf of the Angami

leg any more than that of any other Naga leg. The Angami’s mountains

are no steeper than any other Naga’s, nor does he descend and ascend

them any oftener. The Kukis have a similar calf development, but it is

not combined as a rule with the tall stature of the Angami. The Chang

has the stature but not the breadth nor the calf, being rather

curiously built on very marked lines of his own—tall, lean and narrow,

though muscular enough.

In colour again there is much variation, and though the height at which

a village is situated seems most definitely to affect the complexion of

its occupants, it will by no means entirely account for the variation

in colour to be found both between different tribes and again between

different individuals within the tribes. Generally speaking three

distinct colour types may be traced, corresponding more or less to the

“straight-haired light brown race,” the “wavy-haired brown race” and

the “crisp-haired dark-brown race” into which Ratzel divides the races

of Indonesia. [16] Generally speaking the predominating colour among

the Naga tribes is red. A really dark skin, such as that of the Central

Indian or Santali coolies who work on tea gardens, is spoken of with

contempt and aversion, and the Changs go so far as to say that the only

decent colour for a man is red, disliking white less than black, it is

true, but nevertheless regarding it as decidedly unpleasing and

classifying Nagas only as Mat-mei, “real men,” of whom a red skin is an

attribute. With this red or light brown skin wavy hair is usual. In

villages at a high altitude the skin is often so fair that the pink of

the blood can be seen in the cheeks and a blush is easily detected. On

the other hand, a fair and sallow complexion and straight hair are

often to be seen in all tribes and at all altitudes, being apparently

independent of climate and little affected by it, but much more

prevalent among Manipuris and Kukis, in Ao Nagas and in the Konyak

tribes, than among other tribes. It is less common in Lhotas and hardly

to be seen at all among the Angamis, who are a very pronounced red,

while among the Semas, who are a darker brown than the Angamis though

in some high villages very fair (when washed), the sallow type is rarer

than among Lhotas. Everywhere and in all these tribes alike the

children are apt to have rusty-coloured reddish hair, which usually

turns black [17] as they get older.

Much rarer than the sallow type is that associated with a decidedly

dark brown skin and fuzzy hair suggesting the Negrito type. [18]

Individuals of this type may be met with occasionally in all tribes,

but they are nowhere very common, though perhaps least rare among

Phoms, Konyaks and Aos. The fuzzy hair is always a subject for

derision, being regarded as most unsightly (straight hair is by all

looked on as the most becoming), and more so perhaps even than a dark

skin.

Cephalic indices, as far as data are available, suggest a connection

between Aos, Manipuris and the Ahoms and perhaps some other

sub-Himalayan tribes of Assam, which might be due to a common infusion

of Tai blood.

One very marked line of cleavage between Naga tribes and their

neighbours is to be found in the methods of disposal of the dead.

Burning is practised in this hill area only by the Hinduized Manipuris

to the south and by the Singphos (or some of them) [19] to the

north-east, but the other methods practised in disposing of the dead

may be roughly classified as burial, exposure and, for want of a better

term, desiccation.

Burial is practised by the Angami, Sema, Rengma, Lhota, Sangtam,

Yachungr, Tangkhul and Kacha Nagas and by the Kukis, but the burial is

not in all cases absolute. Thus the Kukis, in the case of rich or

famous men, sometimes detach the head after decomposition and place it

in a cleft or hole in the side of a cliff where it could be got at only

with great difficulty. This practice is very rare, but certainly exists

or existed among some or all clans of Thado Kukis. Again, the Yachungr

and some of the Southern Sangtams bury their dead inside the house

under the bed, and do not hesitate to disturb the grave and dig out the

bones of its last occupant to make room for a new one. The Tangkhuls

and some, at any rate, of the Naked Rengmas build small houses over

their graves with little ladders up to them for the ghost to inhabit,

while the Lhotas, Sangtams and Semas build thatched roofs over their

graves, which perhaps suggests that they formerly exposed the bodies in

the miniature houses, since Aos who have turned Christian, though they

bury the body, build a thatched roof over the grave like that which

would be put over a body exposed on a platform if they followed the

custom of their unconverted fellow-tribesmen. North of the tribes

mentioned exposure on a platform is the rule, the body being in some

cases smoked first. Among Aos rich men are smoke-dried in their houses

for two months. The platform usually consists of a bamboo shelf

thatched over like a house and covered in at the ends, though some

Konyaks use a wooden dug-out like a boat to contain the body, reminding

one of the Lhota practice of using a dug-out boat-shaped coffin. In the

case, however, of the tribes that practise exposure, the practice here

again may be described as not absolute. The Phoms and some Konyaks

separate the head from the body, wrenching it off after decomposition,

the latter in some cases collecting the skulls in pots in a separate

place, and in others putting them out on stone platforms, while the

Phoms put them in niches in the cliffs. Both Phoms and some Konyaks

bring the heads of deceased men into their houses for a time (the Phoms

for a year) and treat them while there with some ceremony. [20]

The Chang tribe occupies a midway position both geographically and

culturally between the burying tribes and the exposing tribes, and

practises both customs indiscriminately and in accordance with the

fancy of the individual, though exposure is believed to be the newer

form of treating the dead. [21]

To the north-east or east of the tribes already mentioned in this

connection the Kalyo-Kengyu tribe, or part of that tribe, practises

what I can only describe as “desiccation” of the dead. This custom of

theirs has probably not before been placed on record. The dead are

smoked in their houses for two months over a fire and then the

smoke-dried body is retained as it is in a wooden coffin like a lidless

box with a mat or bit of thatch to cover it, either inside the house or

just outside the mat-work walling and immediately under the eaves at

the point nearest to the hearth. Here it is kept until the next sowing,

when on an appointed day all those who have died since last year’s

sowing are brought out, their withered bodies broken up, and their

bones picked out and counted by a number of persons of both sexes, not

fewer than a fixed minimum, slightly less for a woman than a man. The

bones of each corpse are placed in an earthen pot and put at the back

of the family granary, where they remain untouched till they dissolve

into dust or till the granary rots and falls on them, while the broken

bits of body together with the coffin and its appurtenances are thrown

away into the jungle, preferably over a steep place near the edge of

the village.

When the implements and weapons of the tribes in the Naga Hills area

are examined, it appears that while some are of marked northern form,

others are clearly connected with Indonesian forms such as those in use

among the Igorot of the Philippines, while other patterns seem to show

a very clear connection with the Kol-Mon-Annam types. One type of

northern origin is represented by the Kabui dancing dao and by a

similar dao intended for real use. The latter is very rare, but I have

one specimen picked up in a remote Kacha Naga village. It is precisely

similar to a dao figured on page 190 of Major Butler’s Sketch of Assam

(Smith, Elder & Co., 1847) as a Bhutanese weapon. One kind of obsolete

Lhota yanthang is also a northern type. [22] Both these kinds of Naga

daos are remarkable for the way in which the iron of the tang, which

fastens the blade to the wooden handle, projects beyond the hilt into a

sharp point, the object of which seems to be to facilitate sticking the

dao in the ground by one’s side when sitting. The Garos use a similar

type (and seem to be a tribe of northern origin), but so do the Khasis,

and it is possible that the type may have some other source. In any

case it is very marked and distinct from any kind of dao in general use

among Naga tribes. Of weapons suggesting relationship with Philippine

Island tribes there is a type of spear with ornamental barbs curving

outwards from the shaft, of which some Angami patterns closely resemble

the Igorot spear, while I have an old Kacha Naga spear with a head

identical in shape with Igorot spear-heads. This barbed type seems not

to occur north of the Angami country, though the Aos may at one time

have used miniature imitations of such spears for money, and I have an

obsolete Konyak spear-head with straight barbs closely resembling the

straight-barbed Igorot type. Again, there is a rare Tangkhul dao with a

long projection behind resembling a common type of Igorot dao, while

the stone hammer used by all Naga smiths could scarcely be

distinguished from a similar hammer from the Philippines. [23]

