APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
THE LHOTA CALENDAR
The Lhota divides the year into twelve lunar months, [228] which are
named as follows:—
Ndri (February). “The month of the ndri flower.”
Emhu (March). “The blowing month.”
Ephi (April). “The dry month.”
Cheshi (May). “The watching month,” i.e. all watch to see if the
crops will sprout well.
Oten (June). “The month of millet” (teni).
Nnung (July). Derivation unknown.
Chikanika (August). “The month of quarrels,” because poor men have
come to the end of their resources and try to borrow from rich men,
who refuse to lend.
Ndrangtso (September). “The bursting month,” because the pots are
bursting with new rice.
Rongorongyi (October). “The going backwards and forwards month,”
i.e. carrying the crop up to the village.
Chopuk (November). “The month of ease.”
Shotokuk (December). “The month of ceremonies.”
Echon (January). “The spreading month,” i.e. the rats scatter the
straw about the abandoned fields.
In order to correct the calendar an extra month or part of a month
called Chotantsu is put in after Echon whenever necessary. The months
being periods of the agricultural year the whole Lhota country is not
in the same month at the same time. The inhabitants of a cold village
where the crops are late may be struggling through Chikanika while
those of a warm village are enjoying the peace and plenty of Ndrangtso.
APPENDIX B
MENSURATION
There is no standard of weight in use throughout the tribe, but in
every village there is kept a stone (ephwa) which is used in
apportioning the shares of meat at feasts. The weight is generally nine
to ten pounds. For trade a balance of the bismar type is used, notched
to weigh in Indian seers and fractions of seers.
The standard measure for rice is chukoluk, which is regarded as one
man’s wage for a day and usually weighs about six pounds. The table
would be as follows:—
2 chukolukruso = 1 chukoluk.
3 chukoluk = 1 sitsi.
1½ sitsi = 1 enokyak.
Two baskets (etek) are regarded as going to one enokyak. The size of
the baskets varies from village to village, and the buyer must accept
the standard of the village from which he buys.
Though nowadays Lhotas occasionally try to state distance in English
miles, the real measure is by echen, the distance between one temporary
granary and that at the next stage on the path up from the fields. It
varies from village to village. On an easy slope it may be a mile and a
half, on a steep slope it will be a mile or even less.
The depth of water is either measured in echam (the height of a man) or
eshi (kicks). That is to say, if a man having dived to the bottom of a
pool has to kick his legs three times before he reaches the top, the
pool is reckoned as three “kicks” deep. A tree is spoken of as so many
phunchap (ladder-steps) high.
Just as fingers and toes are the usual counting apparatus, so the Lhota
uses the distance between the various parts of his body as standards of
measurement. The distance between the tips of the fingers of the
outstretched arms is called ntiya, and that from the middle of the
chest to outstretched finger-tips monyak. A cubit is kecha. The spans
of the thumb and first finger and thumb and middle finger are ekohundro
and ekosüpo respectively. The breadth of a finger is yingro. These
measurements are used for all conceivable purposes. The size of a
mithan, for instance, is not stated in terms of its height at the
withers, but in terms of the length of its horn in ekosüpo and yingro.
Similarly, to measure a pig you pass a long slip of bamboo round its
chest and measure the bamboo. Thread is never measured by length or
weight. If it is in a skein, the thickness round the skein is taken,
the circles formed by thumb and first finger and thumb and middle
finger being called etsokhundro and etsoksüpo respectively. If it is in
a ball, the ball is reckoned as a keraksüpo (big handful) or keraktero
(little handful).
APPENDIX C
HUMAN SACRIFICE
Major Butler gives the following account [229] of a human sacrifice:
“About the 27th July, 1850, Lieutenant Vincent succeeded in effecting,
for thirty-seven rupees, the ransom of Tooleram, a Cacharee boy, who
had been carried off from the village of Loongee-jair on the 18th
February by a marauding party of Angahmee Nagahs. Two other children
were at the same time carried off, but had been sold to other villages;
a little girl was sold to some Nagahs at Beereh-mah, but could not be
traced. The fate of the third boy was horrible; he was purchased by the
adjoining tribe of Lotah Nagahs, and a man of the village having died
immediately after the purchase, it was considered a bad omen, and that
ill luck had befallen them on account of this captive child. They
therefore flayed the poor boy alive, cutting off his flesh bit by bit
until he died. These cruel and superstitious savages then divided the
body, giving a piece of the flesh to each man in the village to put
into his dolu, a large corn-basket. By this they suppose all evil will
be averted, their good fortune will return, and plentiful crops of
grain will be ensured.”
Nagas are always ready to give garbled, not to say scandalous, accounts
of the customs of their neighbours, and there can be little doubt that
Major Butler was misled by his Angami informants. Lhotas, in common
with other tribes, believe in a vague sort of way that the taking of a
head brings prosperity to the taker’s village, and the boy was probably
killed and his body cut up and distributed, as was done more recently
in the case of the Nankam slave bought by Akuk. But there is no
tradition that it was ever the custom to torture victims before death,
and I think the Lhotas must be acquitted of this charge. It would,
further, be clean contrary to their customs to put pieces of human
flesh in their rice, which would thereby become polluted rather than
blessed. [230]
The story goes that long, long ago a rich Lhota was very ill. In vain
pigs, cattle and mithan were slaughtered. Finally he had one of his
slaves sacrificed in cold blood, in the hope that the slave’s life
would be accepted in place of his own. The man died, however, in spite
of this last sacrifice, and Lhotas, seeing that it was unavailing, have
never imitated his example. This tradition and the practice of spearing
the opya at the oyantsoa “genna” point to a time when human sacrifice
was practised to avert evil fortune, but it would be safe to say that
within historical times no such custom has been followed by them.
NAGA-ASSAMESE GLOSSARY
As far as possible Naga-Assamese words have been avoided. For the
following, however, no convenient English equivalents exist.
apodia. From the Assamese āpăd (“misfortune”). Certain forms of death
by misadventure are spoken of as “apotia” deaths (see p. 160).
chunga. A section of bamboo with a node left intact at one end. Used as
a drinking vessel or for carrying water.
dal. Lentils.
dao. A heavy bill used by Nagas both as a weapon and for agriculture.
deo-bih. Literally “spirit-poison.” The juice of a certain root
formerly used by Nagas for poisoning fish. The practice is now
prohibited.
genna. A very common Naga-Assamese word and one used in various senses.
(1) A Naga ceremony; (2) = “forbidden” (e.g. “It is genna to take the
head of a man of your own village”); (3) = “tabued,” as Angami kenna,
of which the word is a corruption (e.g. “my house is genna to-day”).
jhum. Naga cultivation (see description on p. 45). Also used = a field
which has been cultivated in this way.
khel. A division of a village (see description on p. 24).
lengta. The small apron worn by the men of most Naga tribes.
machan. A bamboo platform.
madhu. Rice beer.
mithan. Bos frontalis (domestic) and bos gaurus (wild).
morung. The “bachelors’ hall” in which the boys and unmarried men of a
khel sleep.
pan. A leaf which is chewed with betel nut and lime.
panji. A bamboo spike stuck in the ground to impale enemies or game.
NOTES
[1] See The Angami Nagas, Pt. V., “The Story of Hunchibili.”
[2] See Gurdon, The Khasis, p. 168, “The Story of U Loh Ryndi.” The
version of this story with which I met in the Khasi Hills in 1911
substituted an orange for the fish. Another Khasi story derives the
origin of the Jyrwa Nongsiet clan from a girl who came out of a bamboo
shoot, but I cannot find it mentioned by Col. Gurdon, and it may be a
Lynngam or Synteng clan.
