The Lhota Nagas

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THE LHOTA NAGAS

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MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited

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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

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The Puthi of Lakhuti in ceremonial dress.

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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

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COPYRIGHT

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN [[v]]

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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 [[vi]]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. [[vii]]

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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. [[viii]]

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

[Index] 233 [[ix]]

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

MAPS

[[xi]]

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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 [[xii]]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 [[xiii]]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 [[xiv]]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. [[xv]]

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 [[xvi]]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—[[xvii]]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] [[xviii]]

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 [[xix]]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 [[xx]]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 [[xxi]]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 [[xxii]]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 [[xxiii]]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 [[xxiv]]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. [[xxv]]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 [[xxvi]]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 [[xxvii]]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 [[xxviii]]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 [[xxix]]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 [[xxx]]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 [[xxxi]]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 [[xxxii]]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] [[xxxiii]]

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 [[xxxiv]]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] [[xxxv]]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 [[xxxvi]]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 [[xxxvii]]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 [[xxxviii]]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 [[xxxix]]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. [[xli]]

[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—

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. [↑]

[[Contents]]

The Lhota Nagas

John Bartholomew & Son, Ltd. Edin.

SKETCH MAP to show TRIBES and PLACES mentioned in the Introduction

[[1]]

[[Contents]]

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 [[2]]by Nagas,[1] 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.[2] 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.”[3] 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.[4] 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 [[3]]Ndrung villages,[5] i.e. those on the left bank of the Doyang, were annexed. The rest of the tribe was annexed in 1889.

[[Contents]]

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,[6] and the Lhotas set out on [[4]]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.[7] 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 [[5]]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[8] 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 [[6]]new fire with a fire-stick[9] (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.[10]

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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 [[7]]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.[11] 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.

An elderly man of Lungitang wearing Lungpensü and big ear-pads

[To face p. 7.

Young married woman (of Okotso)

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.[12] 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 [[8]]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[13] “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.

[[Contents]]

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. [[9]]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”[14] performed by the wearer. The first is sütam, a white cloth with broad dark blue horizontal stripes. This is worn by boys[15] and men who have [[10]]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.

Drawing by Miss E. Paterson.] [To face p. 10.

Ornamentation of Median Band of Rükhusü.

Top, Northern Lhotas. Bottom, Southern Lhotas. The former contains combination of mithan and human heads, and the latter represents a row of warriors in full dress.

Like the men, the women usually leave the upper part of [[11]]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.

[[Contents]]

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, [[12]]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.”[16] 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 [[13]]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.

Photo by J. H. Hutton.]

Southern Lhotas in Full Dress

Both are wearing leggings and gibbon hair wigs, and the one on the left is wearing a double tail.

Photo by J. H. Hutton.] [To face p. 13.

Chamimo of Pangti

A Northern Lhota with his two wives standing by the stone he has dragged. He is wearing the cloth called rükhusü.

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 [[14]]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.[17] 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 [[15]]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.

[To face p. 14

A Lhota Warrior in Full Dress

(Ranchamo of Seleku)

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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 [[16]]remember the days when a few were still preserved.[18] 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.[19]

Drawing by J. H. Hutton.] [To face p. 16.

Types of obsolete daos (Yanthang)

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.[20] 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 [[17]]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. [[18]]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 [[19]]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.

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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.”[21] 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 [[20]]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. [[21]]

[1] Gait’s History of Assam, p. 162. [↑]

[2] 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. [↑]

[3] Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. 110, 1841, p. 162. [↑]

[4] Selection of Papers regarding Hill Tracts between Assam and Burmah and on the Upper Brahmaputra. Bengal Secretariat Press, 1873, pp. 295 sqq. [↑]

[5] 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. [↑]

[6] 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 [[4]]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. [↑]

[7] The languages of the Lhotas and Southern Sangtams are very closely akin. [↑]

[8] 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. [↑]

[9] 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. [↑]

[10] See pp. 122 sqq. [↑]

[11] Wavy hair is common among the Aos and Konyaks, and curly hair far from rare. [↑]

[12] 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. [↑]

[13] Vide p. 108. [↑]

[14] For description of social “gennas” see Part IV. [↑]

[15] 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. [↑]

[16] 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. [↑]

[17] See p. 91. [↑]

[18] 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. [↑]

[19] 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. [↑]

[20] 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. [↑]

[21] Col. L. W. Shakespear, History of Upper Assam, Upper Burma and North-Eastern Frontier, p. 202. [↑]

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PART II

DOMESTIC LIFE

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.

