Indian Antiquary Vol 02

SR No.: 032494
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

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MISCELLANEA AND CORRESPONDENCE.
DECEMBER, 1873.]
protect their crops,--I could not discover anything, excepting that the tiger's tooth or tuft of hair which the men wear about their necks has a religious signification.
Their language is not monosyllabic like the Khasia and others, and there is no written character. Tradition is probably handed down by songs, which are of their battles, their hills, and love; and they can improvise. One night a party were invited to give us a specimen of their performances, and the first of the songs was on the subject of our expedition. They chaunt them in soft deep notes to the accompaniment of a drum and a set of weak organ-like pipes, whose stops include an octave; and the love-song they afterwards gave us was acted to in a posturing dance by one of the number, at first slowly, but as the story went on, more and more quickly, till the corn-cob, which represented the young woman sung to, was snatched up and whirled round quite excitedly.
I have said before, I think they are mighty hunters; everything that runs or flies is game with them, from an elephant to a field-rat, from a hornbill to a wagtail; and they have many and clever devices for bringing them to the pot, using, besides firearms, traps and fenced drives for the larger, and springs for the small game, and for small birding employing the pellet-bow. Game should be plentiful, judging from the numbers of heads we saw in front of the houses, which are not preserved beyond the owner's lifetime. These were of elephant, tiger, leopard, sambur, hog-deer, metna, pig, and monkey. This last-the hulak or howling monkey, black-faced, grey-whiskered, blackbodied and tail-less, with very long arms and of extraordinary activity-is an abominably noisy beast, with a cry beginning with a yell, and ending with a series of howls like men imitating jackals; they are always started, by the way, in their discordant chorus, by a single sharp cry from one of them, which my fellows called the raja. Of birds I saw the skulls of some cranes, and they have, besides many which I did not find out, hornbills, jungle fowl, partridges (francolines), chir, and black pheasants.
Of fish I only saw two varieties, the mashir and a small silurus, called in the north-west sol. They use nets, and also, as is the custom elsewhere, poison the water with the juice of a cactus which kills the fish without spoiling them as food, and in one place, the camp on the Tui-burn, they had built a large dam and weir, apparently for fishing
purposes.
Their mode of war is of surprises and bushfighting, and their ideas of bravery are amusing. At Vanug (the first fight) they called out to the sepoys not to stick like cowards in the open, but
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to come against them in the jungle like men. For weapons they have flint-locks, some wonderfully old, dating back to Culloden, spears and dhaos; we saw a few leather shields, but no bows and arrows. For defence, though their villages are lightly palisaded, they prefer the employment of stockades in difficult passes defended by entanglements, a specimen of which, which was quite a lesson in military engineering, we met with, fortunately undefended, a mile or so from Poiboi's village of Tulcheng. I have been told, by the way, that the village of the chief is never palisaded, his ontlying villages being guardians against attack, or least unprepared for attack.
They carry on feuds and make raids among themselves as well as on Manipur and the eastern provinces for arms, ammunition, women, and heads. When on raids they travel with remarkable celerity, carrying nothing but their arms and enough of rice for the journey, a fresh joint of bamboo at each new camp serving every purpose of water-jar or cooking-pot. About to make an attack, they are told off in three parties, gunmen, spearmen, and men to carry off the wounded on retreat; if they have been successful and have made prisoners, the men are made to carry the provisions, and though they sometimes retain a few as slaves, specially Manipuris and Kukis, the carrier is, as a rule, relieved of his head when he has been relieved of his burthen. I think it was after the raid on Monir Khal that a body was found-a garden cooly's-which appeared as if an incantation had been practised by it; the head was not removed, and the chest was cut open and filled with boiled rice: why so I could not find out. Notwithstanding their cruelty, they are fine fellows, taking pride in a fight, dressing themselves in their best and neatest for the occasion, and showing in their own way considerable pluck; and in their communities I imagine they are moral and courteous, the ever-ready dhaos being a potent preventive to bad conduct and bad manners.
Mantris (heralds ?), men wearing feathers and red pagris, are employed among these people to treat of war and peace and all matters, and at all times pass free; but besides these verbal means of communication they have modes of spreading intelligence known to themselves, as by fire signals, alarm drums and gongs, and others. A tree exuding a red sap hacked and struck with spikes is a serious warning; a red gourd stuck in a tuft of grass means bloody heads for those who persevere in advancing beyond it; a branch across the path is a notice not to go further; and a bamboo split, broken, and burnt, means fire and fury.
A Lushai village is usually built in a position which gives natural advantages for defence. It is