[3] So, too, in the Khasi Hills the Khasis live in permanent villages,
while Bhois and Lynngams are more or less migratory (Gurdon, op. cit.,
p. 34).
[4] In prescribing rewards for the learning of languages the Local
Government has assumed a similarity of language between the tribes
classed as “Naga” by giving a reduced reward for passing a test in a
second Naga language after one has already been learnt, but in point of
fact the linguistic test breaks down as badly as the migration test,
for Sir George Grierson, in classifying the languages of the area,
groups some Nagas with Kacharis, Mikirs and others in the Naga-Bodo
group, some with Thado and other Kuki languages in the Naga-Kuki group,
and others in different groups, and it would really be far more logical
to base the examinations on these groups than on the false supposition
based on the present use of the term “Naga,” which is really as
inaccurate as the reputed divisions of the Hill tribes of Burma into
“Tame Chins, Wild Chins and Ka-chins.”
[5] Nāga is a corruption of the Assamese Năga (pronounced “Nŏga”),
probably meaning “a mountaineer” from Sanskrit Năg, a “mountain” or
“inaccessible place.”
[6] Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, I. i. ch. vii. (N.B.,
pp. 331 and 387).
[7] Mr. T. P. M. O’Callaghan tells me that the Linghi sept of Mishmis
came from the south; so, too, the Sotia clan of the Miri tribe is
reported by Mr. R. C. R. Cumming as claiming a southern origin, though
in both cases the rest of the tribe came from the north. The Apar
Tanengs are also believed to have come from the south, and they, unlike
their neighbours, practise the cultivation of irrigated rice with a
certain amount of terracing.
[8] Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, I. i. p. 191 and ch.
vi. passim.
[9] The origin of the Kuki-Lushai-Chin family is a matter of some doubt
(see Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, I. i. p. 451 sq.),
but apparently they came originally from the north and are probably
related to the Burmese and to the Singpho-Kachin group.
[10] Probably Bodo.
[11] Census of India, 1911. Part I. ch. ix. The Bodo race seems to have
been widely intermingled with the Munda and Mon-Khmêr families, and
though the latter is spoken of as an Austric race, it seems clear
enough that the Bodos came into Assam from the north, and it may
perhaps be questioned whether the Munda Mon-Khmêr races are not equally
Turanian in origin, an origin which has also been claimed for the
Polynesians and Melanesians in the Pacific. Vide Dr. George Brown,
Melanesians and Polynesians, pp. 16, 17, 369, 370 (Macmillan, 1910).
[12] There are in Yacham and also in some Konyak villages to the east
apparently definite traditions of an immigration from a place called
Maibang of a clan which still preserves as heirlooms certain peculiar
types of spiked armlets of bronze. “Maibang” is a Kachari place name =
“Much paddy.” Besides the Kachari capital of that name in the North
Cachar Hills, there is said to have been a Maibang village on the outer
Lhota range.
[13] But even the Semas themselves contain traces of a mixed origin;
there are clans in Vekohomi who admittedly came from the country to the
south-east across the Tizu. These it is true claim that they were an
offshoot originally of the genuine Sema, but there is little, not even
probability, to support their claim. All the northern and eastern Semas
contain large and demonstrable admixtures of Ao and Sangtam blood, and
it is likely that the original blood of the Sema invaders is
excessively diluted and that not even all the chiefly families are of
true Sema descent.
[14] In Assamese the Lhotas speak of them as “spirits,” deo, but in
their own language as “jungle-men,” orakyon.
[15] So has the Kacha Naga, and the Phom to some extent.
[16] See Ratzel, History of Mankind, Vol. I. Book II., Map of the Races
of Oceania.
[17] The black of a Naga’s or Kuki’s hair is normally a dull brownish-
or reddish-black rather than the blue-black of some races. Children
with reddish, or even yellowish, hair are particularly common in Phom
villages.
[18] In the Konyak villages of Shiong and Tang there appears to be a
whole clan whose hair is of this type. The member of the clan whom I
saw had very curly hair which stuck out fuzzily in all directions.
[19] The Maru. Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, I. i. p.
386. The Lolos also burn their dead (ibid. p. 615) and put their ashes
in clefts in the rock. In the Assam hills north of the Brahmaputra the
Taroan and Miju Mishmis first bury, then exhume and burn their dead.
The Khasi and Garo tribes also burn.
[20] In Yacham, a composite Ao-Phom village, each family has its own
place of exposure where the bodies of its dead are exposed on a
platform under thatch in the Ao manner, but smoked out of doors in
situ, after which the heads are ultimately wrenched off and the bodies
in their wrappings added to the heap in the clan burial tree.
[21] It possibly dates only from the comparatively recent absorption by
the Chang tribe of certain Ao villages east of the Dikhu. Colonel A. E.
Woods, touring among the Changs in 1900, states definitely that they
bury their dead.
[22] Mr. Mills tells me that all these obsolete Lhota yanthang seem to
be connected with the partial migration from the north as opposed to
the general immigration from the south.
[23] The story of people created with their noses upside-down so that
they could not go out in the rain, because it ran off their foreheads
down their nostrils, is not the sort of story that one would expect to
occur spontaneously to different peoples in different parts of the
world. It is reported from the Bila-an in the Philippines (Frazer,
Folk-lore in the Old Testament, Vol. I. p. 16) and is found in the Naga
Hills among both Changs and Semas. The Angamis have the story in which
the Semas and Changs introduce the incident, but do not, apparently,
relate this particular tradition.
[24] Stone hoes (or axes), both roughly shouldered and with very
carefully squared shoulders, are to be found in various parts of the
Naga Hills, and are regarded as thunderbolts.
[25] The Lhotas are to some extent an exception. They know and use the
cross-bow, though their Ao, Rengma, Angami and even Sema neighbours do
not. North of the Brahmaputra both the long-bow and cross-bow are in
use, and one tribe uses the former for shooting fish, special long
arrows being used for that purpose.
[26] The Wa of Burma make drums of this sort (U. B. and S. S.
Gazetteer, I. i. p. 502).
[27] Upper Burma and Shan States Gazetteer, I. i. p. 535.
[28] Playfair, The Garos, p. 34. So too the Lynngam and Bhois (Gurdon,
The Khasis, p. 40).
[29] The Konyaks also have the custom of blackening their teeth like
the Brè Karens of Burma (U. B. and S. S. Gazetteer, I. i. p. 534).
[30] Phoms and some Konyaks put up a single erect stone with flat
stones round it as a place for the exposure of enemy heads in front of
the clan “morung.”
[31] The reason given is that this kindred has never been allowed to
carry the village oha (sacred stones) at the time of migration, or
indeed to touch them at any time.
The Khawlthang sept of the Haokip clan of Thado Kukis also uses
Y-shaped posts (vide Col. Shakespear’s Lushei-Kuki Clans, p. 65).
The Angami uses them only in the case of the Lisü “genna” performed in
Kohima villages only. At this “genna” the spirit of fertility is caused
to perambulate the village, symbolized by a Y-shaped and by a phallic
post, the former pulled by chaste boys, the latter carried by a man,
and representing respectively the female and male organs of generation.
It has been already pointed out that the Puchatsuma clan in Kohima has
a western origin.
[32] In some cases the Ang has really no political influence at all,
and seems to be kept as a sort of “fetish” rather than anything else.
Thus Kamahu in 1920, having never had an Ang, obtained one from
Wanching, “because it was good to have one.”
[33] They also have different words for “father,” aphu and apyu, like
the Tengima Angamis apo and apvu. The present census shows a practical
equality of those Rengmas using apfsü for “mother” with the total of
the Tseminyu using avyo and the Inseni-Kotsenu using azao.