Position and defences. With the exception of those situated on spurs running down from the great mass of Wokha Hill, a Lhota village is invariably built on the very top of a ridge. The two essentials of a site are that it must be easily defensible from a Naga point of view, and near a spring. Unlike the Sema, the Lhota rarely calls a village after its founder. An almost unique example is Mangya, which is said to have been founded by Mangyasang. More usually some peculiarity of the site, or incident connected with the village, gives it its name. Seleku is so called because many flying squirrels (selek) were found when the site was cleared. Niroyo is the place of a plant with red berries called niro. Lungsa (olung = stone, osa = platform) is so called from a flat-topped rock near the eastern entrance of the village. Okotso is said to mean the place where the pigs of Pangti were eaten by tigers (woko = pig, tso = eat). Villages captured by the Lhotas from the Aos, such as Yimbang, Akuk, Mekula, still retain their Ao names only slightly corrupted. Often a village retains the name of its parent village, with Yanthamo (“new village”) added, e.g. Are Yanthamo. To defend his village the Lhota used neither masonry walls like the Angami, nor hedges of living cane like the Konyak. The outer defence was a ditch cut across the ridge in a conveniently narrow place. The bottom and edge of this were studded with “panjis,” and it was crossed by a rough-hewn plank which was taken up at night, [[22]]or in case of attack. The inner defence was a stout fence of sticks and bamboos, also bristling with “panjis.” This was carried right round the village except in places where the steepness of the ground gave adequate protection of itself. The door was of bamboo, studded with “panjis.” A few sticks are still stuck up along the line of the old fence every year at the Pikuchak “genna,” and whenever the village performs the Oyantsoa “genna.” Huge trees stand at the entrance to most Lhota villages. These were preserved to form a wind-screen for the village and to provide convenient look-out posts for sentries. War between Lhota villages was rare, and a powerful village surrounded by friends would regard defences as unnecessary. Similarly nowadays Tuensang, the most powerful village of the Changs, has no village fence. It is situated in the middle of a circle of friendly Chang villages. The warriors of Tuensang emerge from the circle to smite their foes, and then retire behind their friends again. Woe betide the friend who is so remiss as to let a party of avenging enemies into the circle.

A Lhota village is as a rule built along a ridge and has a main entrance at either end, with smaller paths running down to the fields from the sides of the village, and may contain anything from a dozen to 350 houses. The entrance to the World of the Dead being on Wokha Hill, the spirits of the dead must leave the village in that direction. The path leading towards Wokha Hill is accordingly known as etchhilan (“dead man’s road”). It is a curious sight, flanked with offerings to the dead (sochipen) and bamboo erections (nritangpeng) showing the prowess in war and hunting of those recently deceased.

Communication. From village to village there are narrow permanent paths along which men can only go in single file. As far as possible they keep along the very top of the ranges, for in the old days to use a path running under the shoulder of a hill would have been to risk having a spear thrown at you from above. Where the rock is soft sandstone, as it is near Tsori, toe-holes are cut in very steep ascents. Where the rock is hard a notched pole helps the traveller up the bad places. [[23]]Small streams and ditches are bridged either by a single big tree or half a dozen stout poles laid side by side. Across broader streams, such as the Chebi, cane bridges are constructed. Long pieces of cane are stretched across from convenient trees on either bank. Between these a V-shaped cradle of cane is constructed, on which are laid long bamboos to form a foot-way. Long cane tie-ropes up and down stream prevent the bridge from swinging. The far-seeing Lhota often plants young trees of a suitable kind near the bridge-head trees to provide substitutes in case the old trees are washed away or die.

A Lhota Village—Humtso

Photo by J. H. Hutton.] [To face p. 23.

The Doyang River from below Changsü.