With the Kol-Mon-Annam family the shouldered hoe (see Gurdon, The

Khasis, p. 12) has been intimately associated. The Yachungr Naga hoe

(thoù), obtained from a tribe hitherto almost entirely isolated from

regular intercourse with its neighbours, is almost identical with the

miniature Khasi hoe used for hoeing sweet potatoes, and is very similar

to the Mikir hoe of the same type, while Mr. Peal found shouldered hoes

of a squarer type among some of the Konyak Nagas. Both these types

closely resemble some Battak hoes from Sumatra in the Leipzig Museum of

Ethnology (Ratzel, op. cit. I. p. 429) and are much the same shape as

the Easter Island obsidian tanged blades. [24]

The question of the use of the bow is also to be considered. While the

cross-bow is the weapon of Singphos, and has been adopted from them

apparently by the Naga tribes of the north-east in direct or indirect

communication with them, it is not in general use among the Naga

tribes. [25] The simple bow is also not the natural weapon of a Naga.

While the Kukis, before they acquired guns, relied, like the Khasis,

principally on the bow, the Naga rarely uses it. The weapon was known

to the Semas and is still employed by children as a toy, and the

Angamis have learnt the use of the pellet-bow, possibly from the Kukis,

and use it for killing small birds, but as a serious weapon the bow is

not used by either tribe; and though the Semas believe that their

ancestors used it, the Angamis appear never to have done so, a fact

which is interesting in view of the apparent absence or scarcity of the

bow in Borneo, Sumatra, and the Celebes (vide Ratzel’s Map, op. cit.,

Vol. I. p. 145).

Another point to be noticed is the use of the war drum. Sangtams, or

rather Northern Sangtams, Aos and the Konyak tribes, and probably the

Yachungr and Chang tribes in some degree, make enormous drums out of a

whole tree hollowed through a narrow slit in the top, and the ends

carved usually with a mithan head and hornbill tail respectively. This

drum, when beaten by the young men who can line up to twenty or thirty

or more on each side with drumsticks like dumb-bells, will send a

challenge, a pæan of victory, or a dirge for the dead, for miles. But

the Southern Nagas—Lhotas, Semas, South Sangtams, Rengmas, Angamis

etc.—do not make these drums at all. [26]

Diversity of origin on the part of the Naga tribes is suggested again

by a number of miscellaneous considerations. Most Nagas for instance

reap with a reaping-hook, but the Sema, like the Manö and Southern Brè

(Karens) of Burma, [27] and like the Garos, [28] use their hand only,

stripping the grain from the stalk straight into the basket, a most

painful method if it does save threshing.

The use of terraced cultivation forms a very marked point of

distinction between Naga tribes. The various branches of the Angami

tribe practise it in its most elaborate form, followed closely by some

Khoirao and Kacha Naga (Nzemi) villages very strongly dominated by

Angami culture, and followed in a quite appreciably less elaborate way

by Naked Rengmas, Tangkhuls and Maram Nagas. Other tribes do not use

irrigated terraces at all, if we except the Semas, among whom it has

been deliberately introduced by Government, and who still only practise

this form of cultivation in a very small degree, save in a few villages

who have adopted Angami culture in general. At the same time, even

among the Angamis, the Chakroma villages have no terraces. It may be

noted that the Angami system of terraces produces physical features

exactly like the system of the Bontoc Igorot in the Philippines.

Among the tribes that jhum there is a marked difference in the method

of sowing rice. The more southern tribes—Angami, Lhota, Rengma,

Sema—sow carefully, digging a little hollow and dropping in the grain.

The Aos and Changs, on the other hand, sow anyhow, just chucking the

seed down broadcast, and so do the Konyaks, in so far as they sow rice

at all. The amazing fact about the latter is that taro, not rice, is

the staple crop, and in spite of excellent land for rice cultivation,

they only sow very little. They prefer taro (Colocasia antiquorum).

[29]

Closely associated with terraced cultivation is the custom of erecting

megalithic monuments. The erectors of the most numerous monoliths are

the tribes practising terraced cultivation, though Kacha Nagas

(Lyengmei) and Kabuis put up little dolmens and occasional monoliths,

while the Lhotas and Rengmas proper, also having no terraced

cultivation, yet erect monoliths and alignments of monoliths in all

their villages. North and east of the two latter tribes, however, few

Nagas seem to put up either, and the place of stones in ceremonial is

apparently taken by wooden and Y-shaped posts, used by Semas, Sangtams,

Kalyo-Kengyu, Chang and possibly other tribes, while the Ao uses

round-topped posts or posts with a divided top. [30] The Garos, it may

be noticed, also use the Y-shaped post, while the similarity of both

the Y-shaped Sema post and the round-topped Ao post respectively to the

bifurcated and round-topped stones left by the old Kachari kings at

Dimapur is too close for mere coincidence. It should be added that Mr.

Mills tells us that Lhotas occasionally substitute a Y-shaped post for

a stone in their ceremonials where no stones suitable for erection can

be found, while there is a kindred of a clan in Yekhum village which

migrated from further east and which habitually erects posts, as it is

not allowed to erect stones. [31] In building, again, while the

Angamis, Tangkhuls, Semas and other tribes south of them build on the

ground, the Aos and other tribes to the north build on a bamboo

platform or “machan.” The Lhota method is a sort of compromise, as when

he builds on a “machan” he covers the floor with earth.

Even more than their customs the social constitution of several Naga

tribes suggests a diversity of origin. In more than one tribe we find

traces of a dual division crossed by a triple one, and indicating a

division into three elements, either as three separate groups or as two

primary groups, one of which is again split making three. In addition

to these there are odd clans descended from “men caught in the jungle”

and others, as already mentioned. Thus among the Aos are found two

linguistic groups, Chongli and Mongsen, existing side by side in the

same villages though retaining frequently their different languages,

and always, among the women, their differences of tattoo and of

hairdressing. The word for “mother” in the one of these two Ao

languages is ocha (Chongli), in the other avu (Mongsen). Across this

dual division of the Aos we get a triple division into three clans,

Pongen, Langkam and Chami, which are nominally at any rate exogamous

and which run through both the linguistic groups, though the

nomenclature varies, and though the whole exogamous system is somewhat

complicated by subdivision and by adoption from one group to another.

