Chapter VII: Part II: Domestic Life (3)

Monkeys such as Pithecus brahma (otham) and Macacus assamensis (kirango) are shot with the crossbow (olo) and arrows, but a tailless ground-monkey (Macacus arctoides, Lhota mitham) is driven with great success, the day’s bag sometimes totalling thirty or forty. A troop which takes up its abode in a jungly gully flanked by cultivated fields is doomed. All the men of the village surround the jungle, and a tunnel (vaksap) is built of interlaced jungle and brushwood at the lower end, like a duck-decoy tunnel on a small scale. The monkeys are driven from the upper end, and keeping to the ground enter the tunnel. Finding no exit at the lower end they completely lose their heads and cling to one another and whimper till they are killed.

Before the making of pitfalls (soku) was forbidden by Government large numbers of elephants, deer and wild pig were killed by means of them. Elephant-pits were huge affairs, but the ordinary pitfall was about ten feet deep, with the bottom covered with big jagged rocks and “panjis,” so that any animal which fell in was likely both to have its legs broken and to be impaled. Many kinds of snares are used, mostly for small animals and birds, though a running noose (putha or ozo) used to be used by the Southern Lhotas for deer. The commonest trap is the triangular trap (tsiri), which is also used by Aos, Changs, Semas and Angamis. It is set in runs or at holes in fences and is most effective. It consists of a triangle of bamboo, the base of which is extended to form a bow. The side nearest the bow is double. Through this is passed a noose which is set in such a way that any animal or bird trying to get through the triangle releases the bow and is caught by the noose against the double side. Birds and small animals are also caught by running nooses (khükcha), platforms which release nooses when trodden on (chambo), and fall-traps (otyo). Are Yanthamo appears to be the only village which possesses a box-trap for leopards, though these contrivances are common among the Aos, from whom Are Yanthamo probably copied the one in question. It consists of a small low shed made of stout saplings securely tied in place and is divided into two compartments, in the hinder of which is put the bait, a live goat. The leopard enters, and in making for the goat treads on a little platform which releases a catch and drops a heavy wooden door behind it. Only once did a leopard enter the Are Yanthamo trap, and then it raged and roared in such an alarming way that the local Nimrods sat in the village and quaked, till it eventually managed to break its way out. A monkey is not an easy beast to snare, but a genius in Changbang invented a booby trap for monkeys which is said to have been very successful. He watched the line which monkeys took when chased off his fields. In their path he dug a pitfall, and over it at some height arranged a dry branch in such a way that monkeys would be sure to run along it in their flight. He cut this branch nearly through, so that the first monkey which used it snapped it off and came to an untimely end in the pitfall. Kabuis use a similar trap for monkeys. [94] Bird-lime (onyi) made of a mixture of the sap of the rubber tree (nitsütung) and Ficus religiosa (nitsotung) is extensively used. The two kinds of sap are boiled down in separate “chungas,” which are then split and the resulting rubber-like cakes extracted and cut into small pieces. The bits of thickened nitso sap are chewed to soften them and put in a broken potsherd. Then the pieces of nitsü juice are toasted over the fire on the end of an old umbrella stay and mixed with the nitso sap in the potsherd while they are hot. The resulting bird-lime is sometimes put on twigs stuck up by the side of pools at which birds come to drink, and sometimes put on twigs fixed on bushes and baited with a live cockroach impaled on a thorn. The use of decoy birds is unknown. An accurate knowledge of its habits enables a snarer to catch even the Great Indian Hornbill (rücheng) with bird-lime. This bird never flies straight to the berries on which it is going to feed, but always first perches on the thick part of the branch and then hops out towards the end, raising its wings slightly at each hop. Limed twigs are therefore put along the side of the branch at such an angle that they will touch the bird’s body as it raises its wings. At such a touch it shuts its wing down on the limed twig and is helpless.

