2 Potso is commonly used as a form of address to highly respected persons such as sahibs, like the Assamese Deota, which is, or at one time was, employed in the same way, and means a godling of some kind.—J. H. H. ↑
3 This is the translation given me by Lhotas. The word may really mean “water-mother,” opfu being one of the Lhota words for mother. ↑
4 The Sema belief as to Muzamuza, the corresponding Sema deity, is stated in the same terms, but Muzamuza is Echo.—J. H. H. ↑
5 The lizard, in particular the sand-lizard with a very shiny skin, is the subject of some superstitious belief among most Nagas. Thus it is engraved by Tobu (a ? Konyak village east of the Chang country) on the long daos they make, tattooed by Chang warriors on their breasts, painted in black gum on the central white band of the Rengma head-taking cloth, and sometimes, I think, painted or carved in Konyak “morungs.” The Semas seem to associate it somehow with the distinction between the sexes (v. The Sema Nagas), like some Australian tribes.—J. H. H. ↑
6 Cf. The Angami Nagas, Appendix VII., The Meitheis (Hodson), p. 99; The Khasis (Gurdon), p. 170. Mr. W. S. Furness (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, XXXII., 1902, “Ethnography of the Nagas of Eastern Assam”) states that a stone called Puzzi, near the Sema village of Champhimi, which used to be erect but is now laid flat, was killed by the Angami god Tukko, who knocked him down and cut off his head. This god “Tukko” is clearly Tŭkăhū, which is the Sema name for Japvo mountain.—J. H. H. ↑
8 All Naga tribes that I know hold these two conflicting beliefs as to the life after death, regarding the soul as inhabiting a butterfly or other insect, and also as continuing an anthropomorphic existence. The discrepancy does not seem to occur to them till pointed out, and not to worry them much then. “Who knows?” is all they say.—J. H. H. ↑
9 The Angami differs in sending the souls of the “good” to the sky and the rest only to the underworld.—J. H. H. ↑
10 On this road the spirit, Etchhilivanthamo, lies in wait for passers-by to catch and destroy them if he can. To appease him every dead Lhota has a bead tied to his wrist when buried, so that he can give it to this spirit and get by.—J. H. H. ↑
13 In Phiro and Saki the term Puki is used to denote not only the religious officials of the village, but anyone who has performed all the social “gennas,” a use closely resembling that of the title Kemovo among the Angamis (of the Kohima group only, where Pitsü is used = Puthi in its usual sense, other Angamis using Kemovo = Puthi, and Pitsü for the oldest male in the village).—J. H. H. ↑
15 In Morakcho I was told that anyone who speared the opya in the “head” would die within the year.—J. H. H. ↑
17 The blade of a dao is ground on one side of its edge only, giving a plano-convex cutting edge, so that blows can be made to cut only by a downward stroke from the right, or an upward stroke from the left, or, in the case of a dao made on purpose for a left-handed man, vice versa.—J. H. H. ↑
18 The Kalyo-Kengyu preserve the bodies of the dead in coffins in their houses during the year, and on a fixed day at the “genna” for sowing throw away all the bodies collected during the year, together with their coffins, belongings, etc. The bodies, however, are broken up first and the bones collected out of them and put in an earthen pot and kept at the back of the granary, where they are left to decompose of themselves.—J. H. H. ↑
19 Formerly it was the custom for a man who had performed the whole series to give a final feast, to which even birds and beasts were invited. Rice and food were scattered on the ground for the village pigs and chickens, and a special share of meat and rice was taken down to the performer’s fields and left there for the crows. There is no one alive now who has dispensed hospitality on this lavish scale. ↑
20 Among the defects which disqualify a mithan in the view of Ao Nagas is any defect in the position, etc., of the whorls of hair on the animal’s throat and muzzle, about which the Aos are very particular.—J. H. H. ↑
21 The ceremonies described below are those performed in Pangti. The details vary considerably from village to village. ↑
22 All Nagas put up green stuff over their doors when observing household “gennas,” apparently as a signal to strangers not to interfere. There may be some other idea beneath it. A Lhota who passes the corpse of a man who has met with a violent end waves a bit of green stuff to and fro across his face. Mr. Mills tells me that this is to ward off the evil fate (nyok) which has attached to the dead man and may infect the passerby. Nyok possibly = Angami ropfü (v. The Angami Nagas, Part IV.).—J. H. H. ↑
23 The Northern Lhotas carry the stone, but the Southern Lhotas drag it up on a rough sledge made of a forked branch, small branches being repeatedly laid in front of it to act as rollers. ↑