Of the three groups mentioned Pongen is generally recognized as doyen,

while the social position of Chami is usually regarded as decidedly

inferior to the other two. Again, among the Southern Konyak villages at

any rate there seem to be two linguistic and tattoo groups (one of

which tattoos the face of the warrior and the other the chest only)

called Thendu and Thenkoh, while there are said to be also three social

divisions running through both groups, of which the first, called Ang,

[32] corresponds to the Ao “Pongen” and provides hereditary chiefs in

those villages which possess them, though in the case of the Konyak

chief the heir to the chieftainship has to be of Ang blood by both

parents, contrary to the prevailing exogamous system. In the Rengma

tribe we have again two linguistic groups, as among the Aos, existing

side by side sometimes in the same village, and called Inseni-Kotsenu

and Tseminyu respectively. Of these two groups the latter apparently

are again divided into two parts distinguished by the use of different

terms for “mother” (avyo and apfsü). [33] The Angamis are again divided

into two groups commonly known as Thevoma and Thekronoma (or Cheroma)

or Solhima, using the words azo and apfu respectively for “mother,”

although the former term only is in use among the numerous Chakrima

sub-tribe of Angamis, though the distinction between the Thekronoma,

called by them Solhima, and the Thevoma is recognized. These two

divisions of the Angamis may be spoken of as Pezoma and Pepfüma

respectively according to the terms they use for “mother.” The Pezoma

group appears to be also subdivided into Sachema and Thevoma, two

divisions of more or less equal status, though the former is actually

the senior. Nowadays, however, the Sachema group, which is very small

indeed numerically as compared with Thevoma, has been virtually lost

sight of, and “Thevoma” includes the whole of the Pezoma. It should be

added that according to tradition the Thekrono division was originally

the elder, but was cheated of its birthright by the first ancestor of

the Thevo division. The word Solhima, used ordinarily by a large part

of the Angami tribe for the Thekronoma division, means “alien” or

“stranger.” [34] In the Memi group of the Angamis we have again a third

division, called Cherhechima in some villages, which is regarded as

socially inferior to such an extent that the other Memi will not

intermarry with it. This division seems also to be regarded as the

source of some unlucky emanation which has an evil influence on any who

fall under it, though the neighbouring Tengima, Dzunokehena and Kezami

Angamis have no objection at all to intermarrying with the Cherhechima.

The Lhotas seem to be divided like the Angami into two phratries using

oyo for “mother,” with a third using opfu, and, as in the case of the

Angamis, the use of the distinct terms does not extend throughout the

whole tribe, but seems to be dying out. [35]

Turning to the polity of the village, different tribes have very

different customs. Among the Semas a system of hereditary chiefs

exists, each chief having an almost feudal position as lord of the

manor of his village, a system which seems to have obtained among the

Kacharis, as the remnants of it are still perceptible among the remote

Kachari villages of the south-west of the Naga Hills. The Changs have a

system of chiefs very like that of the Semas, and both may be compared

in this respect to the Thado Kukis, though among the latter the system

is more elaborately developed. The Konyaks too have hereditary chiefs

in the Thendu section of the tribe, though not in the Thenkoh division,

but among the Konyaks the priestly side of the chieftainship seems more

prominent than among the other Naga tribes with chiefs. [36] On the

other hand, the Ao and Tangkhul villages are governed by bodies of

elders representing the principal kindreds in the village, while the

Angami, Rengma and Lhota and apparently Sangtam villages are run on

lines of democracy, a democracy so extreme in the case of the Angami

that, in view of his peculiar independence of character, it is

difficult to comprehend how his villages held together at all before

they were subject to the British Government. The Angami has, however,

hereditary priests, office descending in the line of the first founder

of the village in question.

In the eschatology of the different tribes there is, on the one hand, a

belief apparently universally accepted which regards the souls of the

dead as inhabiting butterflies or other insects after death.

Concurrently with this we find a belief in an existence in a future

world in which the shades of the dead go on living just as they did in

this world. Most tribes place this world underground and indicate some

mountain [37]—usually one formed as it were in a succession of rises

vaguely suggesting steps from a distance—as the path by which this

under-world is approached. The Angamis, however, believe that the souls

of the dead who have conformed to the best (Angami) standard of life

spend their future existence in the sky in the company of the

ancestress or creatrix of all life. Other tribes, though believing in

the existence of a sky world, or at any rate of sky spirits, do not

locate the home of the dead there. Along with these a third belief is

also to be found, as among the Semas, according to which the spirits of

the good dead go to the East and those of the unsatisfactory dead to

the West.

Among other points worth notice are the fact that lycanthropy practised

by the Semas and other tribes to the north of the Angami country is

never resorted to by Angamis, though they know of the existence in the

belief and even believe in the common origin of the tiger and man. [38]

Similarly the Khasis seem to have heard the theory from the Garos, but

do not claim ever to practise it themselves.

In folk-lore some stories seem common to nearly all tribes and to the

Kacharis too, while the story of the girl who comes out of an orange

and the stories of fighting stones and the belief that the human race

is becoming gradually smaller and will so continue till it is small

enough to climb up a chili plant, are common both to Nagas and to the

Khasis. [39] On the other hand, there seem to be certain groups of

stories which are not common to the Angamis in the south and to the

Changs and their neighbours in the north.

Linguistic considerations are notoriously dangerous in their

application to ethnography, but even here it is impossible to pass over

without remark the very decided cleavage between the vocabularies and

numerals of the languages classified by Sir George Grierson as Western

and Central Naga, and the vocabularies and numerals of the Konyaks and

Changs to the north-east, though the Aos have words characteristic of

both groups. This north-eastern group seems in fact to approach quite

appreciably nearer to the Kuki and Bodo languages of the southern

tribes than to the languages of the Central Naga tribes in between the

two.

Emphasis has sometimes been laid upon an affection for old sites, or an

aversion to migration, as characteristic of Nagas, distinguishing them

from the migratory Kuki, who, like the Hill Kachari, moves his village

by preference, whereas the Naga only moves his under compulsion. This,

however, as has already been pointed out, cannot by any means be

applied to all tribes at present designated Naga.

A perhaps trivial point is the belief that neglect of washing causes

illness, and the concomitant habit of personal cleanliness which is so

much more marked in the Angami tribe than among its neighbours to the

north, though the Lhota seems to have it in a greater degree than the

Rengma, Sema, or Ao; the Angami dwelling, on the other hand, is

frequently filthy as compared to those of the other tribes mentioned,

principally owing to his habit of keeping his cattle in the front room.

Such are the more outstanding facts of the case, and it is almost

superfluous to state the more obvious conclusions to be drawn from

them, that no Naga tribe is of pure blood, but the area which they

inhabit has been the scene of a series of immigrations from north-east,

north-west and south, and that the different stocks introduced in this

way have entered into their composition. [40] Indeed, in view of the

struggles that have taken place for the fertile plains of Burma to the

east and India to the west, it is inevitable that some elements of the

races worsted in these struggles should have been pushed up into the

hills. In particular the line of the Dikhu and the Ti-Ho rivers would

seem to mark more or less the point of contact between movements

southward from the north and northward from the south, roughly marking

as it does, except indeed for the Ao tribe, the line south of which

dead are always buried, [41] and also the marked cleavage between the

languages of the Western Nagas and of the North-eastern Nagas, the

latter bearing more resemblance perhaps to those of the Kukis in the

south than to those of their immediate neighbours. The immigration of

Singpho elements from the north and Tai elements from the east are

absolutely clear.

The other conclusions I would suggest are some of them frankly

speculative, but are perhaps not at variance with current views on the

history of Indonesia in general. I should deduce a stage at which some

race of Kol-Mon-Annam or Mon-Khmêr affinities was in occupation,

leaving traces of that occupation in certain implements, weapons and

perhaps in some folk-tales. I should describe the immigration from the

north-west or west as definitely Bodo in character, and ascribe to this

origin the erection of Y-shaped posts [42] and the practice of reaping

by hand, and the indications of the more recent existence of a

matrilineal system. Beyond this, whatever the Singphos and Kacharis may

be, an admixture of Tai blood from the east is beyond dispute. It is

the nature of the immigration from the south which is most intriguing.