The village. A village usually consists of one long street with a line of houses on each side facing inwards. In the middle of the street are the “genna” stones standing opposite the houses of their owners. The somewhat limited space is further crowded with old fallen “genna” stones, graves and stacks of firewood. The villages are swarming with pigs, dogs and cattle, and the state of the street in wet weather can be better imagined than described, though some attempt is made to keep the actual doorways of the houses clean by scraping away the filth with shovels (mirothenga) made of the shoulder-blades of cattle or mithan. Sanitary arrangements are non-existent. Pigs and dogs do the necessary scavenging in the jungle surrounding the village. In every village one piece of jungle is strictly reserved for men and another for women. Not all villages consist of one long street. At places such as Yekhum, where the ground slopes awkwardly, the houses are built according to the lie of the land and are in broken lines. Similarly at Pangti, which is on a fairly broad, level site, there are several rather badly defined streets and the houses face in all directions.

Unlike the Angamis, the Lhotas do not keep their rice in their houses but in little thatched granaries (osung) of bamboo which are raised on posts above the ground and stand in neat little groups just outside the village. By this arrangement the food supply is generally saved even if the village be burnt. It is absolutely forbidden to spread clothes to dry on the roof of a granary. To do so would cause all the rice to go bad. [[24]]

The “Morung.” Every village, except the very small ones, is divided into two or more “khels” (yankho). Sometimes, but by no means always, a little strip of open ground marks the division between “khel” and “khel.” In some villages these “khels” mark the divisions of clans. For instance, at Tsingaki there are two Kikung “khels” and one Nguli “khel.” But this is not common. Usually a “khel” appears to be nothing more than a convenient division of a village in which men of various clans live. Sometimes some feature of the site gives the “khel” its name, e.g. Hayili (“level”) khel in Akuk. Sometimes, as in the Wokhayankho (“Wokha men’s khel”) in Pangti, the first inhabitants have given a name to the “khel.” Usually a man lives and dies in the “khel” in which his forefathers lived and died before him. But he is perfectly free to go to another “khel” if he wants to. In every “khel” there is a common bachelors’ house or “morung” (champo),[1] a building which plays an important part in Lhota life. In it no woman must set her foot. At the champo raids were planned and discussed, and to it all heads taken were first brought. It is the sleeping-place of every Lhota boy from the time he first puts on his dao-holder till he marries, this rule being only relaxed in the case of boys who are allowed to remain at home and nurse an ailing and widowed mother, or when the champo falls into such a state of disrepair that it is no longer habitable. In the latter case boys are allowed to sleep in a separate room in their parents’ house. The champo usually stands at the end of, and facing down, the village street. Though not to be compared with the huge “morungs” of the Aos and Konyaks, it is the best architectural effort of which the Lhota is capable. In length a typical champo extends to forty feet, with a breadth of [[25]]fifteen feet at the front and twelve feet at the back. The roof-tree is low in the middle, and curves up to gables at the front and back, that at the front being about sixteen feet high and that at the back a foot or so lower. Two specially fine bamboos are selected for the roof-tree. Part of the root is left on them and forms a horn-like projection at each end of the roof-tree. To each horn is fixed a little cross-piece, from which are hung tassel-like ornaments of reed-stem. The house is thatched with either thatching grass or the leaf of a small palm called oko (Levistonia assamica). The eaves reach almost to the ground and are brought forward in a half-circle in front to form a sort of verandah roof. In the middle of the space covered by this verandah roof stands the front post (humtse), which is elaborately carved with conventional representations of mithan heads and hornbills, and is carried through the roof up to the high gable. Behind it is another carved post (humtse tachungo). At the base of this post are the oha stones on which the good fortune of the champo depends, and to it used to be fastened a piece of skin from the first head taken after a new champo was built. This piece of skin is called humtse lama (“post warmer”). It was believed that it brought strength to the post and luck to the village. So strong was and is this belief, that as late as 1913 Tsingaki was punished for buying a piece of a head to be used as humtse lama from the independent Sema village of Satami.[2] At the back of the champo is another carved post.