[34] The word is distinct in meaning from Teprima, a foreigner from the
plains, including Assamese, Bengalis, Europeans, etc. The proportion,
as worked out, during the 1921 census, of Kepezoma to Kepepfüma in the
Angami tribe shows a nearly three to one majority of the former among
the Tengima and Dzunokehena groups, and a nearly two to one majority in
the Chakrima group of the “Thevoma” over “Solhima.” This excludes the
Kezami and Mĕmi sub-tribes, of which the former seems to be wholly
Pezoma and the latter wholly Pepfüma, at any rate as far as the terms
used are concerned, though the division may exist in fact but have
disappeared from the terms of address as in the case of the Chakrima.
The bulk of the Memi group are in the Manipur state and were therefore
outside the scope of the inquiry. The total figures actually returned
from those groups in which the inquiry was made were—
Kepezoma. Kepepfüma.
Tengima 13,516 4,748
Chakrima 11,051 5,771
Kezami 4,670 —
Memi — 1,099
====== ======
Total for those Angamis in the Naga Hills
District 29,237 11,618
The census for the Ao tribe showed the Chongli Aos 16,276 souls against
5,809 Mongsen Aos.
[35] The Sema clan of Chishilimi was perhaps originally organized on a
dual basis, the clan being descended from two brothers, Chesha and
Chishi, and the descendants of one brother being regarded as superior.
Here again there was a dispute as to which was the superior division,
the descendants of Chishi eventually establishing their claim by
chicanery, though Chesha was the elder brother.
[36] Mr. Mills has pointed out to me that the Ung clan among the Changs
is priestly, and that there must be one of this clan in every Chang
village. As the Ung clan is usually spoken of with contempt it
doubtless represents a conquered population acquainted with the gods of
the soil, at any rate in the Chang country. Chang Ung probably = Konyak
Ang in any case, and the Changs seem to be largely invaders in Phom, Ao
or Konyak territory.
[37] So, too, the Garo dead point to the peak Chikmang (Playfair, The
Garos, p. 103). North of the river Brahmaputra the hill tribes are said
to have no beliefs as to transmigration into insects.
[38] Mr. Mills has pointed out to me that the Lhota word for a familiar
spirit is Sonyo, and the familiar usually takes a leopard form, while
the Ao word Chonyu means “leopard” pure and simple. The Chang word
Saonyu = “tiger.”
The Thado Kukis, while not practising lycanthropy, believe very
strongly in vampires and are extremely afraid of offending persons with
the reputation of being such. The vampire sends his soul to suck the
vitality of other men’s souls during sleep. The Meitheis also believe
in vampires, but I have not met the belief in any Naga tribe.
[39] The Semas have a story of a stone at Champimi which fought with
Tukahu (Japvo) mountain. The Aos have several stones that fight or
fought, and the Lhota stories are given by Mr. Mills. It may be noticed
that the Aos, like the Khasis, have the practice of divining by
breaking eggs and observing the fall of the fragments of shell.
[40] McCulloch, quoted by Hodson (The Meitheis, pp. 68, 73), records a
Manipuri tradition of the composition of the Manipuri people from
different clans that came from the south, the east and the north-west.
Mr. Hodson also suggests that the existing population was already
located as at present in A.D. 1431 (op. cit. p. 74 note).
[41] But north of the Brahmaputra again burial is the rule.
[42] These Y-shaped posts are also used by the Wa of Burma to
commemorate the slaughter of buffaloes (Gazetteer of Upper Burma and
the Shan States, I. i. p. 505), whose village defences (ibid. p. 504)
must closely resemble those of the Angamis and Kacha Nagas.
[43] It might, of course, be possible to contend that this fusion took
place as a result of two consecutive occupations of the Naga Hills
themselves, but in my opinion all the evidence points to the fusion
having taken place at any rate before the Angamis occupied their
present sites. The barbarian element may have been Tai in origin.
[44] I am indebted to Mr. J. P. Mills for this explanation of the names
of the Lhota phratries, which reached me long after I had formed the
conclusions which they appear in some degree to strengthen.
[45] The meaning of the Lhota word is, I am told, very doubtful. If
correctly interpreted it might perhaps refer to some habit of
hairdressing. The Angami, in contradistinction to tribes to the north,
brushes his hair up off his forehead; so does the Tangkhul.
[46] I take azo and ayo, Angami and Lhota respectively for “my mother,”
to be the same word.
[47] Gait’s History of Assam, p. 162.
[48] The Lhota villagers on the outer range relate that the Burmese
visited them in a horde which moved on from village to village, looting
everything they could find and eating all the food supplies and
defiling the houses in a very Prussian way before leaving, the Lhota
inhabitants having fled to the jungle on the approach of the Burmese.
One Lhota, who related this to me, said that the Burmese (mān) must, in
his opinion, have been some sort of spirit or godling, but another
contradicted him, saying that he knew well that the mān were men like
themselves.—J. H. H.
[49] Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. 110, 1841, p. 162.
[50] Selection of Papers regarding Hill Tracts between Assam and Burmah
and on the Upper Brahmaputra. Bengal Secretariat Press, 1873, pp. 295
sqq.
[51] Lhotas living left of the Doyang are known as Ndrung, and those on
the right bank as Liye. The division of the tribe into two sections by
a river which is unfordable for a great part of the year has led to
slight diversity of dialect and custom.
[52] The following is the Lhota version of how the miraculous
properties of the Kezakenoma stone were destroyed: In order to put an
end to the quarrels of the brothers as to whose turn it was to dry, and
double, his paddy, an old woman, who had no husband, and an old man who
had no wife, were selected and these two had connection lying on the
stone. This destroyed its miraculous properties. Possibly the idea was
that the sexual act between these old people was bound to be sterile
and that this sterility should be communicated to the highly prolific
stone. The Rengmas have this story as well as the Lhotas. In The Angami
Nagas (pp. 19 and 362) I have recorded other accounts, both Rengma and
Angami, of the manner in which the stone was rendered unfruitful, and
suggested that the methods aimed rather at offending or hurting the
spirit in the stone, an explanation perhaps equally applicable to the
Lhota version.—J. H. H.
[53] The languages of the Lhotas and Southern Sangtams are very closely
akin.
[54] A village was not always founded by one man. It was quite common
for two men of different clans to join at founding a new village, each
bringing his quota of families. Each clan would supply wives for the
other, and the inconveniences of marriage outside the village were thus
avoided.
[55] The fire-stick of the Lhotas is precisely similar to that of the
Semas and other Naga tribes. A small piece of dry wood is split and a
little stone put in as a wedge. The fork so formed is laid over some
cotton wool or whatever is used as tinder, the operator holding it in
place with his foot. A strip of dry bamboo is put under the fork, which
is notched to keep it in place, and pulled backwards and forwards till
the friction causes the tinder to smoulder.
[56] See pp. 122 sqq.
[57] Wavy hair is common among the Aos and Konyaks, and curly hair far
from rare.
[58] In villages near the Rengma border individuals are often to be
seen who have adopted the Rengma custom and shaved their heads so high
up all round that practically nothing but a small cap of hair is left.
[59] Vide p. 108.
[60] For description of social “gennas” see Part IV.
[61] As is the case among the Semas, a boy may if he likes wear any
cloth to which his father is entitled while he lives with him. When he
marries, however, and sets up house on his own, he may only wear those
cloths to which he is entitled in his own right.
[62] What appears to be the original form of this ornament is still
worn in some Eastern Chang villages. It consists of a long string of
white wild Job’s tear seeds, which is made for and given to a man by a
girl with whom he is carrying on a flirtation. Further to the west the
seeds are sewn in rows on to a cloth wristlet, and among the Aos
cowries take the place of the seeds.