No one who has had much to do with the Angamis could fail to perceive

the difference of disposition and character between them and the other

Naga tribes, though it is very difficult to state in what it actually

consists, and it is certainly not so great as to constitute an entire

distinction between the Angamis and the rest of their fellow-Nagas. My

own view is that the Angamis contain a very much greater proportion of

blood bequeathed by a mixed body of immigrants from the south (some of

them at any rate nearly related either in blood or culture or both to

the Igorot of the Philippine Islands), who already consisted perhaps of

two races of which the weaker and less numerous was a race of settled

habits and developed civilization, while the stronger was of more

barbarous but warlike type. [43] The inhabitants they found already in

occupation would be either absorbed into one of the two divisions of

this mixed tribe or make a third class where they survived in

sufficient numbers, and to this source I would ascribe the social

institutions of the Western Naga tribes. I would ascribe the elaborate

system of terracing to the more civilized of the southern immigrants,

and to these southern immigrants in general the use of elaborate

stone-work in building and the erection of stone monoliths and perhaps

the practice of burying their dead—the Angamis even bury the heads of

their enemies—and also perhaps the use of ultra-democratic

institutions. If these deductions be correct I should regard the Semas

as having received chiefs from the more barbarous of the southerners,

and in the Lhotas I should see the result of a more intimate contact of

both southern elements with the tribe at present represented by the

Sangtams, who seem to have at one time occupied much more of the Naga

Hills than they do now that a large and still increasing proportion of

their tribe has been absorbed by the more virile Sema. The Khoiraos,

Kacha Nagas, Tangkhuls and Marami have all been much more strongly

influenced by the culture of these southern immigrants, than have the

other tribes north of the Angami country, and have accepted their

culture to varying degrees.

To return to the Lhotas, this tribe is divided into three phratries—the

Tompyaktserre, the Izumontserre and the Mipongsandre, meaning

respectively “Forehead-clearing men,” [44] “Scattered men” and

“Fire-smoke-conquering men.” The expression “Forehead-clearing men” I

do not attempt to explain, [45] but the phratry corresponds to the

Angami Kepepfüma, which I have taken to represent the weaker but more

civilized section of the southern immigrants. Among the Lhotas it is to

be noticed that this phratry is the superior. Among the Angamis it is

the inferior, with the tradition, however, that it was once the elder.

Its women are addressed by their children as Apfü (Angami) or Apfu

(Lhota). The Lhotas, however, have no terraced cultivation. The clans

of the “Scattered-men” phratry use oyo for mother in some cases, opfu

in others, but oyo predominating on the whole; but the name suggests a

tribe of very different habits to the community-loving Naga, and would

better suit a people like the Kacharis or Garos, living in small moving

settlements and perpetually shifting from one place to another, a few

houses at a time. In the “Fire-smoke-conquering-men,” so called from

the villages they burnt in warfare, one may see the influence of the

more barbarous element of the (? southern) invaders, and the bulk of

this phratry uses ayo for “mother” like the Kepezoma of the Angamis.

[46]

I therefore conclude that in most if not all Naga tribes traces are to

be found of the Mon-Khmêr and Bodo races, the Tai race, and a fourth

race of southern origin akin to some of the inhabitants of the

Philippines and Borneo and other parts of Indonesia.

For the history of this corner of the earth is yet to be written, and,

if ever it is done, it is to studies such as Mr. Mills has given us

that future investigators will turn, for the tribes themselves will

have vanished past all recognition. Has not the very mingetung of Phiro

hidden its grim fruit in the folds of its own bark, lest the village

forget that the days of the head-hunter are gone? Education and

Litigation, doubtful apparitions, are usurping his place; the old

beliefs wither under the shrivelling touch of Civilization, and the

voice of the Missionary is heard in the land. The axe is laid to the

root of Igdrasil; the Jötunn are climbing into Asgerd.

J. H. H.

Khoro,

April, 1921.

THE LHOTA NAGAS

PART I

GENERAL

Introductory—Origin and Migrations—Appearance—Dress—Ornaments

—Weapons—Character.

The Lhota Nagas are a tribe numbering some twenty thousand souls which

occupies a piece of territory that may be roughly described as the

drainage area of the Middle and Lower Doyang and its tributaries, down

to the point where it emerges into the plains. Their land can show

extremes of climate, from the high spurs of Wokha Hill, where frost is

not unknown, to the malarious foot-hills bordering on the plains, where

the heat radiated from the sandstone makes life almost unbearable in

the hot weather. They call themselves Kyŏn, meaning simply “man,” the

name Lhota, of which I have been unable to discover any derivation,

being that by which they are known to Government. They have long been

in contact with the Assamese. Many villages even possess grants of land

in the plains given by the Ahom Rajas, on the understanding apparently

that the Lhotas in return for the land would refrain from taking

Assamese heads. This agreement was loyally kept, and villages such as

Khoro, who had no hostile Naga neighbours whom they could raid, used to

content themselves with waylaying and killing an occasional Mikir on

his way to or from market in the plains. There is no record of any

fighting between Lhotas and Assamese, save a raid in 1685 on some

villages of the plains near the Doyang by Nagas, [47] who were probably

Lhotas: Akuk and Lakhuti claim to have met and defeated a force of

Burmese at the time of the Burmese invasion of Assam. [48] The first

recorded meeting between a European and Lhotas is that of Lieut. H.

Bigge in 1841, who apparently did not like what little he saw of them.

He calls them “a sullen race,” and says that they “are alike filthy in

their persons and habits, and have a pompous mode of addressing one

which might in some cases be interpreted as insolent.” [49] Evidently

the gallant officer found the contrast between the suave, sleek

plainsman and the easy-going, unwashen hillman rather startling.

Captain Brodie, however, the first Englishman to visit the Lhota at

home, was more fortunate. He marched along part of the Lakhuti range in

1844 and was given a most friendly reception. [50] In 1875 Captain

Butler when in charge of a survey party was ambushed by the village of

Pangti and mortally wounded. The truth of this disaster is as follows:

Captain Butler arranged to march from Lakhuti to Pangti, and ordered

the former village to supply men to carry his baggage. Lakhuti, which

had old scores to wipe off against Pangti, decided to lay a trap for

them, and sent a message asking them to attack the head of the column,

while promising that they themselves would throw down their loads and

attack the rear. Pangti fell into the snare and ambushed and speared

Captain Butler. Lakhuti did nothing, and of course got off scot free,

while Pangti was burnt. Naturally Pangti has never forgiven Lakhuti for

this piece of treachery. In 1878 a stockade was established at Wokha

and all the Ndrung villages, [51] i.e. those on the left bank of the

Doyang, were annexed. The rest of the tribe was annexed in 1889.

Origin and Migration.