A word on the taking of bees’ and hornets’ nests may find a place under this section. There are men who for some curious reason appear to be immune from stings, but the ordinary Lhota either smokes out the nest he wishes to take, or else kills all the occupants by taking a handful of the pounded skin of the chalmăgra fruit (hmhmti) and blowing the fumes into the hole. [95] Honey or the juice of the pounded leaves and bark of a certain tree (tsungnung) is often rubbed on the body as a protection against bee stings. A man who intends to take a bees’ or hornets’ nest must remain chaste the night before. Both the honey and grubs are eaten, and a species of large bee (tsakmen) which builds under overhanging rocks and branches makes good wax. The other principal species are a medium-sized bee (takrhi), a small bee with a negligible sting (ndhrontso) and a very small bee with a severe sting (lungtsak). Hornets’ nests, which are sought for for the fat, juicy grubs they contain, are not so easily taken. The nest of one species (tsaktsü) is underground and the tiny hole by which it is entered is hard to find. Anyone, therefore, who has a craving for tsaktsü grubs puts out a bit of bad meat as a bait and catches the first hornet which settles on it. He carefully extracts its sting and ties a bit of cotton-wool or a white feather to its legs and lets it go. Hampered by the feather, which can be seen from a good distance, it flies slowly towards home and can generally be followed if the jungle is not too thick. The nest once found a big fire is lighted over it at night when all the hornets have gone in and it is dug out. Another kind of hornet (chengkuku) with a red head and a fearful sting builds huge nests in the branches of trees. At night a fire is lighted underneath and burning straw held to the nest at the end of a bamboo. Any hornets which escape the burning straw drop into the fire and the nest can be safely taken.

Though Lhotas possess a wonderful sense of direction, it sometimes happens that a man out hunting loses his way in the jungle. Should this happen he cuts a stick and makes a few cuts in the bark to represent the pattern on a python’s skin. This stick he leaves on the ground and is then sure to be able to find his way without difficulty. The custom is connected with the belief that the python has a habit of leaving its saliva on leaves, and that anyone who touches one of these leaves by accident will go mad and lose his way. [96]

Fishing.

Lhotas are keen fishermen and expert swimmers. Fishing rights over any particular stretch of water are governed by custom, being held by the village or villages who exercised them in the past. The rights to “poison” in any particular pool are generally held jointly by two or more villages, while each village has the right to erect weirs in particular stretches of water. “Poisoning” is by far the most important method of fishing. Formerly the root of a small plant called notsü was much used. The juice of this kills every fish with which it comes in contact and its use has been prohibited by Government. The other so-called “poisons” only stupefy the fish. The commonest is the juice of a creeper (niro), which for some reason affects cat-fish (zyümo) even when it is too weak to stupefy other fish. On one occasion when the writer watched the fishing of a pool insufficient poison was used. Yet thirty-six huge cat-fish were caught, while the rest of the bag consisted of only about a dozen small fish. [97] Other “poisons” used are cheti (the berries of a tree with leaves rather like mahogany leaves: this poison is much used by the Aos, who call it arr), pitsü (a creeper with small leaves), opyak and achak (the bark of two species of trees), mwemti (little berries, chiefly used in small streams), and mozi (a creeper, weak and not much used). All the villages who have the right to “poison” in a certain pool agree to combine to do so on a certain day. On the night before the fishing is to take place sexual intercourse is forbidden, nor may anything be killed in the morning before going down to the water. The presence of women is absolutely forbidden when fishing is going on. Every man brings with him a bundle of creeper (assuming niro is being used). This is first thoroughly pounded on the bank to ensure that all the cells are broken. Trees are felled and placed on rough stone supports across the stream to serve as pounding benches for the final pounding, each village making its own line or lines of benches one above the other. As each bench is finished the men lay their half-pounded bundles of creeper on it. The braves then line up on the shore facing up stream, and all ho-ho together and brandish their daos. Then a rush is made for the benches and everyone pounds his bunch of creeper, dipping it in the water at intervals. All chant as they work, and the men on each line of benches pound more or less in time. Meanwhile old men are watching the pool below and a shout goes up when the first fish is seen to come floundering to the top. This is the signal for all to throw their bundles of creeper into the water and rush down to the pool. Some wait round the edge with long-handled landing nets, while others put a heavy stone into their “lengta” band and chase the fish at the bottom of the pool, slipping the stone out when they want to come to the top. The young bucks are like otters, and it is a common sight to see a man come up with a fish in his teeth and one in each hand. Cat-fish are great prizes. They are often heavier than a man and require all a man’s strength to drag to the top. Indeed it is by no means uncommon for a Lhota to struggle with one of these enormous fish at the bottom till he is exhausted and drowned. When anyone has landed a cat-fish he cuts it with his dao in such a way that he will be able to recognize it and claim his share when the catch is divided up. Small fish he strings on a slip of bamboo at his waist. Every man who lands a cat-fish gets a specially big cut from it, but the fish found in their stomachs are only eaten by old people. Otherwise the whole catch of a village is divided up among the members who came down to fish according to their age and importance. Whether they came down or not a share is given to the Puthi and anyone whose house has ever been “apotia.” [98]