[63] See p. 91.
[64] The Changs say they gave up the use of these daos three
generations ago. The Aos probably did so about the same time, but they
still keep a few as heirlooms, and the leader of the dance at a big
feast holds one in his hand.
[65] Some villages seem to regard this particular dao only as yanthang
and either do not know, or refuse to admit, the existence of a whole
class of daos called by that name.—J. H. H.
[66] I was told in Yimbang that though the red embroidered lechapsü was
worn originally for taking part in a raid, it may now be worn by
“anyone who has ever carried a load for Government,” i.e. by all
able-bodied Lhotas.—J. H. H.
[67] Col. L. W. Shakespear, History of Upper Assam, Upper Burma and
North-Eastern Frontier, p. 202.
[68] It may be noticed that while the Lhota word for “morung,” champo,
seems allied to the vocabulary of the north-east (e.g. in Chang chăm =
house, and some Konyaks use the same word), the word for “house,” oki,
is that of the western Naga vocabulary (Sema aki, Angami ki).
The Bachelors’ House is an institution common to most of the tribes in
Assam, and is also found among the Oraons of Chota Nagpur, a Kolarian
(or Mon-Khmêr) tribe. Cf. S. C. Roy, The Oraons of Nagpur (Ranchi,
1915), p. 211.—J. H. H.
[69] Konyaks, after rebuilding a “morung,” immediately go into the
jungle and try to kill a monkey, the hand of which is tied to the main
post. Failing a monkey, anything, even a little bird, will do, but
something must be killed, and the hunting party returns home singing as
if they had taken a head.
[70] The word emung, which corresponds exactly to the Ao term amung,
means literally “gathered together.” On an emung day no one may go down
to the fields to work, or go farther from the village than is necessary
to get water and firewood.
[71] In some villages the head and trunk of the dog are tied up on the
main post (humtse tachungo) of the “morung” and left there to rot.
[72] Lt.-Col. R. G. Woodthorpe’s sketch on Pl. XVIII., Vol. xi., of the
Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1888, shows what the
mingetung of Phiro looked like in the old days.
[73] The spot where this was done is called Rāmākātī or mān yōnchopfĕ́
the latter meaning the “Burmese iron-foundry.” It is a small outcrop of
very shaly coal. Possibly the ancestor of the Thangwe Eni clan caught
in the jungle by the Eni who adopted him was a Burman, like the
ancestor of the Tephri-Methama sept of the Methama clan in the Angami
village of Chichama.—J. H. H.
[74] It is with the same idea, perhaps, that an Angami selling an
ancestral field retains as his own a sod or two which remain nominally
his.—J. H. H.
[75] The process described below is that employed in the case of
ordinary land. On the very poor soil the jungle is often cut in July
and burnt at the beginning of December. The soil then gets a longer
exposure to the air.
[76] The Kayans of Borneo, who have several cultural affinities with
Nagas, follow the same practice. They give as their reason the
necessity of providing abiding places for the spirits (toh) of the
locality. (Hose and McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo, II. 23,
quoted Sir J. G. Frazer, Folk-lore in the Old Testament, III. 70.) The
value of the practice is obvious, as it gives the trees a chance of
seeding and so of restocking the cleared ground and making it fit for
jhuming again.—J. H. H.
[77] Cf. pp. 151 sqq.
[78] See Man, July 1917, “Some Types of Native Hoes, Naga Hills,” by H.
Balfour, M.A.—J. H. H.
[79] Corresponds to the Angami Chadangi, which is performed about the
same time of year.—J. H. H.
[80] Most Naga tribes erect some white sign by a path when clearing it.
Aos, for instance, set up rows of saplings cut obliquely at the top to
show the white heart. Some tribes put up peeled stakes, or stakes split
down the middle.—J. H. H.
[81] In many Angami villages the First Reaper must be a woman.—J. H. H.
[82] See p. 115.
[83] The charms recorded for this ceremony are those used in Akuk. The
formulæ used in ceremonies vary considerably in different villages.
[84] Persons of another village are on no account allowed to help in
threshing.—J. H. H.
[85] The wild orange is found in the forests along the foot of the Naga
Hills on the Assam side, while the culture of limes and pomelos, though
apparently not of oranges themselves, was brought up from the Chindwin
valley by the Southern Sangtams, who carried the seeds with them on
their wanderings. Cf. also Gurdon, The Khasis, p. 41.—J. H. H.
[86] I have heard of one case of a mithan interbreeding with a gaur
(Bos gaurus), a few of which are still to be found in the foot-hills of
the Lhota country. The calf died, however. Such crosses are said to be
not uncommon in the North Cachar Hills.
[87] The Semas have a similar custom. The intention apparently is to
keep a certain amount of control over this semi-feral animal by
retaining something which has been in close contact with it.—J. H. H.
[88] Lhotas give to newly acquired pigs the bulbous root of a small
ground orchid which they call wokoloha (pigs’ luck-stone). This is
believed to have the effect of inducing them to take to their new
surroundings without running away (as we put butter on a cat’s paws)
and prevents their fighting with the other pigs in the house. It also
seems to promote the prosperity of the pig generally.—J. H. H.
[89] There are two distinct types of Naga dog—one with a short and hard
coat, sometimes red, but usually black with white chest and often with
white paws and collar or a white splash on the back of the neck; the
other long-haired and either black or red, though sometimes all white
or white with a few black blotches. The long-haired type, like the
other, has a good nose, but its coat is too thick for it to be able to
hunt game for long.—J. H. H.
[90] It is probably also thought that the preservation of the shell
aids the preservation of the chicken during its infancy.—J. H. H.
[91] Corresponds to the Angami Tsikeo.—J. H. H.
[92] By the Semas, at any rate, something, if only a scrap, must be
given by the owner of the dogs to the dogs themselves. Cf. S. C. Roy,
The Oraons of Nagpur, p. 157.—J. H. H.
[93] In some villages of the Northern Lhotas the curse is removed by
cutting off the head, not the paws.
[94] Cf. T. C. Hodson, Naga Tribes of Manipur, p. 57.
[95] This fruit, thrice cooked, is used as food by the Konyaks and
pronounced very good—“like ghi.” Cooked once only, it is used by them
as a rat poison.—J. H. H.
[96] A Chang who loses his way cuts off a bit of his hair and sticks it
in a cleft stick or the fork of a tree, no doubt as a substitute for
his own person. After which the python lets him go and he finds his way
home. A Sema under similar circumstances offers a bit of the fringe of
his cloth.—J. H. H.
[97] My experience of fish “poisoning” by Lhotas is that the discipline
of the leaders over the younger men beating the “poison” into the river
is so poor that the invariable result is that almost the only fish
taken are a few labeo, a bottom-feeding fish more susceptible to poison
than mahseer, and any cat-fish (Bagarius yarrellii or Silundia
gangetica or some similar Siluroid) that there may be in the river.
Ultimately I came to the conclusion that, as far as game-fish at any
rate were concerned, poisoning by niro did more good than harm, as it
cleared out the predatory fish while scarcely affecting the mahseer and
its kin. I found later that Mr. Soppitt’s experiences among the
Kacharis in the North Cachar Hills had led him to precisely the same
conclusion (see C. A. Soppitt, Historical and Descriptive Account of
the Kachari Tribes in the North Cachar Hills, Shillong, 1885. Reprinted
with an introduction by E. C. Stuart Baker, 1901, pp. 51, 52).—J. H. H.
[98] See p. 160.
[99] I have known Lhotas diving in the Doyang in the rains, when that
river was muddy and in spate, catch fish by hand without any sort of
aid, apparently picking them up stupid from the river bed.—J. H. H.