[To face p. 25

A LHOTA MORUNG

The interior of a champo is not attractive. It is dark, dirty, smoky, stuffy and full of fleas. Yet a Lhota talks of his happy champo-days much as an Englishman talks of his schooldays. The floor is sometimes levelled earth and sometimes a bamboo platform raised about two feet above the ground on posts. The walls are of bamboo. There is a door at each end and a passage about two feet [[26]]wide down the middle, in which fires are lit on cold nights, the smoke finding its way out as best it can in the absence of chimneys or windows. Where the floor is of bamboo four logs are laid down to form a square, the interior of which is filled in with earth rammed firmly down. On this the fire is made. On either side of the passage are cubicles with bamboo partitions, along the sides of which are sleeping benches of rough-hewn planks, or bamboo “machans.”

The time varies in different villages, but a champo is generally rebuilt every nine years. Almost invariably it falls in ruins before the time is up, but on no account must it be rebuilt till the due period has elapsed. The ceremonies connected with the rebuilding are interesting. The Puthi having announced that the rebuilding will take place in so many days, the boys of the champo collect bamboos, thatching grass, posts, tying-bark and whatever is needed. If a new carved post is required the best carver in the village gets to work on it. Every champo has land belonging to it. With the rice from this land a pig and a big cow are bought. These are killed on the day before the work of rebuilding is begun, and the carcases kept in a little hut specially built by the side of the champo. Next day is the first of five days’ emung,[3] which must be kept by the whole village. During these days no one may work in the fields, or weave cloth or make pots or bring into the village meat from a tiger’s kill. If a stranger enters the village he will probably be ill, and he cannot leave it till the five days’ emung are over. On this day the ceremonies begin. The Puthi formally begins the breaking down of the old champo, by pulling a piece of thatch off the roof and throwing it onto the ground. The Puthi’s attendant (Yenga) then removes the oha stones from in front of the humtse tachungo and lays them down a little distance from the champo. The roof is next carefully cut in two lengthways and laid on the ground in such a way that the two halves lean up against one another and form [[27]]a shelter. Under this the boys of the champo must sleep that night. The posts are pulled out and laid on the ground, the whole building is dismantled and the site cleaned and re-levelled. The work of rebuilding is then begun. This again the Puthi initiates by a formal act. Beginning with the humtse tachungo he digs a little hole with the butt of his spear at the places where the three carved posts are to be set up, and pours or spits a little “rohi madhu” into each hole. The posts are then put up, new ones being substituted for any which may have decayed, and the champo is rebuilt as quickly as possible. Before leaving the work for the night the Puthi places a little ginger sprinkled with “madhu” on two crossed leaves at the foot of the humtse tachungo in order to keep away evil spirits, to whom ginger is particularly obnoxious. Thatching alone is left till next day, which is a day of less work and more play. Everyone feasts and puts on his best clothes, the men wearing full dancing dress. The first bunch of thatch having been put in place by the Puthi, the braves of the village dance, some on the ground and some on the roof of the “morung,” all singing the pangashari, a slow chant in which the war-like deeds of the village in the past are recounted. This song goes on all the time the thatch is being put on. A similar dance on the roof is performed by the Konyaks of Namsang and Tamlu when a “morung” is rebuilt. The thatching being finished the oha stones are replaced by the Yenga at the foot of the humtse tachungo. All the men, led by the Puthi, then slowly dance in a rough column of fours formation round the village, ho-hoing as they go. The chant is called yanungshari. The carcases of the pig and cow are taken out of the little hut in which they have been kept and cut up and distributed to all males, the Puthi receiving as his share half the head of the cow split longitudinally. A feature of this, the second day of the ceremonies, is the dog-killing which takes place. Every champo in the village kills a small dog. That belonging to the champo which is being rebuilt is carefully fattened up beforehand and tied up in front of the Puthi’s house. When the time comes to kill this dog an admiring throng gathers round while the oldest man of the “khel” sits [[28]]by the dog and gives it a bone to keep it quiet. He then covers it with his cloth. Opposite to him stands the man reputed to be the finest warrior in the “khel,” and the following dialogue takes place. Warrior: “Move away.” Old man: “Will you take care?” Warrior: “I will take care.” Old man: “Do not hurt the dog.” Warrior: “I will kill it quickly.” At these words the old man uncovers the dog and moves aside. The warrior then attempts to split its skull exactly in two with one blow of his dao. When the dog falls about a dozen bucks and boys dance round and round it chanting, “He has killed it, he has killed it.” The head is cut off and brought to the champo, where it is carefully examined to see if it has been well and truly split. If the blow is found to have been a crooked one, the man who killed it is laughed at, told he is no warrior, but a boaster and a wind-bag. The head is then thrown away by the old man who attended at the killing.[4] In the evening a mock fight takes place between the young men and women of the village, both married and unmarried. The women pretend to try to push their way into the champo, while the young men keep them out. This mock fight is believed to increase the fertility of the women who take part in it. On the third day the slow dance round the village is repeated while the yanungshari is again sung. Most of the day is spent in feasting and drinking. On the fourth day the dance and chant are again repeated, but very few men put in an appearance, presumably because most of them have bad headaches after two days’ heavy drinking. The chief performers are a few hard-headed bucks and irrepressible small boys. On the fifth day, the last emung day, everyone rests.

