Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/484

420 parents is the explanation of the otherwise strange apathy of the lads when the tiger was in their power.

The Khaw-hring or Khāhrin, monster vampires, are of the same brood as the Meithei hing-chā-bi. Hing means to be alive, chā to eat, and bi is either the magnitive suffix or the feminine suffix.

The Zal-buk, or bachelors' hall, is a common feature of Naga village life, and was part of the village system in Manipur, where, in the tale of Khamba and Thoibi, mention is often made of the Pākhonvāl and the corresponding institution for the girls, the Ningonvāl.

Among the slides was one of a Poi whose mode of coiffure strangely resembles that of the Manipur Marring. The Marring have a tale of the origin and purpose of the steel bodkin which they now keep thrust through the bun of hair in front. It was, so they say, the implement with which they used to write. They used the skins of animals as material, while those cunning fellows, the Manipuris, used leaves and bits of board. It fell out that, one day, they all went down to the river to bathe, and then the dogs took advantage of their absence and ate up all the skins, so that from that day till now they have remained in ignorance of this useful art. This tale, with appropriate variants, is found very widely dispersed, and is one of the general Tibeto-Burman store. I cannot conclude without remarking how vividly this paper brings home to me the essential unity which underlies all the remarkable linguistic and ethnical variety of this part of Assam. The more I hear of Lushai folk and their ways and habits of thought, the more am I convinced that they differ from their neighbours the Nagas much less than we were brought up to believe. Differences there are, patent many of them to the eye, but there is fundamental unity, which we are apt to overlook or to under-estimate.