Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/541

 Reviews. 231

differ in certain respects from their Angami neighbours. Among the latter the real social unit is the clan, but among the Sema the clan, though important and pervading the life of the ordinary Sema from his birth upwards, does not play the same dominant part in social life. The basis of Sema society is the village, or part of the village, which is under the control of the chief, the real pivot of the society being the chief. This may be accounted for by the fact of the relatively recent migration of the Sema into their present country, where they seem to have formed small village communities, living very isolated lives in heavy forest land. The clans are mostly exogamous, but in some of them this rule is becoming less observed. The society is clearly patriarchal ; but there is much to suggest that a matrilineal system survived till comparatively recently. Relationship terms are discussed in considerable detail and are further illus- trated by the numerous genealogical tables. As may be expected from a Government official the laws and customs are treated with sufficient, but not excessive detail. The notes on the former head-hunting, its associations with certain stones, and the gennas connected with it are of particular interest.

The religion of the Sema recognises spirits of three classes : first, there is Alhou or Timilhou, who seems to be regarded as omniscient and omnipotent, usually a beneficent but somewhat remote Creator, interfering but little in the affairs of men — he is the supreme dispenser of good and evil ; secondly, the sky spirits, Kungicmi, who may be good or bad, and may even marry with mortals ; then third, the Teghami, who are the spirits most in touch with man, true earth-spirits, often deliberately harmful, and beneficent only when propitiated. There are several Naga traditions of little wild men, or spirits of the woods, having been caught. With these may be associated the Aghau, or spirits attached to individuals or houses. It seems that all persons are potentially possessed of Aghau, though the existence of an Aghau is not always apparent. A friend of the author has as many as a dozen. Certain of the Teghami are named spirits with definite functions. On the whole they are very much like our own fairies. There is an interesting section on lycanthropists, who, however, undergo no physical transformation. The soul p 2