The Head-tree. Perhaps the most conspicuous object in a Lhota village is the head-tree, mingetung, generally a magnificent specimen of ningetung (a tree of the Ficus family). It is usually situated on a mound well in the middle of the village. Against its branches were leant the long bamboos from which were hung the heads of enemies taken in war, and at its [[29]]roots are kept the mysterious oha stones. These are counted and a fence is put round the tree whenever the oyantsoa “genna” is performed. The fortune of the village is regarded as in a way dependent on the mingetung. So sacred is it that in some villages it cannot be photographed. To break a twig off it would entail the performance of the oyantsoa “genna” (village renewing “genna”), which must also be performed if the mingetung dies or a branch falls. The place of the mingetung can never be changed. That at Lungla has been blown down. A small tree close by is being used instead till a new mingetung can be induced to grow on the old site, a vain hope, as the old site is a mound of shale without so much as a blade of grass on it. When a new village is founded a site is always selected on which there is a tree suitable for use as a mingetung. Under the new tree must be put a twig stolen from the mingetung of the parent village, though the parent village makes every effort to prevent this theft, as it entails the performance of the oyantsoa “genna” and is very likely to bring bad luck to the parent village. A curious belief is prevalent in Phiro. Skulls which had fallen from their strings were often picked up and jammed into interstices in the bole of the head-tree. At Phiro the mingetung is growing round and gradually covering these old skulls. This is regarded as a sign that the days of head-hunting are gone, never to return.[5]

Water supply. Springs issuing from the side of the hill below the village supply Lhotas with their water. Sometimes it is drawn from a muddy pool of unappetizing greenish water, but often there is a good flow into a basin dammed up with rough masonry. Small fish have been put into the Niroyo basin, and are carefully preserved in order that they may keep the water clear of scum. At almost all springs there is a small dam, and over it a low fence so that women who draw water stand below and not in the supply from which they draw. Unlike the Ao, the Lhota does not fancy water after the village have washed their feet in it. When the [[30]]path from the fields does not happen to pass near a stream, water is often led to it in bamboo pipes from a long distance in order that men coming up after the day’s work may have a drink and a wash.

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The Lhota House.

Description. A Lhota house varies in size from the wretched hovel of some old widow to the house of a rich man which may measure thirty feet long by eighteen feet broad—a limit far exceeded, however, by Aos, Semas and Angamis. To build a fine house as a show of wealth a Lhota would regard as great waste of money, and a Lhota likes to waste nothing. The walls are of bamboo and the roof of thatch (lishu) or palm-leaf (oko, Levistonia assamica). The front of all but the poorest houses is semicircular, with a door in the middle of the semicircle. The roof of the front semicircular room (mpongki) slopes up to the roof of the main building like the roof of the semicircular apse of a church. The upper roof-tree of the main building is carried forward over the roof of the mpongki with a slight upward slope, and is decorated with a little mock roof of thatch forming a sort of flying gable. In the middle of the mpongki is a bamboo post, which is carried through the roof of the apse to meet the projecting roof-tree of the main building. The interior of a Lhota house strikes a stranger as very cramped and uncomfortable. Unless one is very careful one bumps one’s head at every step. There is none of the spaciousness which one notices in the house of a rich Sema or Ao. Where the ground is suitable and bamboos are plentiful there is a machan (khantsung) for sitting out at the back. Sometimes the whole floor of the house is simply levelled earth, as in a Sema or Angami house. More usually, however, a step made of a short, thick log leads up from the mpongki to the doorway of the main building, the floor of which is raised above the ground on short posts and made of stout bamboo matting on a framework of whole bamboos, the matting in turn being covered with a layer of beaten earth to keep the draught from coming up from below. The floor of the sitting-out platform at the back is of bamboo without [[31]]any covering of earth. The pattern of the floor of this platform varies according to whether the owner of the house has or has not dragged a stone. In the former case a mat of split bamboos interlaced in a simple chequer pattern is laid over a foundation of whole bamboos laid at right angles to the back wall of the house. In the latter case the place of the mat is taken by split bamboos laid at right angles to the bamboo foundation.