[100] On the other hand, the Aos and Changs place a high value on otter
flesh. They believe that fish-bones will never stick in the throat of
anyone who has eaten it. If a particularly large fish-bone does by any
chance stick in the throat of a Chang who has ever eaten otter meat he
has only to murmur “I am an otter,” and down it goes.
[101] Most Nagas, including Lhotas, eat hawks with avidity. Possibly
this accounts for it.—J. H. H.
[102] Probably the reason, in some cases at any rate, is the fear that
the propensity of the animal for destroying and wasting paddy will pass
to the woman, who is responsible for regulating the household
consumption, and thereby cause the household store of grain to be
unduly depleted. This is almost certainly the reason in the case of the
monkey and might apply equally to the wild mithan and buffalo, to the
bear and to the elephant. It could hardly be applied to the serow or to
the pangolin. The former of these two is a roaming animal and rarely
sleeps long in the same spot, which offers an obvious reason for the
prohibition. The pangolin is such a curious beast that anyone might shy
at eating him. The Sema forbids gibbon meat lest the children inherit
the cry.—J. H. H.
[103] A Lhota woman was accused in my court of having poisoned her
husband under circumstances which left little doubt as to her guilt in
my mind, though the charge could not be proved in court. It is
generally believed that women have knowledge of poisons which are
unknown to men, and I am inclined to think that the belief is not
without foundation.—J. H. H.
[104] The names of the lines given here are those current in Akuk. The
names vary considerably in different villages.
[105] Cf. T. C. Hodson, Naga Tribes of Manipur, p. 62. Cf. also
Lt.-Col. J. Shakespear, Kuki-Lushei Clans, for its prevalence
throughout the hills.
[106] This variety is, I think, identical with the Bean game as played
by the Angamis, while the other variety probably bears more resemblance
to the Sema game.—J. H. H.
[107] The Sema, like the Angami, flute has two round holes, burnt.—J.
H. H.
[108] The order given is that in which the first ancestors are said to
have emerged from the earth. The three phratries are regarded as being
of equal status. Tom-pyak-tserre is said to mean
“forehead-scraping-clean-men,” Izumon-tserre “scattered-men,” and
Mi-pong-san-dre “with fire-smoke-conquering-men.”
[109] A big Sema village of the Asimi clan in the Doyang valley,
south-east of the present Lhota country.
[110] Another tradition says that the old man was of the Nguli clan.
The Chorothui clan only numbers nine households all told. They do not
know to what phratry they belong.
[111] I have always heard the relationship stated as between the Sema
Wotsami and the Lhota Shetri. In any case I am inclined to think the
relationship between respective clans of different tribes an artificial
growth no doubt derived from the considerable diffusion of common blood
among the Naga tribes. If it were genuine the Wotsami clan of Semas
should be associated with the Othui rather than the Nguli or Shetri
clans. Vide infra, Part V.: Story of “How men were turned into
Gibbons.” Up to a certain point there is no doubt a real connection, as
the Ao Pongen or Pongrr, like the Sema Chishilimi, claim a patrician
descent distinct from that of other clans, while the corresponding Ang
clan among the Konyaks still retains its distinct patrician position. I
believe the Changs’ refusal to intermarry with a corresponding Ao clan
is probably no older than the absorption by the Changs of a number of
Ao villages at a comparatively recent date, when they also adopted the
practice of exposure of the dead. At the present time they expose or
bury as they feel inclined, but Colonel Woods, who toured in their
country in 1900, states specifically that they bury their dead and
makes no mention at all of exposure, though this was certainly
practised at that time by the neighbouring Ao, Phom and Konyak villages
also visited by Colonel Woods.—J. H. H.
[112] Cf. The Angami Nagas, Part III., “The Exogamous System,” and
Appendix III. under “Lhota.”—J. H. H.
[113] The Semas, who do the same, regard such marriages with favour
rather than disfavour, I think.—J. H. H.
[114] Cf. Sema chochomi.—J. H. H.
[115] This is what is normally done by the Semas.—J. H. H.
[116] A serious quarrel between villages resulting in bloodshed entails
a similar prohibition. For instance, Pungkitung once killed a number of
Lungsa men, and Lungsa retaliated in kind. To this day members of the
two villages cannot eat together, and a Lhota of another village who
has accepted hospitality in either Lungsa or Pungkitung cannot on the
same day take food from the hands of a man of the other village. This
bar does not, however, prevent the inhabitants of the two villages from
intermarrying freely.
[117] One “khel” of Rephyim is supposed to have died out because the
head-taking ceremony was once performed there with a Lhota head.
[118] So too the Kachins (Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States,
I. i. p. 432) and the Northern Brè (ibid. p. 533).—J. H. H.
[119] Yampongo of Phiro, a man of great note in his time. He died of a
burst blood-vessel when leading home a mithan captured in the
operations against the Kukis in 1918, and he was over sixty at the
time.—J. H. H.
[120] Compare the Sema song sung by returning warriors, “O Yemusali, O
Yemali,” the meaning of which is not known to the Semas. The words are
obviously the same as those in the Lhota song; and if, as seems
possible, there has been a more intimate connection between the Lhotas
and the Southern Sangtams than now appears, then the Semas may have
acquired the phrase from the numerous Sangtams whom they have absorbed
during the comparatively recent growth and extension of their (the
Sema) tribe.—J. H. H.
[121] See p. 25. One Lhota from Pangti told me that orrülama were left
by the returning warriors at each cross-roads they came to on their way
home, the object being to guide the spirit of the slain enemy as it
followed the head. The Changs believe that the spirits of dead enemies
follow their heads some hours later, whimpering as they go.
[122] The Southern Sangtams put them into gourds and place them on the
top of bamboo poles outside the “morung,” the head or gourd being
transfixed vertically with a bit of wood like a spear.—J. H. H.
[123] So too the Sea Dyaks of Sarawak and some African tribes.—J. H. H.
[124] The practice of buying slaves or orphans for this purpose is
perhaps worst among the unadministered Konyak villages, where it is a
matter of common occurrence, and is probably normal when a chief’s son
wishes to put on warrior’s dress and marry. His father buys a slave,
who is tied up in the village, where the boy kills him in public.
—J. H. H.
[125] In some Lhota villages—e.g. Lungithang—specially made wooden
clubs were kept for use in village rows, and no doubt also fights of
this sort, to avoid recourse to edged tools. The Yachungrr tribe does
the same, clubs being made for women as well as men in this tribe, and
I have known Kacha Nagas (Maruongmai) also to use made clubs, long and
flat, for village riots.—J. H. H.
[126] = Sema Kungumi, and Chang Müghka.—J. H. H.
[127] Potso is commonly used as a form of address to highly respected
persons such as sahibs, like the Assamese Deota, which is, or at one
time was, employed in the same way, and means a godling of some
kind.—J. H. H.
[128] This is the translation given me by Lhotas. The word may really
mean “water-mother,” opfu being one of the Lhota words for mother.
[129] The Sema belief as to Muzamuza, the corresponding Sema deity, is
stated in the same terms, but Muzamuza is Echo.—J. H. H.
[130] The lizard, in particular the sand-lizard with a very shiny skin,
is the subject of some superstitious belief among most Nagas. Thus it
is engraved by Tobu (a ? Konyak village east of the Chang country) on
the long daos they make, tattooed by Chang warriors on their breasts,
painted in black gum on the central white band of the Rengma
head-taking cloth, and sometimes, I think, painted or carved in Konyak
“morungs.” The Semas seem to associate it somehow with the distinction
between the sexes (v. The Sema Nagas), like some Australian tribes.
—J. H. H.
[131] Cf. The Angami Nagas, Appendix VII., The Meitheis (Hodson), p.
