The Lhota Nagas

The Lhota divides the year into twelve lunar months,1 which are named as follows:—

• Ndri (February). “The month of the ndri flower.”
• Emhu (March). “The blowing month.”
• Ephi (April). “The dry month.”
• Cheshi (May). “The watching month,” i.e. all watch to see if the crops will sprout well.
• Oten (June). “The month of millet” (teni).
• Nnung (July). Derivation unknown.
• Chikanika (August). “The month of quarrels,” because poor men have come to the end of their resources and try to borrow from rich men, who refuse to lend.
• Ndrangtso (September). “The bursting month,” because the pots are bursting with new rice.
• Rongorongyi (October). “The going backwards and forwards month,” i.e. carrying the crop up to the village.
• Chopuk (November). “The month of ease.”
• Shotokuk (December). “The month of ceremonies.”
• Echon (January). “The spreading month,” i.e. the rats scatter the straw about the abandoned fields.

In order to correct the calendar an extra month or part of a month called Chotantsu is put in after Echon whenever [227]necessary. The months being periods of the agricultural year the whole Lhota country is not in the same month at the same time. The inhabitants of a cold village where the crops are late may be struggling through Chikanika while those of a warm village are enjoying the peace and plenty of Ndrangtso. [228]

There is no standard of weight in use throughout the tribe, but in every village there is kept a stone (ephwa) which is used in apportioning the shares of meat at feasts. The weight is generally nine to ten pounds. For trade a balance of the bismar type is used, notched to weigh in Indian seers and fractions of seers.

The standard measure for rice is chukoluk, which is regarded as one man’s wage for a day and usually weighs about six pounds. The table would be as follows:—

Two baskets (etek) are regarded as going to one enokyak. The size of the baskets varies from village to village, and the buyer must accept the standard of the village from which he buys.

Though nowadays Lhotas occasionally try to state distance in English miles, the real measure is by echen, the distance between one temporary granary and that at the next stage on the path up from the fields. It varies from village to village. On an easy slope it may be a mile and a half, on a steep slope it will be a mile or even less.

The depth of water is either measured in echam (the height of a man) or eshi (kicks). That is to say, if a man having dived to the bottom of a pool has to kick his legs three times before he reaches the top, the pool is reckoned as three “kicks” deep. A tree is spoken of as so many phunchap (ladder-steps) high.

Just as fingers and toes are the usual counting apparatus, [229]so the Lhota uses the distance between the various parts of his body as standards of measurement. The distance between the tips of the fingers of the outstretched arms is called ntiya, and that from the middle of the chest to outstretched finger-tips monyak. A cubit is kecha. The spans of the thumb and first finger and thumb and middle finger are ekohundro and ekosüpo respectively. The breadth of a finger is yingro. These measurements are used for all conceivable purposes. The size of a mithan, for instance, is not stated in terms of its height at the withers, but in terms of the length of its horn in ekosüpo and yingro. Similarly, to measure a pig you pass a long slip of bamboo round its chest and measure the bamboo. Thread is never measured by length or weight. If it is in a skein, the thickness round the skein is taken, the circles formed by thumb and first finger and thumb and middle finger being called etsokhundro and etsoksüpo respectively. If it is in a ball, the ball is reckoned as a keraksüpo (big handful) or keraktero (little handful). [230]

Major Butler gives the following account2 of a human sacrifice: “About the 27th July, 1850, Lieutenant Vincent succeeded in effecting, for thirty-seven rupees, the ransom of Tooleram, a Cacharee boy, who had been carried off from the village of Loongee-jair on the 18th February by a marauding party of Angahmee Nagahs. Two other children were at the same time carried off, but had been sold to other villages; a little girl was sold to some Nagahs at Beereh-mah, but could not be traced. The fate of the third boy was horrible; he was purchased by the adjoining tribe of Lotah Nagahs, and a man of the village having died immediately after the purchase, it was considered a bad omen, and that ill luck had befallen them on account of this captive child. They therefore flayed the poor boy alive, cutting off his flesh bit by bit until he died. These cruel and superstitious savages then divided the body, giving a piece of the flesh to each man in the village to put into his dolu, a large corn-basket. By this they suppose all evil will be averted, their good fortune will return, and plentiful crops of grain will be ensured.”

Nagas are always ready to give garbled, not to say scandalous, accounts of the customs of their neighbours, and there can be little doubt that Major Butler was misled by his Angami informants. Lhotas, in common with other tribes, believe in a vague sort of way that the taking of a head brings prosperity to the taker’s village, and the boy was probably killed and his body cut up and distributed, as was done more recently in the case of the Nankam slave [231]bought by Akuk. But there is no tradition that it was ever the custom to torture victims before death, and I think the Lhotas must be acquitted of this charge. It would, further, be clean contrary to their customs to put pieces of human flesh in their rice, which would thereby become polluted rather than blessed.3

The story goes that long, long ago a rich Lhota was very ill. In vain pigs, cattle and mithan were slaughtered. Finally he had one of his slaves sacrificed in cold blood, in the hope that the slave’s life would be accepted in place of his own. The man died, however, in spite of this last sacrifice, and Lhotas, seeing that it was unavailing, have never imitated his example. This tradition and the practice of spearing the opya at the oyantsoa “genna” point to a time when human sacrifice was practised to avert evil fortune, but it would be safe to say that within historical times no such custom has been followed by them. [232]