The problem of the ultimate origin and composition of the Naga tribes

still awaits solution. It will be sufficient if I give here the main

Lhota traditions of their origin and early migrations. These are

various and mutually inconsistent. One, but not the commonest, states

that the Lhotas and plainsmen were once one people who migrated from a

place called Lengka somewhere north or north-west of the Naga Hills,

the exact site being unknown. They soon split up into two bodies, one

of which became the plainsmen of the Brahmaputra valley and the other

the Nagas of the hills. The curious long-hafted daos called yanthang, a

few of which are still kept as highly-prized heirlooms, are specially

connected with this tradition, and are said to have been given to the

Nagas by their “brothers” of the plains. Some at any rate are not of

Naga manufacture. One which was shown me at Okotso, for instance, was

ornamented with brass bands. The usual tradition, however, gives the

Lhotas an autochthonous origin, and is almost identical with that told

by the Angamis of themselves. The story goes that three brothers,

Limhachan, Izumontse and Rankhanda, the ancestors of the three

phratries of the tribe, came out of a hole in the earth near the

miraculous stone at Kezakenoma. If one load of rice were dried on this

stone it became two loads. Owing, however, to the indecent behaviour of

a man of the tribe the virtue went out of the stone, [52] and the

Lhotas set out on their migrations, taking with them a little piece of

the stone, which is still preserved at Pangti. Yet another tradition

says that the common ancestors of the Lhotas, Southern Sangtams, Semas

and Rengmas, came from somewhere near Mao. The first to split off were

the Southern Sangtams, with whom the Lhotas claim close affinities.

[53] It is said, for instance, that many generations ago a Lhota from

Lungitang, knowing that his forefather had left “brothers” south of the

Tizu, somehow made his way through the Sema country and brought back

with him a Southern Sangtam, whose last descendant, by name Ezanyimo,

died at Wokha about ten years ago. Old men say that specimens of the

round brass ornaments (pyabi) which Southern Sangtams wear on their

“lengtas,” and of axe-shaped Sangtam daos, were preserved as heirlooms

in some Lhota houses to within living memory. From Mao the tribe

migrated slowly to Kohima, and from there, with the Angamis pressing

them in the rear, reached the neighbourhood of Lozema, where the Semas

are said to have split off. Thence they moved slowly on till they

reached Themoketsa Hill, known to the Lhotas as Honohoyanto

(fowl-throat-cutting-village). Here the mist begins to clear a little

and most Lhotas claim to trace their descent back through nine or ten

generations to some ancestor who lived at Honohoyanto. At this point

the Rengmas split off and occupied their present country, while the

Lhotas pressed on, one body through Phiro and Saki to the Lower Doyang,

fighting the Angamis as they went, and another body to Wokha Hill,

where a huge village called Lungcham is said to have been founded a

little to the north of the present site of Niroyo. So vast was the

crowd of warriors that at feasts and “gennas” there was never enough

“madhu” to go round, though each man was only given one cock’s spurful

as his share. It was clear that they must split up or starve, so they

began to move off and found villages, sometimes ousting the Aos, who

were once in possession of almost the whole of the present Lhota

country, and sometimes occupying vacant sites to which they were led by

various omens. A common story, told to account for the founding of

Lungsachung, Lotsü and several villages, runs as follows: A man had a

sow which wandered off one day and could not be found. He tracked it

for miles, till he found it lying under a big tree, where it had

littered. He at once decided to found a new village on the spot, and

the tree where the sow had littered became the head-tree.

[Ceremonies connected with the founding of a new village.] But the days

of expansion are over now, and in many a village abandoned house sites

and “genna” stones all overgrown with jungle show how the tribe is

shrinking. Yet attempts are still made from time to time to reoccupy

the sites of old villages wiped out by malaria, and the ceremonies

connected with the founding of a new village deserve to be described.

Having selected a site with a good water supply and a tree suitable for

a head-tree (mingetung), the would-be founder [54] cuts a branch from a

bush on the site. If the cut is a clean one and no leaves fall the omen

is good. If the branch is not cut through with one blow or leaves fall

the omen is bad. The omens being good he and his fellow-colonists

select a man to be priest (Puthi) of the new village, and while still

retaining the old village as their headquarters, set to work to clear

the jungle on the new site. Before doing so, however, the Puthi throws

a cornelian bead into the spring which is to supply the new village

with water, and prays that the young men and maidens of the village may

be strong. After the jungle has been cut the founder makes new fire

with a fire-stick [55] (mi-hm). The Puthi then spears a small boar,

which must not be singed in the fire, and cuts the throat of a cock,

from the entrails of which he takes the omens. The pig is cut up, and

the Puthi makes a little square of sticks on the ground. In the middle

he puts an egg and on each side thirty tiny pieces of pork. All eat the

rest of the pig, the pot in which the meat was boiled being turned

upside down on the ground and left behind. The jungle having been burnt

and a small “morung” constructed, houses are built. When the village is

ready for occupation the colonists go to it from the old village in

ceremonial dress and fully armed, taking with them a branch stolen from

the mingetung of the old village. This they stick in the ground under

the head-tree of the new village. To ensure a good water supply in

their new home they must bring water in a freshly-cut section of bamboo

from the spring of the old village and pour it into that of the new. If

they are lucky enough to be able to steal them they also put under

their mingetung and in their “morung” luck-stones (oha) from the old

village, thereby ensuring good fortune for their new home. About a

month later the ceremony of oyantsoa (village-making) is performed.

This will be described later in connection with the institution of a

new Puthi. [56]

Appearance.

In colour the Lhota varies from light to medium brown, the inhabitants

of the low ranges tending to be darker than those of high villages. The

complexion even of the fairest girls is sallow, and the almost rosy

cheeks one sometimes sees among the Angamis, and more rarely among the

Semas, are unknown in the Lhota country. The hair is as a rule

straight, though wavy and curly hair is often seen in the villages near

the Ao border, in which there is almost certainly a considerable

admixture of Ao blood. [57] The hair of a Lhota child is brown, with a

distinct rusty tinge, becoming black in the adult. Young men usually

pluck out the hairs of the chin with the nails of the thumb and

forefinger, but middle-aged and elderly men sometimes have considerable

beards, particularly near the plains, where types may occasionally be

seen hardly distinguishable in outward appearance from Sylhet

Mahommedans. The eyes are brown and slightly oblique in many

individuals, the scantiness of the outer half of the eyebrows

accentuating the Mongolian appearance of the face. Men average about

five feet eight in height and women some three inches less. In build

the Lhota is slight, but strong and wiry, though he has not the

enormous calf development of the Angami. The hands and feet are small

and well formed. The big toe is set rather far apart from the others,

and a Lhota talking will often pick up a stone in his toes and tap the

ground with it, just as a European might pick up a pencil in his

fingers and fidget with it.

The style of hair-cutting resembles that of the Semas, Aos and other

tribes. The back and sides of the head are shaved all round up to a

point level with the top of the ears, the hair on the crown of the head

being left long enough to reach to the top of the shaven portion. [58]

When asked why they have adopted this style of hair-cutting they say

that their forefathers used to wear their hair long, but took to

cutting it in the present fashion because it kept getting into their

eyes and catching in the jungle. The custom obtaining in the Southern

Sangtam village of Phulangrr perhaps gives the clue to the real origin

of the fashion. There no man is allowed to shave the back and sides of

his head till he has killed an enemy in war. Till then he wears his

hair cut more or less like a European. Little Lhota girls have their

heads completely shaved till they are about seven years old, when the

hair is allowed to grow. Women wear their hair in an untidy bun on the

nape of the neck, tied round with a bunch of strings of their own hair.