99; The Khasis (Gurdon), p. 170. Mr. W. S. Furness (Journal of the
Anthropological Institute, XXXII., 1902, “Ethnography of the Nagas of
Eastern Assam”) states that a stone called Puzzi, near the Sema village
of Champhimi, which used to be erect but is now laid flat, was killed
by the Angami god Tukko, who knocked him down and cut off his head.
This god “Tukko” is clearly Tŭkăhū, which is the Sema name for Japvo
mountain.—J. H. H.
[132] Shakespear, The Lushai Kuki Clans, p. 64.
[133] All Naga tribes that I know hold these two conflicting beliefs as
to the life after death, regarding the soul as inhabiting a butterfly
or other insect, and also as continuing an anthropomorphic existence.
The discrepancy does not seem to occur to them till pointed out, and
not to worry them much then. “Who knows?” is all they say.—J. H. H.
[134] The Angami differs in sending the souls of the “good” to the sky
and the rest only to the underworld.—J. H. H.
[135] On this road the spirit, Etchhilivanthamo, lies in wait for
passers-by to catch and destroy them if he can. To appease him every
dead Lhota has a bead tied to his wrist when buried, so that he can
give it to this spirit and get by.—J. H. H.
[136] The Angamis regard the shrew mouse as the wild boar of the
dead.—J. H. H.
[137] Probably in the under-world or as insects; cf. the Angami belief
(The Angami Nagas, Part IV.).
[138] In Phiro and Saki the term Puki is used to denote not only the
religious officials of the village, but anyone who has performed all
the social “gennas,” a use closely resembling that of the title Kemovo
among the Angamis (of the Kohima group only, where Pitsü is used =
Puthi in its usual sense, other Angamis using Kemovo = Puthi, and Pitsü
for the oldest male in the village).—J. H. H.
[139] Cf. The Oraons of Nagpur, p. 111, note.—J. H. H.
[140] In Morakcho I was told that anyone who speared the opya in the
“head” would die within the year.—J. H. H.
[141] See Hodson, Naga Tribes of Manipur, p. 119.
[142] The blade of a dao is ground on one side of its edge only, giving
a plano-convex cutting edge, so that blows can be made to cut only by a
downward stroke from the right, or an upward stroke from the left, or,
in the case of a dao made on purpose for a left-handed man, vice
versa.—J. H. H.
[143] The Kalyo-Kengyu preserve the bodies of the dead in coffins in
their houses during the year, and on a fixed day at the “genna” for
sowing throw away all the bodies collected during the year, together
with their coffins, belongings, etc. The bodies, however, are broken up
first and the bones collected out of them and put in an earthen pot and
kept at the back of the granary, where they are left to decompose of
themselves.—J. H. H.
[144] Formerly it was the custom for a man who had performed the whole
series to give a final feast, to which even birds and beasts were
invited. Rice and food were scattered on the ground for the village
pigs and chickens, and a special share of meat and rice was taken down
to the performer’s fields and left there for the crows. There is no one
alive now who has dispensed hospitality on this lavish scale.
[145] Among the defects which disqualify a mithan in the view of Ao
Nagas is any defect in the position, etc., of the whorls of hair on the
animal’s throat and muzzle, about which the Aos are very particular.
—J. H. H.
[146] The ceremonies described below are those performed in Pangti. The
details vary considerably from village to village.
[147] All Nagas put up green stuff over their doors when observing
household “gennas,” apparently as a signal to strangers not to
interfere. There may be some other idea beneath it. A Lhota who passes
the corpse of a man who has met with a violent end waves a bit of green
stuff to and fro across his face. Mr. Mills tells me that this is to
ward off the evil fate (nyok) which has attached to the dead man and
may infect the passerby. Nyok possibly = Angami ropfü (v. The Angami
Nagas, Part IV.).—J. H. H.
[148] The Northern Lhotas carry the stone, but the Southern Lhotas drag
it up on a rough sledge made of a forked branch, small branches being
repeatedly laid in front of it to act as rollers.
[149] Mr. C. R. Pawsey tells me that the stone set up at Pembvo’s grave
(on the same ridge as Changsung and Ralung but to the south of them, a
long-deserted village site) bears a rough incision believed by the
local Lhotas, who greatly cherish Pembvo’s memory, to represent the
hornbill feathers he used to wear. The incision is in the form of an
arc, the convex side upmost, with six lines proceeding from it like
rays. I have once seen a stone ornamented with designs in pig’s fat;
the village was, as far as I remember, Changsung.—J. H. H.
[150] These Y-shaped posts are used as an emblem of prosperity by the
Garos, Naked Rengmas, Sangtams, Semas, and by the Hankip clan of Thado
Kukis, and were clearly used by the Kachari kings of Dimapur, who have
left them in stone instead of wood at Dimapur. Originally they
doubtless represent the female organ of generation, in which capacity
they are still made and carried in Kohima village at the Lisü “genna,”
and, preceded by an emblem of the male organ, are dragged through the
village by chaste boys. Kohima, however, seems to be the only genuine
Angami village which either uses the Y-shaped post or performs the Lisü
“genna” in this way. Possibly the Y-shaped post is to be definitely
connected with the Bodo immigration into Assam.—J. H. H.
[151] Lhotas believe that a man who kills a pangolin will die if a
scale falls from the skin of the animal. The Phoms of Hukpang have the
same belief.—J. H. H.
[152] Lhota women wishing for an easy delivery in childbirth catch the
little sand lizard called shamdram, probably belonging to the skink
family, having a very smooth and glossy surface to its scales, and of
active habits, and rub it round their navel and abdomen, saying, “Let
my child be slippery like you, and come without difficulty.” Then they
let it go again.—J. H. H. The Hopi Indians of Arizona use a weasel skin
for the same purpose (cf. Man, July 1921, p. 99).
[153] Angamis and Semas bury the afterbirth. The Khasis hang it up in
trees.—J. H. H.
[154] A similar taboo exists among the Garos; cf. Major A. Playfair,
The Garos, p. 23.
[155] The Semas and Angamis still do, I think, but they do not abandon
the house.—J. H. H.
[156] The same custom obtains among the Kacharis and other tribes of
the Assam valley.—J. H. H.
[157] Among the Aos and Konyaks, on the other hand, the usual practice
is for a youth to choose as his wife one of the girls whose favours he
has been in the habit of enjoying.
[158] A somewhat different account of a Lhota wedding is given on p. 74
of Part I. of the Assam Census Report, 1911. In spite of careful
inquiries I have been unable to find any Lhota who has ever heard of
the marriage song and mock fight there described.
[159] In the case of the Rengmas a younger brother who has a fancy for
his elder brother’s wife by no means necessarily waits for his
brother’s absence, nor does the elder brother necessarily object to his
younger brother’s having intercourse with his (the elder’s) wife. I
have known the elder brother acquiesce in this even when the younger
was married to a wife of his own. This last it was who objected.—J. H.
H.
[160] Some of the Konyaks use coffins of this type, and the
Kalyo-Kengyu also seem to use a dug-out receptacle for the bodies of
the dead while they are kept in the house during the desiccation
process.—J. H. H.
[161] One or two villages situated near the lower reaches of the Doyang
where it emerges into the plains make dug-out canoes hewn from a single
log. These are admittedly copies of those made by the Assamese, with
whom these villages have been in long and close contact.
[162] So the Assamese of the plains believe that if a false report of a
man’s death is circulated he will live long. The Semas on the other
hand believe that it will cause his death untimely.—J. H. H.
[163] The Northern Lhotas build a miniature roof over the grave.
