Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 1.djvu/151

 THE ROOKIES. (39)

HE Kookie tribes inhabit the hills east of the Chittagong district, and are separated from the plains by the Tipperah and Chnckma tribes. They are fair in complexion compared with the natives of the plains. Their houses are built of logs, on the top of the high ranges, in a much more substantial manner than those of the Tipperah Reangs and "other neighbouring clans. They cultivate rice and vegetables, of which their diet of necessity chiefly consists; they are fond of animal food, which, however, can be obtained only by hunting, and are fond of hunting and marauding. They believe in a Supreme Being and a future state, also in hill gods or demons, to whom they sacrifice; but these gods hold a very inferior position when compared with the "Great Spirit." The Kookies are fierce and warlike, as compared with the other tribes, on whom they are in the habit of making raids for the purpose of procuring plunder and slaves. Their method of attack is surprise, and they seldom attempt to stand before regular troops, preferring a guerilla warfare, and hiding themselves and tiring from behind rocks and trees. Their arms are flint muskets, spears, and daos. The habits and dress of the women are the same as those of the Tipperah tribes. The men in full dress wear a coarse sheet — in undress, nothing at all. The sheets of the men and women are often dyed blue with a kind of wild indigo found in the hills. Their habits are extremely dirty, even worse than the Tipperahs. In their manners they are frank and outspoken. They place small value on human life.—(MS. Documents.)

"The custom of tattooing, which so generally prevails among the Khyens and Karens, is wholly unknown to the Kookies. All the tribes north, west, and east of the Munnipoor valley, partake strongly of the characteristic features of the Tartar countenance; and, viewed in contrast with the tribes occupying the southern borders of the Munnipoor territory, are remarkable for superior height, fairer complexions, and more elevated foreheads; their dialects are harsh and guttural, and their voices particularly inharmonious and discordant. The Kookies, or southern tribes, are. on the contrary, remarkable for their extreme softness of voice, and the euphonic sweetness of their language, when not spoken under great excitement: in stature