Baldness and grey hair are both uncommon and disliked, and old men

sometimes hide their scanty locks under a wig of black goat’s hair on a

bamboo frame. All children have the lobe of the ear pierced at the

conclusion of the birth “genna.” At the first Ramo [59] “genna” he

attends a boy has a hole pierced in the upper part of the helix. This

is done with a pointed piece of bamboo, and no special ceremonies are

attached to the operation. Among the Southern Lhotas, and occasionally

among the Northern, another hole is pierced in the middle of the concha

at the next Ramo. The holes in the helix and concha are for the cotton

wool with which the ear is adorned and often become much distended in

the case of elderly men.

Circumcision is not practised and neither sex is tattooed.

Dress.

[Clothes.] The one garment never discarded by a man in public is the

rive, commonly spoken of in Naga-Assamese as “lengta.” This consists of

a long narrow piece of stout cloth ending in a broad flap. In putting

it on the narrow piece is wound once round the waist so that it joins

at the back and forms a belt. It is then brought through between the

legs from the back, and up through the belt, the broad flap being

allowed to hang down in front. The result is a garment which is both

serviceable and entirely decent. The flap is either white or dark blue,

with horizontal red stripes, broad among the Northern Lhotas and narrow

among the Southern. In the old days a dark blue rive could only be worn

by a man who had done the head-taking “genna,” but this distinction is

being rapidly dropped. A boy’s first garment, assumed without any

ceremonies when about seven or eight years old, is the flap of one of

his father’s discarded “lengtas” hung from a bit of string tied round

his waist. The skirt (sürham) worn by the women is about twenty-two

inches deep. It is bound tightly round the waist and the overlapping

top corner tucked in in front of the left hip. The edge which shows is

often ornamented with iridescent beetle wings or bits of yellow orchid

stalk. Among the Northern Lhotas the sürham is of dark blue cloth with

narrow horizontal red stripes in threes, and a band of paler blue

embroidered with red three inches broad running round the middle of the

cloth. The skirts worn by Southern women have no red stripes, and the

pale blue band is broader and nearer the top of the cloth. When about

five or six years old a little girl puts on her first skirt

(khondrosü). This is about ten inches deep, white with a dark blue

border and a little red embroidery in the middle.

When working in the fields, or in the hot weather even when lounging

about at home, a man usually wears nothing but his “lengta.” When

visiting his friends, however, or to sit about in the shade, or for a

journey he always wears a body-cloth measuring about four feet by five

feet. Usually such a cloth is simply wrapped round the body under the

right armpit and over the left shoulder. But for any occupation such as

hunting, where both arms must be left free, and whenever a cloth is

worn at any “genna,” it is tied on to the body as follows: The cloth is

flung over the back, and the two top corners are brought round, one

under the left arm and the other over the right shoulder, and tied

across the chest. The two bottom corners are then brought up outside

the cloth which is hanging over the back, and crossed and tied on the

chest, one passing over the left shoulder and the other under the right

arm.

The body-cloths are of various patterns and indicate the number of

social “gennas” [60] performed by the wearer. The first is sütam, a

white cloth with broad dark blue horizontal stripes. This is worn by

boys [61] and men who have performed no social “gennas.” A man who has

performed the first social “genna” may wear the phangdhrap. Among the

Northern Lhotas this is a dark blue cloth, edged with broad stripes of

red with a broad strip of white cloth running across the middle of the

cloth parallel with the red stripes. Among the Southern Lhotas the red

stripes are narrower and a pale blue band near the top of the cloth

takes the place of the white band. A Northern Lhota who has performed

both the first social “genna” and the head-taking “genna” wears a cloth

called chamthe, which is exactly like the phangdhrap of his section of

the tribe, save that the median band is pale blue instead of white. For

the performance of the second social “genna” no cloth is awarded, but

the Southern Lhotas put on the ethasü after performing the third social

“genna.” This is a dark blue cloth edged top and bottom with four red

bands, the body of the cloth being ornamented with little squares of

red embroidery. Finally, a man who has completed the series of social

“gennas” by dragging a stone wears a handsome cloth called lungpensü,

which is dark blue with five bands of light blue about one inch broad,

and three very narrow lines of light blue at top and bottom. A man who

has dragged a stone more than once has four or rarely even five narrow

lines at the top and bottom of his cloth, which is called eshamsü. The

rükhusü (“enemy-frightening-cloth”) of the Southern Lhotas is rarely

worn nowadays, and can only be assumed by old warriors of note. It

consists of a lungpensü or eshamsü with a broad median band of white

cloth ornamented with highly conventionalized representations of men

drawn on cloth with black gum. These bands are made by Rengmas, never

by Lhotas. The rükhusü of the Northern Lhotas is exactly similar to the

cloth ordinarily worn by rich Aos, and is dark blue with six very broad

red stripes, set closely together at top and bottom. The median band,

which is always bought from the Aos, is about two and a half inches

broad, and ornamented with a conventional design representing human

heads, mithan horns and tigers.

Like the men, the women usually leave the upper part of the body bare,

though filthy waistcoats are nowadays commonly worn by both men and

women in villages near the plains. When body-cloths are worn by women

they are either flung loosely round the body so that the top outer

corner lies over the left shoulder, or bound tightly under the armpits.

Among the Northern Lhotas an unmarried girl usually wears a plain dark

blue cloth (muksü). On the night of her marriage, however, when she

goes to her husband’s house, she puts on a very pretty cloth called

loroesü, dark blue, with big squares of narrow white and red lines,

giving a sort of tartan effect. When her husband has dragged a stone

she may exchange her loroesü either for a lungpensü, which is almost

exactly similar to his, or for a charaksü, a cloth closely resembling

loroesü, but with the tartan squares outlined with much broader red

lines. Among the Southern Lhotas unmarried women and wives of men who

have not yet dragged a stone wear a cloth called süpang, dark blue,

with a broad light blue horizontal band near the top. When her husband

has dragged a stone a woman wears a lungpensü.

In wet weather men and women wear slung on their backs light

rain-shields (phuchyo) made of broad leaves carefully arranged between

two layers of basket work, and strengthened by an edging of thin split

bamboo.

Ornaments.

Apart from the finery in which he decks himself on ceremonial

occasions, the well-to-do Lhota usually wears certain ornaments on any

occasion when he wishes to be well dressed. In the holes in the helix

and concha of his ear are tufts of cotton wool. Usually these are quite

small, but old men in villages near the Sema border often wear big

wing-shaped pads of cotton wool like those worn by their Sema

neighbours. Some small ornament, such as a little brass wire spiral, is

worn in the lobe of the ear, or in some villages an ornament formed of

two or three porcupine quills, bound with yellow orchid stalk on to a

bit of cane boiled ebony black in pig’s fat. Like Semas and Aos, Lhotas

wear above the elbow armlets (koro) consisting of sections sawn from an

elephant’s tusk. Formerly the sole supply came from elephants killed

locally. Now Angami traders buy ivory in Calcutta and Benares and sell

armlets ready sawn. Only old men may saw up a tusk. For a young man to

do so would be very unlucky. A man who cannot afford real ivory will

sometimes wear an armlet made of white wood smoothed and rounded to

resemble the real article. Wristlets (khekap) of cowries sewn on cloth

may be worn by anyone who has done the head-taking “genna.” [62] A man

who has got first, second or third spear in at the killing of an enemy

has a little cross of cowries at the top of his wristlets. Those worn

by the Northern Lhotas are identical with the Sema type. They are

bought from the Aos and are composed of cowries filed down till they

are very narrow and sewn close together on to a cloth foundation. A red

hair fringe (khezi) is worn, on the wristlets, ordinarily short, but of

long hair in the case of a warrior of note. A man who has been in at

the death of a tiger has little bunches of black hair in his red

fringe. The wristlets of the Southern Lhotas are of unfiled cowries and

the red hair fringe is rarely worn.