[To face p. 31.

A LHOTA HOUSE

In a Lhota household each wife has a separate sleeping cubicle with a fireplace (nchü) in the middle. A well-to-do Lhota usually possesses three wives. The main building of his house therefore contains three sleeping cubicles and a little store-room (bhuritheng) at the back. The cubicle nearest the mpongki is called lhuhrui and is occupied by the third wife. The middle one is called olungo and is the abode of the chief wife. The back cubicle is called tachungo and is used by the second wife. Daughters sleep with their mother or, if she is dead, with the step-mother they like best. Servants, if there be any, or a bridegroom working for his bride in his father-in-law’s house sleep in the mpongki, either on mats on the floor or on the pounding bench. Guests sleep on mats on the floor of the store-room or in one of the cubicles.

A step up from the mpongki and a door close to the wall (usually the right-hand wall) lead into a narrow passage running the whole length of the house onto the platform at the back. On the left, assuming the passage to be on the right of the house, are the cubicles, the partitions of which stretch about two-thirds across the house, and up to the beams (khokang), the partitions between the mpongki and the first cubicle, and between the store-room and the sitting-out platform, going right up to the roof. The roof is supported on centre-posts (tirhupu), a bamboo one being placed in the middle of the mpongki, and a roughly-squared wooden one at each partition, and corner-posts (okinge) at the corners of the main building. Small posts in the walls help to support rafters (khirong). There is no chimney and the smoke finds its way out as best it can. The cubicles are lighted only by their fires. [[32]]