[164] The Kalyo-Kengyu make periodic offerings by the path until the
sowing following the death, when the body is broken up. A mat is spread
and every sort of grain poured out, and some of all the fruits and
vegetables available, together with wooden daos, spears and cross-bows,
are put out for the dead, whole baskets of valuable grain being emptied
by the roadside for this purpose.—J. H. H.
[165] The Tangkhuls build a miniature house on a very high machan (for
the size of the house) with a tiny notched bamboo for the spirit to use
as a ladder.—J. H. H.
[166] For a similar belief among the Garos, cf. Major A. Playfair, The
Garos, p. 23.
[167] According to Sir J. Frazer the reason is fear of the ghost, vide
Psyche’s Task, pp. 134, 135 (2nd ed.), where the customs of the Shans
and Kachins are mentioned and prove to be remarkably similar to those
of the Lhotas.—J. H. H. These deaths are known in Naga-Assamese as
“apotia.”
[168] In a case that came to my notice at Lotsü, when the Puthi’s son
got drowned when fishing, all the men with the lad threw away all their
cloths, weapons, ornaments and everything they had taken with them on
their outing. Even the dogs they had with them were killed and their
bodies thrown into the jungle. The fact that it was the Puthi’s son
that was drowned probably made the matter much more serious. The
misfortune was put down to the anger of Tchhüpfu at the village having
failed to “poison” the river with deo-bih, but it is possible that this
was done in the hope that I would allow that forbidden practice to be
renewed.—J. H. H.
[169] Semas sometimes come and ask for them, also for the paddy left to
rot in the grain-house. I have known both taken without objection, and
I have known Lhotas also object to both on the grounds that in the act
of taking them away it would be necessary to move them across the
village lands, and that this alone might be enough to bring about some
terrible calamity. I think, however, that jealousy had something to do
with this attitude.—J. H. H.
[170] Unless the disposal of enemy heads on the mingetung is so
reckoned, or the disposal of the afterbirth in trees. Both are buried
by the Angami and the latter by the Sema also.—J. H. H.
[171] The Changs believe that “tiger-men” are confined to the Haki-Ung
clan, where the peculiarity is hereditary. They say that at the time of
the Universal Deluge, when only the highest peaks remained above the
flood, the Haki-Ung clan was the only one from which tigers claimed no
victims. They therefore became the adopted sons of tigers, and to this
day have tiger “familiars.” No member of the clan may kill or touch the
corpse of a tiger. When a tiger is killed it is believed a member of
the Haki-Ung clan will die six days later in a distant village.
[172] In this connection the Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute (“Leopard Men in the Naga Hills”) for Jan.–June 1920 may be
referred to.—J. H. H.
[173] Among other Naga tribes these stones must be black and heavy for
their size, and show a wet smear when rubbed with the thumb. They are
nodules of some stone which is not a normal geological feature of the
country, and are regarded as distinct from the larger water-worn stones
kept to bring fortune to the community, which are definitely of the
locality. Cf. The Sema Nagas, Part IV. (Anagha).—J. H. H.
[174] See The Angami Nagas, Part I.—J. H. H.
[175] The Semas and some other tribes rub them with pig’s fat.—J. H. H.
[176] It may be noticed that the presentation of fish by a man to his
betrothed is the formal sign of the completion of an Ao marriage.—J. H.
H.
[177] Cf. Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Chap. XV.—J. H. H.
[178] Rarakham appears to be the same as the Sema pulakhu, which,
however, was identified for me as Mosla dianthera. It is quite likely
that both plants are used by Nagas under the same name.—J. H. H.
[179] The Aos erect a stout and tall rice plant on a piece of bamboo
and put it by the field to make the rice grow, by its good example, as
high from the ground as the top of the uplifted rice plant.—J. H. H.
[180] There is a white serow of supernatural qualities at Seromi in the
Sema country, and the Assamese, indeed, call the species deo-chaguli,
“the spirit-goat,” no doubt owing to its exceeding shyness and
elusiveness.—J. H. H.
[181] Lobeni, a dream-woman of Phiro, who was an acquaintance of mine
and whose dreams of hunting prospects were famous for their accuracy,
used to ask for a cloth or handkerchief of her client on which she used
to sleep. The same practice is recorded of the Moscoc, dream diviners
of Peru. (Memorias Antiguas Historiales del Peru, Hakluyt Soc. 1920, p.
60, note.)—J. H. H.
[182] So, too, the Samoans; George Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians
(Macmillan, 1910), p. 219.—J. H. H.
[183] Cf. the New Britain belief; George Brown, Melanesians and
Polynesians, p. 193.—J. H. H.
[184] The interpretation of dreams by opposites (cf. Apuleius, The
Golden Ass, Chap. XXI.) is frequent among Nagas generally, and may no
doubt be usually based on this principle.—J. H. H.
[185] I have found the same belief among the Thado Kukis.—J. H. H.
[186] This belief might be connected with that by which some Nagas
explain earthquakes as the spirit under the earth shaking the earth as
in a winnowing fan to find out what the crops are like and weigh their
quantity and quality.—J. H. H.
[187] Cf. the somewhat similar Garo story; Major A. Playfair, The
Garos, p. 85.—J. P. M.
Cf. also Col. Gurdon, The Khasis, p. 172, where it is to be noticed
that the Khasis, like the Semas, make the moon masculine and the sun
feminine. The Sema version (The Sema Nagas, p. 250) is still nearer to
the Lhota, and a similar story (with a “rabbit” instead of dung) comes
from Mexico. A geographical link between the two stories is perhaps
provided by Japan, where the hare is associated with the moon (vide
Lord Redesdale, Tales of Japan, “The Crackling Mountain,” note 1). The
Malays also say that the sun and moon were once of equal brightness
(Ratzel, History of Mankind, I. p. 478). The Nicobarese have the same
beliefs as the Lhota both as to the former proximity of the sky and as
to the interchange of functions between the sun and the moon (vide The
Indian Antiquary), August 1921, Part DCXXXV. p. 235.—J. H. H.
[188] This view of the cause of eclipses is in accordance with the
common Tibetan account current generally also over at any rate the
north of India. It is the form which explanations of eclipses usually
take among Nagas, but in contrast to the Angami story, which represents
the orb eclipsed as repaying a loan of borrowed light.—J. H. H.
[189] Naga folk-lore in general has much in common with that of other
races of Mongolian affinities. Thus the Naga (Angami) and Kachari story
of the origin of the domestication of certain animals as opposed to the
rest is akin to the Lapp story given by Mr. Andrew Lang under the title
of “The Elf Maiden,” in his Brown Fairy Book. The Angami story is to be
found in The Angami Nagas, Part IV., the Terhengi Genna, and the
Kachari version in Soppitt, Historical and Descriptive Account of the
Kachari Tribes of the North Cachar Hills, p. 56. Much closer, however,
is the resemblance between an incident in the story of “The Fox and the
Lapp” (same volume of Mr. Lang’s Fairy Tales), and the almost verbally
identical incident in the Sema story of Iki and the Tiger (The Sema
Nagas, p. 319). In the latter Iki escapes from the tiger by pointing to
a hornbill flying over and saying, “I made that.” The tiger asks if Iki
can make him like it, and on Iki’s consenting agrees to let himself be
tied up, and to undergo an operation entailing his destruction. In the
Lapp story the fox escapes from the bear by precisely the same ruse, a
woodpecker taking the place of the hornbill. In the same volume of Mr.
Lang’s is a story called “The Husband of the Rat’s Daughter,” quoted as
from Contes Populaires, but apparently coming from Japan, which is
identical with the Angami story of “The Rat Maiden” (The Angami Nagas,
Part V.).—J. H. H.