Fish-traps are of various kinds. The most elaborate is that called osa, which is used on the Doyang and consists of a V-shaped bamboo weir pointing down-stream, with a long spout-like outlet, closed with stakes set closely together, and roofed at the end so that fish cannot jump out. The floor of the outlet is covered with bamboos laid lengthways, so that a fish once caught in the rush of water can get no grip to work up-stream, but is held by the current against the stakes at the bottom. Another type, also called osa, is used on smaller streams and consists of a semicircular weir of bamboo or piled-up stones, with gaps at intervals, each gap being blocked with a strong bamboo basket from which, if a fish is once swept in, it cannot escape against the stream. This kind of trap is particularly successful if otters fishing in the pool above drive the fish down, a curious parallel to the way in which Biscayan sardine fishers used to depend on porpoises to drive the shoals of sardines into their nets. A third type used on moderate-sized streams is called eyinga. This consists of a bamboo weir right across the river and another weir with a big opening in the middle about twenty yards lower down. Fish feeding their way up-stream in the evening pass through the gap, which is closed at night, shutting the fish in. A rough inner fence of bamboo is built along the lower weir, and the fish trying to jump over on their return down-stream are caught between the two fences. Fish weirs are in operation throughout the cold weather, till they are swept away by the first big flood. The task of building a weir is not one which can be entered upon without due precautions. For three days beforehand the builder must not speak to strangers and must refrain from sexual intercourse. On the last morning neither he nor any of the men who are to help him may kill anything, and the working party while engaged on their task may speak to each other but to no one else at all, whether of their own village or not. A man begins by helping his father, or one of his father’s friends, when he is a boy, and gradually grows up to be the owner or joint owner of a weir himself. Were a man who had never done so before to take it into his head to go down and build a fish-trap he would surely die. When he was sleeping near his trap at night the deity of the stream, the Water Master (Tchhüpfuo), would come along and look at the soles of his feet and see that they were not white like the soles of men who spend much time in the water. Then he would cause illness to come upon him so that he would die. In a few villages a small hand-trap (naching) is set in swampy pools for mud-fish. It consists of a small bamboo basket entered by an inverted funnel, so that a fish once in cannot find the way out. When the rivers are high fishing-rods (ngoko) made of bamboo are used, with a line made of twisted chütsung bark, the bark used for bow-strings. Hooks (mukhu) are either bought at a shop or made out of umbrella wire. It is unlucky to catch a kind of fish called süwo with the rod and line. Anyone who does so splits the fish in half lengthways and lays the two halves on the ground. He then goes home by a road other than the road by which he came. Were he to go home by the road he came he would meet and be killed by a tiger or leopard. This fish can be eaten without any precautions if it is caught in any other way. Where a stream is divided into two channels with an island in the middle, one channel is often blocked with a temporary weir and all the water diverted down the other. The fish in the blocked channel can then be caught by hand. When a stream is both cold and highly coloured the fish appear to lose their vitality and large numbers are caught by hand in holes and cracks. [99]

Food.