Construction. When a Lhota builds a house he sets about it as follows. After the harvest is in he chooses a site and touches the ground with his hand. Then he goes off to a dreamer (hahang), of whom there are two or three in every village, with a small present of food, and asks him to dream that night and tell him in the morning if the site will be a lucky one. Dreams of springs, gourds, cucumbers, leaves, daos and spears, among other things, are good. To dream of digging, hair dyed scarlet and black thread forebodes death. If the dreamer has a vision of frogs, crabs, or tortoises the man who builds a house on the site which is being tested will be ill. If the dreamer reports visions of good omen (and he generally does, for a seer of evil dreams does not keep his clients long) the builder of the house calls his friends and relations together and work is begun. The positions of the corner-posts are first marked out, the length and breadth and diagonals being carefully measured. These posts are then put in, and after them the centre-posts and side-posts of the walls. If the house is to have a raised bamboo floor this is now made. Long bamboos or poles are then laid along the top of the side-posts of the walls, which are notched to receive them, and tied in position with yhandra bark. This bark is taken from the tree in long strips and dried in the sun for some days. The strips are twisted and wetted when required for use. On the top of the skeleton wall thus made are laid and tied bamboo cross-beams in pairs, each pair enclosing one of the wooden centre-posts, to which it is firmly tied. There is no cross-beam across the mpongki. The tops of the wooden centre-posts are then notched and a bamboo roof-tree (mhongki) is put in place. This stretches out far in front of the main building. At its junction with the centre-post standing between the mpongki and the first cubicle it is broken half through and carefully bent down, for the projecting end of it will eventually form the centre rafter of the semicircular roof of the mpongki. The rafters (khirong) are then put on. To enable them to be tied they must necessarily project and form a series of forks along the top of the roof-tree. On these forks is laid another roof-tree, which is not bent down like the first, but projects right [[33]]out above the mpongki and is supported by the bamboo centre-post. Further to strengthen the rafters and prevent them lifting in a high wind, two other roof-trees are placed in position in the side forks on either side of the main roof-trees. These side roof-trees project beyond the main building and are bent down like the under one to form rafters for the mpongki. Partitions inside the house are now built and purlins (sütesüyo) are put on, all being so bent as to form purlins for the mpongki. The bottom pair of purlins are so made that the projecting ends can be bent to meet and be tied. This gives the outline of the semicircular apse of the mpongki. Posts are put in to which the bottom pair of purlins are tied in position. The projecting ends of roof-trees and other purlins are then brought down and tied to it, and the framework of the house is complete. Chequer pattern bamboo walls are quickly put up and the thatching is begun. Sections of thatching about six feet long are prepared as follows by men on the ground, and handed up to men on the roof, who put them in position. Thatch is carefully bent double over a thin bamboo about six feet long, care being taken to see that it forms a fringe without gaps. Then to keep the thatch in place two more bamboos of the same size and length are placed on either side of it about five inches below the first bamboo. These are firmly tied together through the thatch with strips of bamboo. With palm leaves the top bamboo is omitted, a fringe of overlapping palm leaves being held in place by the two thin bamboos, one on either side. These fringes are then tied on to the rafters and purlins, beginning at the eaves and working upwards so that each fringe overlaps the one below it. Finally, thatch is doubled over the upper roof-tree and fastened down with two long bamboo wind-ties. This last layer of thatch extends to the end of the upper roof-tree, forming a sort of flying gable where it projects over the mpongki. Light bamboo doors are then made. These are not attached to the door-posts in any way and can be lifted and laid aside. Two crossed bamboos are attached to the door by a loop of bark string and jammed behind the door-posts to keep it in place. A man who has [[34]]dragged a stone more than once can decorate his roof with crossed bamboos representing mithan horns, but this is considered rather a snobbish display of wealth and the privilege is rarely taken advantage of. In some Southern Lhota villages the Puthis’ houses have the roof decorated with crossed bamboos of which the ends are split and splayed apart. This is a conventional representation of human hands, and the right to have the roofs of their houses ornamented in this way was formerly confined to men who had succeeded in bringing the fingers or toes of an enemy home from a raid. Rich Aos decorate their roofs in a similar way.

Before such a house can be occupied lurking evil spirits must of course be dealt with. For this the oldest of the men who helped to build the house is called in to act as tsandhramo epang (“driver away of evil spirits”). Having mixed ginger and “rohi madhu” in a new “chunga,” he sprinkles the inside of the house with the concoction and says, “We are going to stay here. You go away.” He then throws away the “chunga,” which must never be used for anything else. The old man then marks out the places for the hearth-stones, which the owner places in position. The owner then either lights a fire with a fire-stick or fetches fire from another house—any house will do. Matches are never used by Lhotas for ceremonial fire-making. A meal is now cooked and partaken of by the owner and his household and friends and the old man, who then takes the omens. He holds in his hands a small chicken called kichakro, which each member of the household touches with his or her left hand. This he strangles and disembowels, taking the omens from the entrails. After which he cuts it up and, holding eight pieces of meat in each hand, takes his seat with the male members of the household on his right and the female members on his left, and swings his hands backwards and forwards four times with an underhand bowling action, counting the number of swings aloud. The chicken is the old man’s fee, and he takes it away, returning in the morning to report whether he has had dreams of good or evil omen. A man may not act as tsandhramo epang for more than one [[35]]household on the same day. The only restriction placed on occupants of a new house is one forbidding them to allow men from another village to enter the house till the earth which has been put on the bamboo floor is dry. A house of which the floor is mother earth may be entered by strangers as soon as the above ceremony has been performed.