24 Mr. C. R. Pawsey tells me that the stone set up at Pembvo’s grave (on the same ridge as Changsung and Ralung but to the south of them, a long-deserted village site) bears a rough incision believed by the local [144]Lhotas, who greatly cherish Pembvo’s memory, to represent the hornbill feathers he used to wear. The incision is in the form of an arc, the convex side upmost, with six lines proceeding from it like rays. I have once seen a stone ornamented with designs in pig’s fat; the village was, as far as I remember, Changsung.—J. H. H. ↑
25 These Y-shaped posts are used as an emblem of prosperity by the Garos, Naked Rengmas, Sangtams, Semas, and by the Hankip clan of Thado Kukis, and were clearly used by the Kachari kings of Dimapur, who have left them in stone instead of wood at Dimapur. Originally they doubtless represent the female organ of generation, in which capacity they are still made and carried in Kohima village at the Lisü “genna,” and, preceded by an emblem of the male organ, are dragged through the village by chaste boys. Kohima, however, seems to be the only genuine Angami village which either uses the Y-shaped post or performs the Lisü “genna” in this way. Possibly the Y-shaped post is to be definitely connected with the Bodo immigration into Assam.—J. H. H. ↑
26 Lhotas believe that a man who kills a pangolin will die if a scale falls from the skin of the animal. The Phoms of Hukpang have the same belief.—J. H. H. ↑
27 Lhota women wishing for an easy delivery in childbirth catch the little sand lizard called shamdram, probably belonging to the skink family, having a very smooth and glossy surface to its scales, and of active habits, and rub it round their navel and abdomen, saying, “Let my child be slippery like you, and come without difficulty.” Then they let it go again.—J. H. H. The Hopi Indians of Arizona use a weasel skin for the same purpose (cf. Man, July 1921, p. 99). ↑
32 Among the Aos and Konyaks, on the other hand, the usual practice is for a youth to choose as his wife one of the girls whose favours he has been in the habit of enjoying. ↑
33 A somewhat different account of a Lhota wedding is given on p. 74 of Part I. of the Assam Census Report, 1911. In spite of careful inquiries I have been unable to find any Lhota who has ever heard of the marriage song and mock fight there described. ↑
34 In the case of the Rengmas a younger brother who has a fancy for his elder brother’s wife by no means necessarily waits for his brother’s absence, nor does the elder brother necessarily object to his younger brother’s having intercourse with his (the elder’s) wife. I have known the elder brother acquiesce in this even when the younger was married to a wife of his own. This last it was who objected.—J. H. H. ↑
35 Some of the Konyaks use coffins of this type, and the Kalyo-Kengyu also seem to use a dug-out receptacle for the bodies of the dead while they are kept in the house during the desiccation process.—J. H. H. ↑
36 One or two villages situated near the lower reaches of the Doyang where it emerges into the plains make dug-out canoes hewn from a single log. These are admittedly copies of those made by the Assamese, with whom these villages have been in long and close contact. ↑
37 So the Assamese of the plains believe that if a false report of a man’s death is circulated he will live long. The Semas on the other hand believe that it will cause his death untimely.—J. H. H. ↑
39 The Kalyo-Kengyu make periodic offerings by the path until the sowing following the death, when the body is broken up. A mat is spread and every sort of grain poured out, and some of all the fruits and vegetables available, together with wooden daos, spears and cross-bows, are put out for the dead, whole baskets of valuable grain being emptied by the roadside for this purpose.—J. H. H. ↑
40 The Tangkhuls build a miniature house on a very high machan (for the size of the house) with a tiny notched bamboo for the spirit to use as a ladder.—J. H. H. ↑
42 According to Sir J. Frazer the reason is fear of the ghost, vide Psyche’s Task, pp. 134, 135 (2nd ed.), where the customs of the Shans and Kachins are mentioned and prove to be remarkably similar to those of the Lhotas.—J. H. H. These deaths are known in Naga-Assamese as “apotia.” ↑
43 In a case that came to my notice at Lotsü, when the Puthi’s son got drowned when fishing, all the men with the lad threw away all their cloths, weapons, ornaments and everything they had taken with them on their outing. Even the dogs they had with them were killed and their bodies thrown into the jungle. The fact that it was the Puthi’s son that was drowned probably made the matter much more serious. The misfortune was put down to the anger of Tchhüpfu at the village having failed to “poison” the river with deo-bih, but it is possible that this was done in the hope that I would allow that forbidden practice to be renewed.—J. H. H. ↑