Rice is the staple food, but some relish, even if it be only jungle leaves boiled with chilies and salt, is always eaten with it. Meat is preferred if obtainable, but the Lhota will eat most things at a pinch. His diet includes the meat of all domestic animals and most wild animals and birds, fish, both fresh and dried, bee and hornet grubs, large spiders, a kind of beetle, white ants, cultivated plants and innumerable jungle leaves and berries. Certain things are forbidden, but villages near the plains are much less particular in this respect than those on the inner ranges. The general reason why certain animals and birds are not eaten is either that they are obviously unclean or because they are thought likely to impart their properties to the eater or to his children. Generally speaking old people can eat things which young people cannot, because it does not much matter what happens to them and in any case they will have no more children. Tigers and leopards are absolutely forbidden to all because they eat men. Leopard cats can be eaten by old people who no longer cultivate. Were a young man to eat it he would get poor crops. Wild dog if eaten causes a raging thirst. Phiyosao of Akuk ate only a little of the skin of one, but he had to leave the village school because he could never sit through a lesson without going out for a drink. Whoever eats or even kills an otter will never be able to get his fields to burn properly. [100] None but very old people may touch, much less eat, either the big or little flying squirrel (Petaurista yunnanensis and Pteromys aboniger). Anyone who does so will frequently be guilty of indecent behaviour with the opposite sex of his own clan. Several kinds of birds are forbidden. The Large Streaked Spiderhunter (Arachnothera magna) is only eaten by very old people “because it is such a very funny-looking bird, and has such a very long beak.” The local species of minivet (Pericrocotus brevirostris) is forbidden to all because the cocks are supposed to have got their scarlet markings from being splashed with human blood. The Velvet-fronted Blue Nuthatch (Sitta frontalis) goes about in little flocks and is such a confiding little bird that if one is killed the rest of the flock will wait near till they are killed too. Therefore if a man were to eat one, one death in his household would be followed by a series of deaths. A solitary old man or woman can, of course, eat this bird with impunity. The Whitecapped Redstart (Chimarrhornis leucocephalus) and Whiteheaded Babbler (Gampsorhynchus rufulus) are not eaten because they would cause the eater to become grey-headed. Parrots and crow-tits (Parodoxornis) are not eaten because of the shape of their beaks. The eater’s children would be everlastingly pinching their friends. Scimitar babblers (Pomatorhinus) if eaten would make the eater unable to remember his dreams and so deprive him of an important guide in life. The clan of anyone who ate a sun-bird (Æthopyga) would dwindle in numbers, for sun-birds used to be as big as fowls, but are now the smallest of all birds. Swiftlets and swallows are never still. The children of anyone who ate the flesh of these birds would be idle and always wanting to run about and play. The flesh of the Tree or House Sparrow is said to cause the itch. The Red-headed Trogon (Harpactes erythrocephalus) is not eaten because it is supposed to have got its brilliant colouring from human blood. Owlets (Scops) are not eaten owing to the extraordinary belief that they hatch their eggs by lying on their backs on them. The nightjar when disturbed only flies a short way and then settles on the ground again as if inviting one to follow. In this way it used to lead men on and on like a will-o’-the-wisp till they found themselves in an ambush and were killed. Therefore nightjars are not eaten. The Green Magpie (Cissa chinensis) is not eaten owing to a supposed habit of sitting on the bamboo erections built over graves. The loud laughing cry of the Himalayan White-crested Laughing Thrush (Garrulax leucolophas) is particularly sudden and startling. Were a man to eat its flesh he would become nervous in the jungle and would jump whenever a twig or a leaf dropped near him. The cry of the Long-tailed Broadbill (Psarisomus dalhousiæ) is a sign of rain, and whoever eats its flesh will always have bad weather when he goes to work in his fields. The hoopoe is such a curious bird that to eat it might mean disaster to the clan. Hawks are continually dropping excreta. Whoever ate one would spit continually. [101] The Rufous-bellied Hawk Eagle (Lophotriorchis kieneri) is forbidden to all but old people who expect to have no more children, for sores appear on the heads of the eater’s children. The two species of Racket-tailed Drongo (Dissemurus paradiseus and Bhringa remifer) are only eaten by old people, for as they have two very long conspicuous tail-feathers, so whoever ate their flesh would only have two children. The Indian Roller, commonly called the Blue Jay, is only eaten by old people, for the children of the eater would be as noisy as the bird itself. Ashy Swallow-Shrikes (Artamus fuscus) have a habit of sitting on branches in rows, each bird touching its neighbour. It is therefore eaten by none but very old people, for were any young man or woman to eat it he or she would never be able to sit alone, but would always want to go and sit cuddled up against one of the other sex, a habit full of possibilities of trouble. The flesh of the Great Indian Hornbill (Dichoceros bicornis) is absolutely forbidden to members of the Tompyaktserre phratry, and is very rarely eaten by members of other phratries. The bird has a croaking note, and were a man to whom its flesh is forbidden to eat it he would die of violent hiccoughs. Of reptiles the python is eaten by all in the villages near the plains, but elsewhere it is only eaten by old people. (Even villages near the plains never speak of it as “python” (ongam) when talking of it as an article of diet, but always call it by the politer name of sosiyo, “long meat.”) It is believed that black marks are liable to appear on the back of the eater, who will be semi-paralysed and only able to move his body slowly like a python. A Rephyim man called Lobenthang is supposed to have been affected in this way. Snakes other than the python are forbidden to all. Old women may eat the same things as old men, but there are a few kinds of meat which men may eat, but young and middle-aged women may not. These include serow, wild mithan, buffalo, bear, elephant, monkey, white-browed gibbon (“huluk”) and pangolin. Most of these are forbidden for no reason which is known now, [102] but gibbon is prohibited because these animals are supposed to have no more than a single young one once in nine years, and this peculiarity would assuredly pass to the eater. In some villages these prohibitions are only observed at the time of pregnancy.