The commonest form of necklace is one composed of four or five strings

of black beads made from the seeds of the wild plantain (eshe).

Sometimes they are worn loosely round the neck, and sometimes are in

the form of a tight necklet, the rows being kept in place by narrow

pierced conch-shell supports. These supports are sometimes bought from

Angamis and sometimes prepared by the Lhotas themselves, with the aid

of a primitive but effective pump-drill, with a point made from a piece

of an old umbrella stay. To do the head-taking “genna” entitles a man

to wear a neck ornament of one or two pairs of wild boar’s tushes

(soho), with their bases bound with red cane, and fastened with a

square conch-shell button with a cornelian bead in the middle.

The women’s ornaments are few and simple, and the magnificent strings

of cornelian beads worn by Ao and Sema women are rarely seen among the

Lhotas. In the lobe of the ear is some simple little ornament such as a

bunch of the crest feathers of the kalij pheasant bound round with red

wool or yellow orchid stalk. Round the neck the usual plantain seed

necklace is worn, sometimes with a big conch-shell pendant (lakup) in

front. Above each elbow is a thick round pewter armlet (tiwo), and on

each wrist four or five small flat brass bracelets (rambam). The

armlets and bracelets are bought ready-made from the plains.

The full dress of the Lhota warrior closely resembles that of the Sema

and Ao. Besides the ornaments already mentioned, he wears on his head a

wig (thongko) either of the long hair from the neck and shoulders of

the Himalayan black bear, or of the fur of the arms of the male gibbon.

In his wig he may wear three king-crow feathers (yizememhi) if he has

done the head-taking “genna” once, or if he has done it more than once,

one hornbill tail feather (reching’mhi) for each occasion. On his ears

he hangs big pads of cotton wool, and sticks in the lobe of his ear an

ornament (tera) of drongo and scarlet minivet feathers. If he has ever

in his life raided enemies working in the fields and carried off their

property, he adds to the tera little brass chains of Assamese, or very

rarely Lhota, manufacture, which he loops over his ears. Across his

chest he wears one, or, if he has dragged a stone, two baldricks

(ritsen), which are really glorified strings for supporting the “tail,”

which in turn is an elaboration of the “panji” basket. The Northern

Lhotas wear baldricks bought from the Semas, made of blue cloth

embroidered in scarlet with dog’s hair, and edged with a deep fringe of

scarlet goat’s hair, with a line of yellow orchid stalk at the base of

the fringe. Those worn by the Southern Lhotas lack the fringe and are

usually embroidered with wool bought from the plains. The human hair

“tails” are of two types, one (tsichap) in which the hair falls

straight from the little basket, and the other (tsongotsichap) in which

the hair forms a deep fringe hanging from a piece of wood sticking out

behind with a slight upward curve. In the old days the hair for tails

was obtained from women killed in raids, but this source of supply

being now closed, it is bought from any woman who is willing to sell

her tresses. I am told that one lady can produce two good crops, but

that the third crop is apt to be coarse. A warrior of note may wear

either on his chest or between his shoulders at the back an ornament

called rüho (enemy’s teeth). This consists of a flat piece of wood,

about ten inches long and five inches deep, covered with fine plaited

work of red cane, with a border of cowries and a fringe of scarlet

goat’s hair at the ends and bottom. It is supposed to represent the

head of an enemy, the red cane being the tongue and palate, the cowries

the teeth, and the fringe of red hair the blood pouring out of the

mouth. A man who has dragged a stone may wear between his shoulders at

the back the head of a Great Indian Hornbill, a bird regarded by the

Lhotas as symbolical of wealth. The true Lhota cowrie apron

(phuhorive), which is now being rapidly ousted by the bigger one worn

by Semas and Aos, is about fourteen inches deep and twelve inches

broad, the bottom two-thirds being covered with closely set rows of

cowries. A man who has been first, second, or third spear at the

killing of an enemy may have the plain cloth above the sheet of cowries

ornamented with little crosses of cowries. An old ceremonial apron

preserved as an heirloom by Ovungtheng of the Chorothui clan in

Nungying village is possibly a specimen of the original type of this

garment. The tradition is that the apron in question, which is a square

of red cloth measuring ten inches long by eight inches broad,

ornamented with two little circles flanked by little stars of cowries,

is an exact copy made two generations ago of the original apron worn by

the ancestor of the clan when he came down from the sky. [63] The

original was preserved till the time of Ovungtheng’s grandfather, when

it was destroyed in a fire. To within living memory small round brass

plates (pyabi) with a perforated boss in the centre were worn with

cowrie aprons. Exactly similar plates are worn by Changs and Southern

Sangtams at the present day. These plates were worn not only at dances

and on ceremonial occasions, but also at the ceremony of calling a sick

man’s soul. For dances the Southern Lhotas wear huge, bulging Angami

leggings (chori) of plaited red cane, with a pattern in yellow orchid

stalk worked in them. The Northern Lhotas wear a different type, which

fits much more closely to the leg. These they buy from the Aos, who in

turn get them from the Changs, to whom they are sold by the makers, the

Northern Kalyo-Kengyu.

Weapons.

Easily first in importance is the dao (lepok), which is used for every

variety of purpose. With it a Lhota can slay his enemy or cut up a

chicken, fell a forest tree or pare down the finest strip of cane, dig

a hole for a post or cut a thorn out of his foot. Villages near the

plains usually buy their daos from Assamese smiths. These weapons

consist of a straight-edged blade about twelve inches long, and four

inches broad at the top, narrowing down to an inch or less at the haft,

which is fitted into a bamboo handle tightly bound round with cane.

Like all Naga daos the blade is ground on one side only, so that a

perpendicular stake can only be cut by a downward blow from the right

or upward blow from the left. The daos made by the Northern Lhotas are

practically identical with those bought from the Assamese. Those made

by the Southern Lhotas are far heavier weapons. The blade is about

twelve inches long. At the top it is five inches broad, narrowing down

to one and a half inches at the haft. Both edge and back are slightly

curved and the junction of the edge and top is prolonged into a small

beak.

Two obsolete types of dao require mention. One is the axe-shaped dao

called by the Lhotas tsonak, the use of which is now confined to the

Southern Sangtams and other Trans-Tizu tribes. Lhotas, however, state

quite definitely that they formerly used these daos, and old men say

that when they were young they talked to old men who could remember the

days when a few were still preserved. [64] The other obsolete type is

that known as yanthang. These are supposed to have been brought from

the north-west in the olden days, and a number of them are still kept

as heirlooms. They vary much in shape, but usually have very long,

narrow blades and always terminate in a long haft which must have

passed right through the wooden grip, as it does in the case of the

Kabui dancing dao. These daos are much treasured and are only produced

at “gennas,” when they are stuck upright, haft down, into the ground.

The most famous is that of the hero Ramphan which is preserved at Akuk.

[65]

Daos are carried in a wooden holder (lechap). This, like that of the

Aos and Semas, consists of a solid block of wood some eight inches long

by two and a half inches broad, pierced from top to bottom by a slit

about six inches long and broad enough to admit the blade, but too

narrow to let the handle slip through. The holder is carried at the

back attached to a loose belt (lechapsü), which may be either dark blue

or white, and in the case of a man who has done the head-taking “genna”

is embroidered with red. [66] The dao, of course, hangs blade down, but

whereas all other tribes carry their daos with edge to the left, the

Lhota carries his with the edge to the right.

