Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 1.djvu/152

Rh they are considerably below the standard of the more northern tribes, rarely averaging more than five feet one or two inches in height, and their colour approaches very nearly to as dark a shade as that of the Bengalees of the plains: in feature they resemble the Malay more than the Tartar; and, as there can be little doubt that the northern tribes are descended from the latter stock, it appears equally probable that the Kookies have their origin from the former. It has been asserted that some of the principal chieftains of the Kookie tribes could raise a force of 8000 men; but this we may safely pronounce to be an exaggeration: the mutual distrust, which has been before alluded to as existing among them, is wholly incompatible with the unity of feeling by which such a force could alone be assembled. For purposes purely defensive, a body of from five to six hundred men might be collected; but when the limited extent of their cultivation, and the restlessness which characterises all savages, are considered, it is evident that, even for self-defence, it is highly improbable they could long be kept together. Small parties of from ten to thirty men have, however, frequently made incursions into the border villages along the line of frontier; and in Cachar, whole tracts of fertile country were, up to a very recent period, deserted from an apprehension of these attacks. The plunder of property is less the object of the marauders than the acquisition of heads, which are considered essential to the due performance of the funeral rites of their village chieftains, and to obtain which they will undertake long and difficult journeys, and remain concealed for days together in the jungle bordering on the different lines of communication between distant villages; they spring on the unwary traveller, decapitate him in an instant, and plunging into the forests, are far on their way home before the murder becomes known in the village of the miserable victim. Among the Kookies, success in these expeditions establishes a claim to the highest distinctions the tribe can confer, and their approaches are made with such secrecy, that the yell of death is almost always the first intimation the villagers receive of their danger."—(Pembertorn's "Eastern Frontier.")

The Kookies have been accused of cannibalism, but vehemently repudiate the imputation, which, like the stories (once believed) of their living in trees, is now regarded as a fable.