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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1873.
protection to their owner when sleeping in strange white; silver and gold have they none, and care places, and left behind him in his path protect him littlo for, a few pice re-purchasing a rupee; but in some degree when pursued.
these are at & premium merely because they can We saw, as I said, men of four separate tribes, be beaten into bullets or used to line pipes. The three of them distinguished by their mode of second is that, though not particularly cleanly, wearing their hair, and the southern tribes rather they are entirely free from any of those noisome smaller and handsomer than the northern. Those skin diseases which are so common in Kachar, and we first met, who had come from Kalel, and are only one man did we see marked with small-pox. now living on Banbong, called themselves How. We saw no dwarfs or cripples; probably they longs, and are governed by an old woman, Impapu, are mado away with early, after the Spartan the mother of their former chief, Vonpilal, whose fashion. grave is on Kulel. The name of the next tribe, those | Of tho mental and other qualities of the Luunder Poiboi and Lal Bur, I quito forgot to as- shais, as far as one could judge, they are quickcertain. The remaining two were Pois and Paites. tempered, unstable in mind, loose in allegiance, The former were inhabitants of the country south thieving, and occasionally given to drunkenness, of Lal Bur's, who had apparently hired themselves violence, and barbarity ; inquisitive, taciturn in conout as soldiers; and the latter, probably a very versation, patriotic, and too bold to be liars; their small tribe, living on and about Narklung. Of bump of locality must be strongly marked; they are these the two first wore their hair drawn smoothly great hunters and athletic, walking long distances, back, and fastened in a knot behind by a thin bit and climbing with remarkable case. From the of iron bent into a double prong. The Pois parted smallest children they all smoke,- men and women, theirs across the head behind, and letting the -and so much are they given to it that any of their lower part hang loose drew the upper forward, recent camps can always be detected by their stale twisting it with the front hair, tied it in a knot over | tobacco smell. Their pipes are neatly made of their forcheads, where it was secured by an iron bamboo lined with iron or copper, and of the ordi: skewer or with a comb of ivory : round this knob nary pipe shape for the men, those used by the those who wore turbans tied one end in, putting
women having a receptacle for water, after the them on after the manner of the Sikhs, which was fashion of a hubble-bubble, which water-disgustremarked by some Lushais, who called the 22nd ing practice !-is carried about by the men in little Poi; about a fourth of the Pois wore turbans, gourd bottles to take occasional nips from. the other tribes, as a rule, going bareheaded. Tho They have some sort of religious belief, but I Paites wore their hair frizzed up from their head, heard no mention of priest, nor were there any temand cut about four inches long. Chiefs and head
ples or itnages. Occasionally, in the field we met men wear feathers in their hair-knots on great with a little oleared space on which were arranged occasions, that is, those who have them; how the
rows of clay pallets of various shapes, with a yardPaites wear them, or whether they use any, I do long flagstaff and coloured pendent waving over not know. Of the Suktis, who live to the eastward, them, but it was in their tombs that we saw the we saw next to nothing; they are at enmity with greatest evidences of their religion. These were these other tribes, and, thinking to take them at a always in their villages and ornamented with trodisadvantnge, had, just before we reached the phies of skulls of animals and feathers. At burials Champhai, made an attack on LAI Bar's village of they discharge firearms over the graves, and I Chonchim, whence they had been repulsed with
believe slay the animals, whose heads afterwards go loss, leaving one body bebind. This unfortunate's to their decoration, and whose spirits are intended head and some limbs had been placed as orna- for the delectation of the grave's occupant ments to Vonolel's tomb in Lungvel, but as it had
in the happy hunting ground. The greater the been scalped, gouged, and the skull smashed in, man the more animals are sent with him, and it little could be made out from it.
is said that slaves are sometimes sacrificed and There are two things remarkable about these buried with a chief. Vonolel's and Vonpilal's people-one, their indifference to ornaments: ex- tombs had the heads of many beasts over them cepting two, which are very simple, they wear (indeed one got a knowledge of the larger fauna of none: these are a tiger's tooth or tuft of goat's
the country at a glance); the skills of the most hair tied with a string round the neck, and a small
dangerous were muzzled, and there were hobbles tuft of sonrlet feathers stuck in, or an amber bead
to restrain the feet. hung by a string to the ear. Some of the children
Beyond what can be gathered from what I have wore strings of beads, but very few of the men; mentioned that they must believe in a future and coloured chintz was scoffed at as a barter, state, and that there is some invieille power for though anything might be got for plain red or evil, against whom they make their incantations to
| SR No. | 032494 |
| Book Title | Indian Antiquary Vol 02 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Jas Burgess |
| Publisher | Swati Publications |
| Publication Year | 1984 |
| Total Pages | 428 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 20 MB |