Rice is invariably cooked separately from the meat or whatever is to be eaten with it. Meat and vegetables are boiled together with a lavish allowance of chilies and salt. Practically all food is boiled, though maize is roasted and eaten cold and plantains are roasted in their skins. A very favourite relish is bamboo pickle (dhrüchong) made of the hearts of young bamboo shoots pounded up with water and then dried, and boiled again when required. Though the Lhota prefers his food fresh he will eat both meat and fish which is pretty far gone. The flesh, entrails, blood and skin of an animal are eaten—in fact, practically everything except the hair. The men who went to France with the Naga Labour Corps thought our method of cleaning an animal and throwing away the offal most wasteful. Meat is stored by cutting it into small pieces and smoking it over the fire. In this way it will keep for a year.

Drink.

To deprive a Lhota of his “madhu” (soko) would be like depriving a British workman of both his beer and tea. The Lhota only drinks water if he can get nothing else. He drinks “madhu” both at meals and between meals. It is made as follows. Rice is boiled in the ordinary way and spread on a mat to cool. A cake of yeast (vamhe) is then broken up and well mixed with it, and the rice put to ferment in a basket lined with leaves. Next day the liquor begins to run off and is collected in a bamboo “chunga.” This is zutsü (Assamese “rohi”), the most potent form of “madhu.” When new it is the colour of rather greenish water. If kept it will remain good for five or six months, gradually increasing in strength and turning a pale sherry colour. It is this form of “madhu” which is always offered to guests of importance. In some villages of the Northern Lhotas the rice is not put into a basket to ferment, but into a vat, a hollow section of bamboo being placed upright in it to collect the zutsü, which is allowed to drain off for three days. The fermented rice from which the zutsü has been drained off is put into a “madhu-sieve” (cham) and hot or sometimes cold water is poured on to it. It is well kneaded, and the resulting brew is chemcho (Assamese “saka madhu”), the usual Lhota drink, and is of about the potency of light beer. Sometimes, especially among the Southern Lhotas, millet, giant millet or Job’s tears, or a mixture of maize and rice, is used instead of rice for making “madhu.” The yeast is made as follows. Rice is ground into flour and wetted and kneaded into dough. To this a little old yeast is added, and either the water from crushed phyushako bark, or from the crushed leaves of yimerhe or shingwo. The dough with this added is again well kneaded and divided into cakes about the size of penny buns. These dry of themselves and remain good for six or seven months.

