Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 1.djvu/141

 NAGAS.

AGA is the generic term given (with various distinctive prefixes) to a series of wild tribes inhabiting a comparatively unexplored tract on the southeastern borders of Upper Assam (in lat. 26° 30' N., long. 95° E.) and the mountain ranges forming the north-western boundary of the Burmese empire. It is difficult to assign any definite limit to their country or to the number of their tribes; some are tributary to Assam, some to Munipoor, some to Burmah. There is no tribe of sufficient consideration to preponderate, and they are too much embroiled in petty feuds to coalesce. Their mode of life is indicated by the character of their dwellings, which are perched on almost inaccessible crags, and adapted for everyday defence. They are known to the inhabitants of the plains only as robbers and murderers, and of their social economy but little has been accurately ascertained.

Though physically powerful, their limbs have not the massive configuration which distinguishes the Kookies. It is their distinguishing peculiarity that they are not migratory; and, while most of these hill races change their settlements every two or three years, the Nagas remain fixed, and their insignificant villages, which appear in one of Rennell's early maps, are still to be found as they were in 1764. The Nagas are further distinguishable as using no weapons but the javelin and dao, or billhook. They have no prejudices respecting food, eating everything animal indiscriminately, whether killed for the flesh/pot or not. They strictly abstain, however, from the use of milk, butter, or ghee, for which they entertain strong aversion.

Their religion is limited to a few superstitious practices, presenting little from which their origin or connection with other tribes could be inferred with any degree of certainty. The objects of their worship are stated to be:—

1. Janthee, "the most powerful," to whom they sacrifice cows, bullocks, or bulls. His power prevails in all serious illnesses, and he can kill or cure.

2. Tutelar gods of villages, who in one instance are said to be "Hysong and" Dherengana;" to the former of these fowls, and to the latter, hogs, are the appropriate oblation.

Matrimony is a civil contract, and the attendant ceremonies consist of