[23] The story of people created with their noses upside-down so that they could not go out in the rain, because it ran off their foreheads down their nostrils, is not the sort of story that one would expect to occur spontaneously to different peoples in different parts of the world. It is reported from the Bila-an in the Philippines (Frazer, Folk-lore in the Old Testament, Vol. I. p. 16) and is found in the Naga Hills among both Changs and Semas. The Angamis have the story in which the Semas and Changs introduce the incident, but do not, apparently, relate this particular tradition. [↑]
[24] Stone hoes (or axes), both roughly shouldered and with very carefully squared shoulders, are to be found in various parts of the Naga Hills, and are regarded as thunderbolts. [↑]
[25] The Lhotas are to some extent an exception. They know and use the cross-bow, though their Ao, Rengma, Angami and even Sema neighbours do not. North of the Brahmaputra both the long-bow and cross-bow are in use, and one tribe uses the former for shooting fish, special long arrows being used for that purpose. [↑]
[26] The Wa of Burma make drums of this sort (U. B. and S. S. Gazetteer, I. i. p. 502). [↑]
[27] Upper Burma and Shan States Gazetteer, I. i. p. 535. [↑]
[28] Playfair, The Garos, p. 34. So too the Lynngam and Bhois (Gurdon, The Khasis, p. 40). [↑]
[29] The Konyaks also have the custom of blackening their teeth like the Brè Karens of Burma (U. B. and S. S. Gazetteer, I. i. p. 534). [↑]
[30] Phoms and some Konyaks put up a single erect stone with flat stones round it as a place for the exposure of enemy heads in front of the clan “morung.” [↑]
[31] The reason given is that this kindred has never been allowed to carry the village oha (sacred stones) at the time of migration, or indeed to touch them at any time.
The Khawlthang sept of the Haokip clan of Thado Kukis also uses Y-shaped posts (vide Col. Shakespear’s Lushei-Kuki Clans, p. 65).