The mild form of rice beer called in Assamese “pita madhu,” which is so popular among the Angamis, is hardly made by the Lhotas except at harvest. A little unhusked rice is kept damp until it sprouts, and is then dried. Husked rice is ground into flour and put into a vat with hot water. Next day when it has become cold the dried sprouted rice is ground up and mixed with a little yeast and added to the water. This ferments and is ready for drinking next day. It is drunk diluted with water and is called etha soko.

Medicine.

Illness is generally ascribed to evil spirits (tsandhramo) or the wandering of the patient’s soul (omon), who accordingly calls in a medicine man (ratsen) to extract from his body the bit of earth or wood or hair which the evil spirit put there, or causes a ceremony to be performed to call back his soul. A few medicines are, however, known. Fat pork is eaten as an aperient. For an emetic, chicken dung and rat dung are whipped up with water and the mixture is drunk—probably as effective an emetic as any known to science. For diarrhœa the remedies are roasted goat’s hoof or the gall of either cow or pig. For stomach-ache and intestinal worms an infusion of the bark of nshitong (Stereospernum chelonoides) is drunk. For indigestion and stomach troubles in general a little of the dried upper stomach of the porcupine is ground up and taken mixed with water, or a poultice of wild lemon leaves (tsoshü) or the crushed leaves of Maesa indica (tsandhrammozü, lit. “devil’s medicine”) is put over the affected part. For a cough the green pentagonal-shaped berries of the yenkuti tree are chewed, or a berry called riko is ground up and taken with “rohi madhu.” The yenkuti berry is also used as a tonic for weak children. Bat’s flesh is another tonic for children whose mothers cannot suckle them properly. For headache the leaf of the kizu tree (Bischoffia javanica) is laid on the forehead. For wounds the commonest remedy is a poultice of the ground-up bark of young shoots of the nungnung tree (Callicarpa arborea roxb., fam. Verbenaceæ). This has the effect of stopping bleeding. The mashed-up leaves of the pontengcho tree have the same effect. A bush called temphak (Rhus semialata) provides two medicines. The juice of the berries is a cure for stomach-ache, and a cooling lotion for use in cases of chicken pox and smallpox is prepared from the pounded leaves. The gall of the python is said to cure fever and intestinal troubles. A lotion made from Taraktogenos kurzii (hmhmti) bark is used to disinfect wounds. If maggots get into a wound in an animal a mash of pounded giant woodlouse (sharhi) is applied. Soot (live) is applied for skin diseases. For burns the ash of the leaves of the woropentung tree is applied. For dog-bite a whisker of the dog which bit the man is singed and put on the wound. Another example of the “hair of the dog” is the practice of drinking very hot “rohi madhu” as a remedy for drunkenness. To bring a boil to a head a little yeast (vamhe) is damped and rubbed over it. When ready it is lanced with a sharp splinter of bamboo. To get rid of warts a black-and-yellow beetle called potso tsiro (“god’s mithan”) is crushed on them. This causes them to fester and disappear. Goître is not common except in Are. When it occurs it is regarded as being due to drinking water from a spring near which plants with bulbous roots grow. The only known remedy is to run a red-hot umbrella wire through the goître, but this heroic measure is rarely employed. Most sufferers prefer the disease to the cure. For soreness of the eyes the leaves of the mongsentung are crushed up and held to the face so that the fumes reach the eye. For a sprain of any kind the great remedy is to draw blood. In the case of slight sprains the affected place is scratched and made to bleed and a leech put on to suck. For more serious sprains or contusions the swelling is cupped. The instrument used is a serow horn. The base is smoothed down so that it will lie closely against the skin, and a small hole is bored near the tip of the horn, round which a thin, slightly withered leaf is wrapped. The skin is pricked with a splinter of bamboo and the horn being placed in position the blood is sucked up into it by the hole near the top. The thin leaf allows the air to be sucked from the interior of the horn, but acts as an efficient valve when the operator stops to take breath. This method of cupping is used for sprains, bruises and dropsy, in fact in any case where it is desired to reduce a swelling. In cases of snake-bite the limb affected is first tightly bound above the bite. An infusion of the bark of a tree called nungatsung is rubbed on the legs as a protection against leech-bites.

