Chapter XVII: Part V: ).—j. H. H

[190] This and all other stories given are literal translations from the Lhota. My method has been to have the stories dictated and written down in Lhota, and then tested for verbal accuracy before translating them.

[191] All Nagas believe that a severe wound in the tongue causes instant death.

[192] Certain families of the Shetri clan in Pangti claim to be his direct descendants.

[193] The “Thimzing” of the Thados and other Kukis; vide Col. J. Shakespear, The Lushai-Kuki Clans.—J. H. H.

[194] And to the Angami Matseo, the orphan, pretty closely.—J. H. H.

[195] The play upon the words cannot be reproduced in English. Apfuho really said “emitacholam” (“What a fool of an old woman!”), and then got out of his difficulty by pretending he had only uttered the middle syllable “acho,” which is an exclamation like the English “Oh!”

[196] This incident in a very similar form occurs in the Sema story of Iki and the Tiger (The Sema Nagas, Part VI.).—J. H. H.

[197] The vat was very heavy, being hollowed out of a solid log of wood, and would soon be swamped if put rim upwards in the water.

[198] This incident in a slightly different setting is found in the Assamese story of the Monkey and the Jackal, the Kachari story of the Monkey and the Hare, in an Angami story and also in an Ao story. In the latter version it is the bear who is thus victimized. For the Kachari story see J. D. Anderson, Kachari Folk-tales and Rhymes, p. 27 (Shillong, 1895); for the Assamese story see J. Borooah, Folk-tales of Assam, p. 8 [shial = “jackal” not “fox”] (Howrah, 1915), and for the Angami story, The Angami Nagas, Part IV.—J. H. H.

The Shans, too, relate a similar story in which the Hare induces the Tiger to believe that a swarm of bees is a gong. Milne and Cochrane, The Shans at Home, p. 244. An almost verbally identical episode occurs in the Sea Dyak story of the Mouse-deer and the Deer. Gomes, Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo, p. 260.

[199] Cf. the old fairy tale of Big and Little Klaus.—J. H. H.

[200] In the Angami version the man sends a messenger to the wild dog who had run away. The messenger, instead of asking for a leg of every head of game the dog ran down, asked for the whole body. At this the wild dog, quite prepared to give a leg, lost his temper and said, “Bah! I’ll give him the hair and leave it on the path for him to find.” Hence the dung of wild dogs containing large quantities of hair is found everywhere on paths.—J. H. H.

[201] A very old village, once big, but now shrunk to eight houses.

[202] Such is said to be the meaning of the obsolete Lhota word tiloran.

[203] Rhizomys prunosus, the flesh of which Nagas regard as a great delicacy.

[204] Stones are ordinarily put up by Lhotas to commemorate a sacrifice, but forked wooden posts are occasionally substituted if a suitable stone is not available. One kindred in Yekhum always puts up posts instead of stones.

[205] I.e. “Man, man!”

[206] One version of this story states definitely that Kimongthang was of the Othui clan, and formerly men of that clan were forbidden to eat gibbon. The Changs tell the same story to account for the origin of the Kudā́mji clan, which is regarded as a gibbon clan.

The Semas have a story of men of the Wotsami clan having been turned into gibbons, and despise that clan as the Changs do the Kudā́mji, which suggests that it is the Othui clan of Lhotas which ought really to be associated with the Semi Wotsami instead of the Shetri (or, according to Mr. Mills, the Nguli) as is the case.—J. H. H.

[207] “Tale of the Tiger and the Crab” in Folk-tales of Assam, by J. Borooah (Howrah, 1915), pp. 54, 55.—J. H. H.

[208] The incident of the long hair of a girl that caused a king to send men to find her occurs in an ancient Egyptian tale “written down in the reign of Rameses II, about 1300 B.C.” Vide Sir J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. xi. pp. 135, 136.—J. H. H.

[209] Broad, shiny leaves, only too common in the jungles of the Naga Hills. The writer has suffered from them more than once. The slightest touch causes intense irritation, which often does not totally subside for ten days.

[210] In an Ao folk-tale a man is chased with dogs and escapes in a similar way.

[211] Nagas regard an oath sworn on broken iron as binding.

[212] Up to this point the story opens in the same terms as the Sema version of the story of Hunchibili, the maiden who is transformed into an orange, a bamboo shoot, etc. (vide The Angami Nagas, Part V., and The Sema Nagas, Part VI). The motif of the transformation of the heroine to and from some form of fruit or vegetable is a favourite one in Assamese folk-lore. Vide J. Borooah, Folk-tales of Assam. There are also Khasi stories of the same kind.—J. H. H.

[213] Probably the hero must be regarded by now as working off the marriage price by service in his father-in-law’s house according to Lhota custom.—J. H. H.

[214] As the woman would probably take the opportunity of bathing and washing her own clothes, it would have been contrary to Lhota etiquette for her husband to have gone with her.

[215] Cf. Perry, Megalithic Culture of Indonesia, chap. xii. The Vuite clan of Kukis are also sprung from Dongel and his sister, and the Kukis, like the Lhotas, have a legend of a period of great darkness and floods over the earth and fires (The Thimzing), during which the greater part of mankind was drowned.—J. H. H.

[216] The version of the story given here is that current among the Northern Lhotas. In the Southern Lhota account Lankongrhoni escapes into a porcupine’s hole, from which she is afterwards dug out and killed.

[217] In the Sema version a man throws cow-dung at the sun and turns it into the moon. In another Assam version ashes are thrown. In a Mexican version a hare or rabbit is thrown. In all the effect is the same. The hotter orb is turned into the cooler one. I have not met the story among Angamis, who describe the marks on the moon’s face as a tree or as nettles.—J. H. H.

[218] In one version the sun-bird is substituted for the wagtail.

[219] The Kabuis have a similar story of a cure for leprosy being revealed by a snake; cf. T. C. Hodson, Naga Tribes of Manipur, p. 129.

[220] One is reminded of the reported use of “tortoise” by the Chinese as a term of mild opprobrium.—J. H. H.

[221] I.e. the Deputy Commissioner of the Naga Hills and the Subdivisional Officer of Mokokchung.

[222] Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. III., Part II., pp. 284 sqq.

[223] The name of an Ao-Konyak village.

[224] A Sema name for the Sangtams.

[225] A similar tradition is to be found in many Naga tribes as well as among the Padam Abors and possibly other tribes on the north bank of the Brahmaputra.—J. H. H.

[226] Dr. Witter gives -katola as the suffix of the apodosis. I am myself inclined to think that the word tsokatola is the ordinary future form tsoka, plus a suffix -tola.

[227] The Kayans of Borneo tell a similar story in which the argus pheasant and the coucal take the place of the cuckoo and crow (The Pagan Tribes of Borneo, Hose and McDougal, Vol. I., p. 247). The Greenland Eskimo give a similar account of how the raven became black. Cf. “The Raven and the Goose,” in Eskimo Folk-tales, by Knud Rasmussen and W. Worster, p. 66 (Gyldendale, 1921).

[228] Opposite each month I have given the traditional derivation of the name. The correspondence with the English months is only approximate, of course.

[229] Travels and Adventures in the Province of Assam, by Major John Butler, p. 189.

[230] As the keeping of paddy in large corn-baskets is an Angami custom, and not followed by the Lhotas, the account given to Major Butler is clearly inaccurate, and I agree with Mr. Mills that it is probably a sheer invention of the same nature as the Semas and Aos are in the habit of making with regard to the hostile tribes to the east of them.—J. H. H.