A characteristic ornament is a large silver tube inserted into the lobe of the ear, which is much distended thereby; this is called kadèngchinrō, and weighs three or four rupees. The ordinary hanging earring (suspended from the outer part of the ear) of gold or silver is called no-rīk. Necklaces (lèk) are worn, of gold or silver and coral beads, as by the Khasis. Rings (ārnàn) and bracelets (roi), of gold and silver, are worn. The feathers of the bhīm-rāj are worn in the turban on festal occasions, as among the Khasis.
The national weapons are the long knife (nòk, nòk-jir), by the English commonly called by the Hindi name dāo, the spear (chir), and the bow (thai, bòp-thailī) made of bamboo, with a string of tough bamboo fibre. In these there is nothing peculiar.
MIKIR GIRL.
p. 6
[1] This is the official spelling. The real name is Kalā-jwar, pronounced Kŏlā-jŏr (or zŏr), which means “black fever.” [↑]
[2] It has been asserted that Ārlèng means properly only a Mikir man, not a man in general, who would be called monīt or munīt. This, however, is opposed to usage as exemplified in the folk-tales collected by Mr. Stack, and to well-established parallels found elsewhere. Thus, in Assam, Māndē (= man) is the national name of the Gāros; Chingphō (= man) is the tribal name of the race so called in the Upper Dehing valley; Boṛo (= man) is the proper designation of the Kachāri race. So, in Chutia Nāgpur, the Mundā people of Rānchi call themselves Hoṛo (= man). Similar cases are found all over the world. In Europe, for example, the name Deutsch for the Germanic race indicates that their ancestors spoke of themselves as “the people” (diot, diota), ignoring the other members of humankind. Munīt is a very recent loan-word from Assamese, and nowhere occurs in the tales. [↑]