Drugs.

Home-grown tobacco is cured by drying the leaves in the sun for three or four days. They are then stamped and rolled with the feet and again dried. The result is a coarse-smoking tobacco, very hot to the tongue and difficult to keep alight. Hence the popularity of cheap cigarettes among boys nowadays. The short pipe (tsintsanmukukhu) is simply a short section of bamboo with a small bamboo tube stuck in the side of it, a few lines being sometimes scratched on the bowl by way of ornamentation. The big pipe (murimukukhu) is a more elaborate affair, with a bowl cut out of soft black stone and set in a wooden base forming one piece with the stem, which is bored with a hot iron and ends in a small bamboo mouth-piece. From the bowl a small bamboo tube some four inches long runs down through the wooden base into a section of bamboo about five inches long. This is detachable and is kept full of water when the pipe is in action. All the smoke is drawn through the water, which becomes nothing but very dirty diluted nicotine. This foul liquid is carefully kept and sipped now and again as a pick-me-up. If he does not take his big pipe with him when he goes down to his fields a man will often take a little gourd of this stuff. Though they are in such close touch with the plains, opium eating is unknown in Lhota villages, a great contrast with the Aos and Konyaks. Betel nut is chewed with “pan” and lime in the villages near the plains. Lime used to be made locally from the ground-up shells of freshwater snails, but is now bought in the plains.

A remarkable number of suicides by poisoning take place among the Lhotas. For this the root of a common flowering plant called rhisa is used. This poison has a very strong taste and cannot be given to another man without his knowledge. Mixed with boiled rice it is used as rat poison. Tradition has it that men of standing used to be poisoned by their enemies through the agency of old women and children, and a man once told the writer that he was nearly poisoned in that way. But no authentic case of murder by poisoning appears ever to have been known. [103]

Games.

Wrestling and running are not much indulged in, but both high jump (untsongeyen) and long jump (eyenda) are popular. For the former the competitors run straight at the jump and clear it with their feet together, the “scissor” style of jumping being unknown. A good jumper can clear a reed the height of his own chin. For the long jump a flat stone is put in position to take off from, and the mark which counts is that made by the jumper’s feet in landing, whether he falls backwards or not. For the “jump-and-kick” (nshü) the jumper makes a standing jump and while in the air kicks with both feet together at some mark such as a leaf stuck on the end of an upright spear. It is quite common for a man to be able to kick a mark as high above his head as he can reach with his hand. A variety of this (choanshü) is one in which the jumper takes a standing jump from one leg and kicks the mark with the foot from which he jumped—a most difficult feat. Putting the weight (olungeyen) is done either with one hand in the English manner or with both hands from above the head.

A game called khurocho in which sides are taken is played with seeds like big flat chestnuts obtained from the large bean-like pods of the sword bean (khuro). These seeds are also the Lhota substitute for soap. The game is played at sowing time on coming back to the village in the evening. There are generally three or four players a side, though there may be as many as seven or eight. A number of seeds equal to the number of players on each side are set up on edge in a row with their edges touching. About three yards from them and parallel to them a line called epfu [104] is scratched on the ground. A yard behind epfu another line called esi is marked, and behind that at intervals of a yard two more lines called sichemo and sikao. Each side has an innings in turn, while the other side puts back the seeds which are knocked out of place. Each member of the side which is in throws at the line in turn with another seed and tries to knock away every seed in the line. The first throws from epfu, and if some member succeeds in knocking away all the seeds in the line, the side moves back to esi and throws from there, and so on to sikao, from which it works back to sichemo, esi and epfu and begins again, till it happens that no one in the side succeeds in knocking away all the seeds, when the side is out and the other side comes in. A seed is not counted as knocked out unless it is knocked at least a cubit from the line of seeds. The thrower may stride forward as far as he likes provided his back foot is on the line from which his side is throwing. This game appears to resemble that known among the Manipuris as kang. [105]