[190] This and all other stories given are literal translations from
the Lhota. My method has been to have the stories dictated and written
down in Lhota, and then tested for verbal accuracy before translating
them.
[191] All Nagas believe that a severe wound in the tongue causes
instant death.
[192] Certain families of the Shetri clan in Pangti claim to be his
direct descendants.
[193] The “Thimzing” of the Thados and other Kukis; vide Col. J.
Shakespear, The Lushai-Kuki Clans.—J. H. H.
[194] And to the Angami Matseo, the orphan, pretty closely.—J. H. H.
[195] The play upon the words cannot be reproduced in English. Apfuho
really said “emitacholam” (“What a fool of an old woman!”), and then
got out of his difficulty by pretending he had only uttered the middle
syllable “acho,” which is an exclamation like the English “Oh!”
[196] This incident in a very similar form occurs in the Sema story of
Iki and the Tiger (The Sema Nagas, Part VI.).—J. H. H.
[197] The vat was very heavy, being hollowed out of a solid log of
wood, and would soon be swamped if put rim upwards in the water.
[198] This incident in a slightly different setting is found in the
Assamese story of the Monkey and the Jackal, the Kachari story of the
Monkey and the Hare, in an Angami story and also in an Ao story. In the
latter version it is the bear who is thus victimized. For the Kachari
story see J. D. Anderson, Kachari Folk-tales and Rhymes, p. 27
(Shillong, 1895); for the Assamese story see J. Borooah, Folk-tales of
Assam, p. 8 [shial = “jackal” not “fox”] (Howrah, 1915), and for the
Angami story, The Angami Nagas, Part IV.—J. H. H.
The Shans, too, relate a similar story in which the Hare induces the
Tiger to believe that a swarm of bees is a gong. Milne and Cochrane,
The Shans at Home, p. 244. An almost verbally identical episode occurs
in the Sea Dyak story of the Mouse-deer and the Deer. Gomes, Seventeen
Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo, p. 260.
[199] Cf. the old fairy tale of Big and Little Klaus.—J. H. H.
[200] In the Angami version the man sends a messenger to the wild dog
who had run away. The messenger, instead of asking for a leg of every
head of game the dog ran down, asked for the whole body. At this the
wild dog, quite prepared to give a leg, lost his temper and said, “Bah!
I’ll give him the hair and leave it on the path for him to find.” Hence
the dung of wild dogs containing large quantities of hair is found
everywhere on paths.—J. H. H.
[201] A very old village, once big, but now shrunk to eight houses.
[202] Such is said to be the meaning of the obsolete Lhota word
tiloran.
[203] Rhizomys prunosus, the flesh of which Nagas regard as a great
delicacy.
[204] Stones are ordinarily put up by Lhotas to commemorate a
sacrifice, but forked wooden posts are occasionally substituted if a
suitable stone is not available. One kindred in Yekhum always puts up
posts instead of stones.
[205] I.e. “Man, man!”
[206] One version of this story states definitely that Kimongthang was
of the Othui clan, and formerly men of that clan were forbidden to eat
gibbon. The Changs tell the same story to account for the origin of the
Kudā́mji clan, which is regarded as a gibbon clan.
The Semas have a story of men of the Wotsami clan having been turned
into gibbons, and despise that clan as the Changs do the Kudā́mji, which
suggests that it is the Othui clan of Lhotas which ought really to be
associated with the Semi Wotsami instead of the Shetri (or, according
to Mr. Mills, the Nguli) as is the case.—J. H. H.
[207] “Tale of the Tiger and the Crab” in Folk-tales of Assam, by J.
Borooah (Howrah, 1915), pp. 54, 55.—J. H. H.
[208] The incident of the long hair of a girl that caused a king to
send men to find her occurs in an ancient Egyptian tale “written down
in the reign of Rameses II, about 1300 B.C.” Vide Sir J. G. Frazer, The
Golden Bough, vol. xi. pp. 135, 136.—J. H. H.
[209] Broad, shiny leaves, only too common in the jungles of the Naga
Hills. The writer has suffered from them more than once. The slightest
touch causes intense irritation, which often does not totally subside
for ten days.
[210] In an Ao folk-tale a man is chased with dogs and escapes in a
similar way.
[211] Nagas regard an oath sworn on broken iron as binding.
[212] Up to this point the story opens in the same terms as the Sema
version of the story of Hunchibili, the maiden who is transformed into
an orange, a bamboo shoot, etc. (vide The Angami Nagas, Part V., and
The Sema Nagas, Part VI). The motif of the transformation of the
heroine to and from some form of fruit or vegetable is a favourite one
in Assamese folk-lore. Vide J. Borooah, Folk-tales of Assam. There are
also Khasi stories of the same kind.—J. H. H.
[213] Probably the hero must be regarded by now as working off the
marriage price by service in his father-in-law’s house according to
Lhota custom.—J. H. H.
[214] As the woman would probably take the opportunity of bathing and
washing her own clothes, it would have been contrary to Lhota etiquette
for her husband to have gone with her.
[215] Cf. Perry, Megalithic Culture of Indonesia, chap. xii. The Vuite
clan of Kukis are also sprung from Dongel and his sister, and the
Kukis, like the Lhotas, have a legend of a period of great darkness and
floods over the earth and fires (The Thimzing), during which the
greater part of mankind was drowned.—J. H. H.
[216] The version of the story given here is that current among the
Northern Lhotas. In the Southern Lhota account Lankongrhoni escapes
into a porcupine’s hole, from which she is afterwards dug out and
killed.
[217] In the Sema version a man throws cow-dung at the sun and turns it
into the moon. In another Assam version ashes are thrown. In a Mexican
version a hare or rabbit is thrown. In all the effect is the same. The
hotter orb is turned into the cooler one. I have not met the story
among Angamis, who describe the marks on the moon’s face as a tree or
as nettles.—J. H. H.
[218] In one version the sun-bird is substituted for the wagtail.
[219] The Kabuis have a similar story of a cure for leprosy being
revealed by a snake; cf. T. C. Hodson, Naga Tribes of Manipur, p. 129.
[220] One is reminded of the reported use of “tortoise” by the Chinese
as a term of mild opprobrium.—J. H. H.
[221] I.e. the Deputy Commissioner of the Naga Hills and the
Subdivisional Officer of Mokokchung.
[222] Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. III., Part II., pp. 284 sqq.
[223] The name of an Ao-Konyak village.
[224] A Sema name for the Sangtams.
[225] A similar tradition is to be found in many Naga tribes as well as
among the Padam Abors and possibly other tribes on the north bank of
the Brahmaputra.—J. H. H.
[226] Dr. Witter gives -katola as the suffix of the apodosis. I am
myself inclined to think that the word tsokatola is the ordinary future
form tsoka, plus a suffix -tola.
[227] The Kayans of Borneo tell a similar story in which the argus
pheasant and the coucal take the place of the cuckoo and crow (The
Pagan Tribes of Borneo, Hose and McDougal, Vol. I., p. 247). The
Greenland Eskimo give a similar account of how the raven became black.
Cf. “The Raven and the Goose,” in Eskimo Folk-tales, by Knud Rasmussen
and W. Worster, p. 66 (Gyldendale, 1921).
[228] Opposite each month I have given the traditional derivation of
the name. The correspondence with the English months is only
approximate, of course.
[229] Travels and Adventures in the Province of Assam, by Major John
Butler, p. 189.
[230] As the keeping of paddy in large corn-baskets is an Angami
custom, and not followed by the Lhotas, the account given to Major
Butler is clearly inaccurate, and I agree with Mr. Mills that it is
probably a sheer invention of the same nature as the Semas and Aos are
in the habit of making with regard to the hostile tribes to the east of
them.—J. H. H.