The contents of the house. In the front room of the Lhota house are kept heavy articles, such as the pounding table (tsampo), liquor vat (ochen), and pigs’ feeding trough (wokochakpfu), the last being merely a log split in two and roughly hollowed. The pounding table is hewn from one piece of wood. In the top, which is slightly concave, one, two or three holes about six inches in diameter are burnt. In these the rice is pounded with heavy poles—an arduous occupation at which the daughters of the house spend a good deal of their time. The liquor vat consists of a log hollowed out from one end. Trees for this are carefully chosen, but a very large proportion of vats split or spring a leak before they are finished. On the wall of the front room are hung the feet of game which the owner of the house has killed. Spears are always kept stuck in the ground in front of the big wooden post. Along the sides of the inner cubicles are the small plank beds of the household. According to Lhota ideas a single thickness of cloth spread on the bed makes quite a soft enough mattress. Round the fire are little wooden stools about six inches high cut from one piece of wood. Floor space being limited in a Lhota house, most things are kept on rough bamboo shelves (theka) fixed to the beams of the house. Here are kept bundles of salt wrapped in leaves, cooking pots, baskets of yeast, traps, carrying baskets, and a thousand and one things. For cooking rice and meat Naga-made earthen pots are generally used, but for heating “madhu” shallow iron pots from the plains are popular. In them the brew can be stirred easily and without risk of an upset. Lhota houses contain very few drinking cups. Villages on the Sema border obtain bamboo cups from their neighbours, and nowadays cheap German enamel and aluminium ware are often used. But the true Lhota cup is a folded plantain leaf. It is really an astonishing sight to [[36]]watch one’s hostess fold a piece of plantain leaf into a cup with one hand, while she talks hard to one guest and pours out “madhu” for another, either from a gourd or, more commonly, an old beer bottle. The usual type of dish is a shallow wooden one, with no legs, called opyi, many of which are made in Lungsa. Some households also use a wooden dish on a raised stand, rather like a dessert dish, called pyikhyu. In the bamboo matting of the walls are stuck daos, bamboo spoons and many odds and ends. The hollow bamboos in which water is carried up from the spring are kept leaning against the walls. Over the fire is suspended a bamboo platform about five feet square. This prevents sparks flying up to the roof and also serves as a convenient place on which to dry meat, and keep such pots and spoons and things as are in continual use. The little store-room at the back is comparatively free from smoke and in it ceremonial ornaments and spare cloths are hung.

[[Contents]]

Manufactures.

Spinning. Spinning, like dyeing and weaving, is performed entirely by women, and every Lhota woman is expected to weave the cloths of her husband and family. The thread is spun as follows. Home-grown cotton—the Lhotas are great cotton-growers—is cleaned of its seeds by being rolled on a flat stone with a small stick, used like a rolling-pin. This cleaning is a tedious process which generally falls to the lot of the old widows of the village, who eke out a scanty livelihood thereby. The cleaned cotton after being fluffed out by being flicked with the string of an instrument (loko) like a miniature bow is then gently rolled between the hands into “sausages” about nine inches long, after which it is ready to be spun into thread. The Lhota spindle (humtsi) is a very primitive affair and is similar to that of the Aos, Semas and Angamis. It consists of a thin penholder-shaped stick of hard wood about eight inches long, tapering to a fine point at the top, and about the thickness of a pencil at the thickest point near the bottom. Just above the [[37]]thickest point is fixed a whorl made of soft black stone. This is made by rubbing on other stones till it is flat and round a piece of the soft stone used for the purpose. To make the hole in the middle a man holds it between his toes and twiddles a spear on it between his hands till the iron butt of the spear goes through. For spinning the tip of the spindle is wetted with the tongue. The spindle is then spun clock-wise with the right hand against the outside of the right thigh, the base of the spindle being kept in bounds by a conveniently cup-shaped piece of broken pottery covered with a bit of rag. The “sausage” of cotton is held in the left hand, and the end of it laid against the wetted tip of the spindle till it catches and the thread (oying) begins to form. When about a yard has been spun it is unwound from the tip of the spindle and rewound just above the stone whorl. The spindle is then worked as before, the cotton being held in the left hand, and thread accumulates above the whorl till the spindle becomes full, when it is wound off onto a wooden frame (kukung), shaped like a double T, and another spindleful is begun, and so on till the kukung is full. The thread is next hardened by being steeped for about five minutes in hot rice-water, after which the skeins (yingsak) are strung on a stick (phutsi) to dry. It is forbidden for a man to eat the boiled rice from which this rice-water has been taken. When the thread is required for weaving it is wound into a ball (yingtso), the woman who is sitting winding keeping the skein stretched round her knees.