Next in importance is the spear (otso), which is always thrown, and

never used for thrusting, the extreme effective range being about

thirty yards. The length of the whole weapon is usually about six feet

or rather more. The favourite wood for the shaft is “nahor” (mesna

ferrea), but palm and other woods are also used. The shaft is tightly

fitted into a socket in the head without binding of any kind, and

terminates in a sharp, socketed butt. No counterpoise is used.

Occasionally spears are made of one piece of iron—head, shaft and butt.

These are especially useful in tiger hunting, where the animal is

liable to bite off the shaft of any spear that wounds him. Among the

Northern Lhotas the blades are usually of the elongated lozenge type.

They are both bought from the Aos and made locally. The Southern Lhotas

usually buy Rengma-made blades of the Angami type, which are

leaf-shaped with two short flanges at right-angles to the mid-rib. The

average length of the blade is about ten inches, but on some ceremonial

spears they may be seen up to two feet in length. A big blade with long

barbs such as Angamis sometimes carry (noringtso) is occasionally used

in Moilang and the neighbouring villages. There are several kinds of

decorated shaft. That of the ceremonial spear (phui) carried by

religious officials, such as the Puthi and Wokchungs, is covered

throughout almost the whole of its length with long black goat’s hair.

The doing of the head-taking “genna” entitles a man to carry a spear

the shaft of which is ornamented with scarlet goat’s hair, bound on

with string and then clipped short till it resembles very coarse

velvet. If he has also been in at the death of a tiger there will be

one or two narrow bands of black hair inserted in the scarlet. None of

these red shafts are of Lhota manufacture. The northern section of the

tribe buy theirs from the Aos, who in turn get them from the Changs.

One type, called kamang, is only covered with red pile for about a foot

of its length from the top. In the other type (chovemo) a space for the

hand separates two long pieces of pile, the bottom one of which

terminates in a deep fringe of red hair. The Rengmas supply the

Southern Lhotas with their red shafts. One type, called tandhro,

resembles kamang; another type is very like chovemo, but has no fringe

and is called rophutung.

The cross-bow (olo) is still used for shooting birds and monkeys. The

stock, made of hard wood, is about twenty-seven inches long, with a

groove to keep the arrow in place. When strung the string, which is of

twisted tchhütsang bark, catches in a piece of notched bone inserted in

the stock near the butt. Underneath is a trigger, which on being pulled

tips the string forward and releases it. The bow itself, which is about

five feet long and tapered off at the ends, is usually made of bamboo.

To be strung the bow has to be held on the ground with the foot with

the stock pointing upwards, and the string pulled up to the notch with

both hands. An arrow (lotsi) is then placed in the groove. The arrows

are merely pointed slips of bamboo about a foot and a half long, with a

little bit of “hair-brush palm” (shawo) or bamboo leaf-sheath fixed in

a slit at the end as a feather. They are carried in a small bamboo

quiver (lotsiphu). The weapon is amazingly effective up to about eighty

yards. Poison is never used.

In the old days shields (otsung) were always carried in war and are

still used at tiger and leopard hunts. Usually they are of strong

bamboo twilled pattern matting, but hide shields (tsungkuk) are also

used. Sometimes a piece of buffalo skin is simply cut to the right

shape and dried in the sun, and sometimes a piece of bear skin is

stretched over a bamboo matting foundation. Shields are of two types.

Those of the Northern Lhotas are about four and a half feet long and

twenty inches broad, with a rounded top and parallel sides. Those of

the Southern Lhotas are of about the same length, but have a square top

and are only some fourteen inches across at the bottom, broadening out

to twenty inches at the top. In battle shields were always carried held

well away from the body, for though they were not tough enough to turn

a spear thrown directly at them, they would check any spear which

pierced them sufficiently to prevent it reaching the body.

Stout cane war-helmets (kiven), about six inches high in the crown, are

still worn by the Southern Lhotas as a protection for the head at tiger

hunts, and also at dances, when they are often ornamented with serow

horns. Among the Northern Lhotas only a very few now exist, and these,

gorgeously ornamented, are only worn by Puthis and very senior warriors

at the dance connected with the building of a new “morung.” They are

covered with a coarse cloth made of scarlet dog’s hair, with long

strings of the same material hanging down behind. On the covering are

sown pairs of boar’s tushes, each pair forming a circle, while two long

flat pieces of wild mithan horn, shaved down to the thickness of

cardboard, fixed one on each side complete the effect.

Character.

Writers in the past have, as a rule, either ignored or maligned the

Lhota. Captain Butler speaks of “the surly Lhota,” and Colonel

Shakespear dismisses them as “uninteresting people with dirty persons

and villages.” [67] They are reserved and do not readily open their

hearts to a stranger, but they are not surly. Their sense of humour is

well developed and they are always ready with a laugh, but, like all

Nagas, they hate being laughed at and believe that misfortune or

sickness is likely to fall upon anyone who is the object of derision.

Though the tribe contains a few habitual criminals they are, on the

whole, very honest. Petty theft is rare, and a man can leave his spear

and cloth by the side of a village path knowing that he will find his

property untouched when he comes to pick it up on his way home. In

warfare they were probably no more cowardly than their neighbours, and

when hunting tigers and other dangerous game they show extraordinary

pluck. For an expedition they will supply carriers unequalled for

steadiness and discipline by any other tribe. The standard of morals

varies in a curious way from village to village, but the Lhota husband

does not imitate the habitual unfaithfulness of the Ao, nor does he,

like the Sema, boast of his immoralities and decorate the grave of a

deceased Don Juan with a tally of his liaisons.

Children as they grow up and marry leave their old parents to fend for

themselves in what seems to us rather a heartless way, but at a pinch

they are usually ready to help to support them. In this the Lhota

stands midway between the Konyak, who regards it as one of his chief

duties in life to live with and help his aged parents, and the Ao, who

usually never thinks of supporting his old father or mother, and even

if he does so turns him out at last to end his days in a miserable

little hut, “lest he should defile the house by dying in it.” Towards

animals the Lhota, like all Nagas, adopts a curiously inconsistent

attitude. At times he will punish them cruelly as if expecting them to

understand the difference between right and wrong. For instance, I

heard of a Lhota who climbed a tree after a badly wounded monkey. The

monkey clutched his hair, so he tore it loose and cut its hands off

while it was still alive—“as a punishment,” he said. At other times

animals are treated as if they were incapable of feeling pain. Frogs

are often kept overnight with their legs broken to prevent their

getting away, and old men look back with regret to the good old days

when mithan at a sacrifice were beaten to death with sticks and the

valuable hair of goats and dogs was plucked from the living animals. A

remarkable trait in the Lhota character, wherein they differ from all

other Nagas with whom I am acquainted, is the extraordinary readiness

with which they commit suicide. Often the reason is trivial in the

extreme. I have known a man hang himself because the elders of his

village fined him fifteen rupees—a sum he could well afford to pay.

Usually, however, a love affair is the cause, and cases of lovers, who

for some reason cannot marry, taking poison together are common. Little

though he knows or cares of the details of the life hereafter, the

Lhota never doubts that there is such a life, and lovers die professing

their sure faith that they will be united beyond the grave.