Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/480

416 as I have seen many a time. The shield is covered with curious little brass caps, and finished with little tails of goats' hair, dyed red and black. The Fanai live on the eastern border of the Lushai. They differ in many ways from the Poi, another clan which figures in many of the tales. But the difference that struck me most was the different method of hair-dressing. The photograph of Darbilli and her two attendants shows the method of the Fanai women, and Plate XXV. that of the men,—viz. with their "back hair" hanging down loose and straight, and the front part drawn up and twisted into a neat roll or knob. The Poi draws up "back hair" and front tight on the top of his head, and, right on his forehead, coils it round and round until it forms a big "Chelsea bun," through which a massive hair-pin is generally thrust. By this it will be seen that the Lushai gentleman by no means considers it "a shame" to have long hair. Both Fanai and Poi plentifully besmear their long, thick locks with pigs' fat,—as, indeed, do all the Lushais, men and women.

Plate XXVI. shows a stone monument in the beautiful Valley of Champhai. It had fallen down, and the upper portion of it had been broken off, when it was discovered by Mr. Porteous, (my husband's predecessor in the North Lushai Hills), who had it re-erected. I believe it commemorates some great chief, but I do not remember the name of this chief, nor even if it is known. On the upper portion of the stone, (which it was impossible to replace, and which is just visible in the photograph, behind the main portion), there is carved the full length figure of a warrior, holding in his right hand a spear, and presumably the chief himself On the upper part of the main portion there are four lines of figures (and indications of another row along the line of breakage), each line containing six or seven figures, holding hands. Whether these are supposed to represent the slaves the great man possessed on this plane of existence, or the slaves which, by the simple