A game also called khurocho, but entirely different though the same seeds are used, is played in Yimpang and seems to be peculiar to that village. [106] The players are usually two a side. The seeds are laid in pairs one on the top of another in two converging lines meeting in an apex about two yards from the mark at which the spinner squats. The player holds a seed in the palm of his left hand and with a flick of his right forefinger spins it at the lines of seeds. The object is to knock as many of the top seeds off as possible. If a bottom seed of a pair is knocked out of place it counts as a miss. One side uses one line and the other the other for scoring their points, which is done with a bit of wood laid between the pairs to mark the number of top seeds knocked off by that side. It does not matter from which line they are knocked off, though the spinner must hit one or both of the two pairs nearest him, and not break the line in the middle. Whichever side is able to move its mark up from the bottom to the top of a line first wins.

Tops (phiro) shaped like double cones are made of hard wood. The string is wound round one cone and the end held in the fingers. The top is then thrown either underhand or overhand and the string jerked back while it is still in the air. The object is to knock over someone else’s top which is already spinning. Tops are spun at and just after sowing time. The Changs attach some special significance to top-spinning. All indulge in the sport at and just after sowing, but a man who spins a top at any other time is fined by his fellow-villagers. Lhotas inflict no fine, but the custom is that tops should be spun only at the time mentioned. Another game, if game it can be called, is a competition to see who can eat most fat pork and salt. Toys are unknown, though little boys carry miniature bamboo spears in imitation of their fathers, and little girls carry sticks or stones wrapped in a cloth on their backs as mother carries the baby. Notches are often cut on the edges of the beds in the champo, and little boys play a game (ekhirandhapen) in which they say, “bom, bom,” as they touch each notch, beginning at the end of the line, the object being to see how far you can get without taking a fresh breath.

Music.

Besides songs, of which some account has been given in the section on language, the operations of reaping, threshing and carrying up the crop are accompanied by simple wordless chants. Only the proper chant which tradition sanctions may be sung. Were a man to use the wrong one, the reaping chant while threshing, for instance, the listening spirits of the fields (Rangsi) would be displeased and refuse him their blessings.

Three varieties of musical instrument are used. Of these the simplest is the trumpet (phupphu), consisting merely of a bamboo tube about sixteen inches long, from which a bellowing noise can be produced. A more elaborate type of phupphu has a tube about four and a half feet long of light wood from which the pith has been removed, terminating in a trumpet-shaped piece of gourd. The Lhota has an accurate ear for music, and with this he can give wonderful imitations of bugle calls. But the instrument upon which he is most expert is the flute (philili or phiphili). This consists of a thin bamboo tube about forty inches long, open at both ends, with a small square mouthpiece cut about two inches from the thick end. [107] The player either sits down or lies on his back, with his right wrist resting on the ground. With the palm or one of the fingers of his left hand he stops up the broad end, and using the mouthpiece like that of a flute, produces a rather pleasing tootling tune by opening or closing the small end with the middle finger of his right hand. This instrument is a favourite one with young bucks, who lie on their backs in the “morung” and tootle the names of their lady-loves in simple tunes. In every village a particular combination of notes represents the name of each fair one, and strange though it may seem, no one listening ever seems to have any doubt as to what lady’s fame is being celebrated.

Daily Life.

The family get up before dawn, the wife being the first to blow up the fire, set the pot on to boil and open the door. After a meal all go down to the fields, taking with them “madhu,” cold rice and some cooked meat or vegetables. This the family eat while they take a short rest in the middle of the day in the field-house. The evening meal is eaten when they come back from the fields. After that it is soon time for bed. When the harvest is in there is less work, and men go away on short trading tours, or make up hunting parties, while the women stay at home and weave and gossip.