44 Semas sometimes come and ask for them, also for the paddy left to rot in the grain-house. I have known both taken without objection, and I have known Lhotas also object to both on the grounds that in the act of taking them away it would be necessary to move them across the village lands, and that this alone might be enough to bring about some terrible calamity. I think, however, that jealousy had something to do with this attitude.—J. H. H. ↑
45 Unless the disposal of enemy heads on the mingetung is so reckoned, or the disposal of the afterbirth in trees. Both are buried by the Angami and the latter by the Sema also.—J. H. H. ↑
46 The Changs believe that “tiger-men” are confined to the Haki-Ung clan, where the peculiarity is hereditary. They say that at the time of the [164]Universal Deluge, when only the highest peaks remained above the flood, the Haki-Ung clan was the only one from which tigers claimed no victims. They therefore became the adopted sons of tigers, and to this day have tiger “familiars.” No member of the clan may kill or touch the corpse of a tiger. When a tiger is killed it is believed a member of the Haki-Ung clan will die six days later in a distant village. ↑
47 In this connection the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (“Leopard Men in the Naga Hills”) for Jan.–June 1920 may be referred to.—J. H. H. ↑
48 Among other Naga tribes these stones must be black and heavy for their size, and show a wet smear when rubbed with the thumb. They are nodules of some stone which is not a normal geological feature of the country, and are regarded as distinct from the larger water-worn stones kept to bring fortune to the community, which are definitely of the locality. Cf. The Sema Nagas, Part IV. (Anagha).—J. H. H. ↑
51 It may be noticed that the presentation of fish by a man to his betrothed is the formal sign of the completion of an Ao marriage.—J. H. H. ↑
53 Rarakham appears to be the same as the Sema pulakhu, which, however, was identified for me as Mosla dianthera. It is quite likely that both plants are used by Nagas under the same name.—J. H. H. ↑
54 The Aos erect a stout and tall rice plant on a piece of bamboo and put it by the field to make the rice grow, by its good example, as high from the ground as the top of the uplifted rice plant.—J. H. H. ↑
55 There is a white serow of supernatural qualities at Seromi in the Sema country, and the Assamese, indeed, call the species deo-chaguli, “the spirit-goat,” no doubt owing to its exceeding shyness and elusiveness.—J. H. H. ↑
56 Lobeni, a dream-woman of Phiro, who was an acquaintance of mine and whose dreams of hunting prospects were famous for their accuracy, used to ask for a cloth or handkerchief of her client on which she used to sleep. The same practice is recorded of the Moscoc, dream diviners of Peru. (Memorias Antiguas Historiales del Peru, Hakluyt Soc. 1920, p. 60, note.)—J. H. H. ↑
57 So, too, the Samoans; George Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians (Macmillan, 1910), p. 219.—J. H. H. ↑
59 The interpretation of dreams by opposites (cf. Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Chap. XXI.) is frequent among Nagas generally, and may no doubt be usually based on this principle.—J. H. H. ↑
61 This belief might be connected with that by which some Nagas explain earthquakes as the spirit under the earth shaking the earth as in a winnowing fan to find out what the crops are like and weigh their quantity and quality.—J. H. H. ↑
62 Cf. the somewhat similar Garo story; Major A. Playfair, The Garos, p. 85.—J. P. M.
Cf. also Col. Gurdon, The Khasis, p. 172, where it is to be noticed that the Khasis, like the Semas, make the moon masculine and the sun feminine. The Sema version (The Sema Nagas, p. 250) is still nearer to [173]the Lhota, and a similar story (with a “rabbit” instead of dung) comes from Mexico. A geographical link between the two stories is perhaps provided by Japan, where the hare is associated with the moon (vide Lord Redesdale, Tales of Japan, “The Crackling Mountain,” note 1). The Malays also say that the sun and moon were once of equal brightness (Ratzel, History of Mankind, I. p. 478). The Nicobarese have the same beliefs as the Lhota both as to the former proximity of the sky and as to the interchange of functions between the sun and the moon (vide The Indian Antiquary), August 1921, Part DCXXXV. p. 235.—J. H. H. ↑
63 This view of the cause of eclipses is in accordance with the common Tibetan account current generally also over at any rate the north of India. It is the form which explanations of eclipses usually take among Nagas, but in contrast to the Angami story, which represents the orb eclipsed as repaying a loan of borrowed light.—J. H. H. ↑