The Mikirs have never been a warlike race, nor are there any traditions of inter-village feuds. Head-hunting has not been practised, but the tribe have often been the victim of raids for this purpose by their neighbours, the Angami Nagas. There are said to have formerly been vendettas between families.
GROUP OF MIKIRS (NORTH CACHAR).
(2)
p. 23
During the Burmese wars in the early part of the last century, the tribe deserted its settlements in the submontane tract, and fled into the higher hills. Many Assamese are reported to have taken refuge with them during this time, and to have become Mikirs. [Mr. Dundas also mentions that in North Cachar outsiders are admitted into the tribe and are enrolled as members of one of the kurs, after purification by one of the Bē-kuru kur (Mr. Stack’s Bē and Krō, sub-kurs of Teràng). In the group opposite, taken from a photograph supplied by Mr. Dundas, the short man is evidently a Khasi, while the man to his left appears to be an Assamese.]
The Mikirs call their Kachārī neighbours Pāròk, the Mikir pronunciation of Bŏrŏ (in the allied dialect of Tipperah boròk means “man”); the Assamese are Āhòm, the Bengalis Bòngnai (Bòngnai-ādin, “British rule”), the Nagas Nākā. The Khasis generally are called Chomàng, the border race of Khasis, adjoining the Kopili or Kupli river, being Chomàng-Kēchē. Kēchē is, no doubt, equivalent to Khāsī, the vowel-change being the same as in Rēchō for Rājā.
APPENDIX.
1. The kurs or exogamous groups of the Mikir race are thus given in the Assam Census Report for 1891 (vol. iii. pp. cii.–ciii):—