Drawing by J. H. Hutton.] [To face p. 16.
Types of obsolete daos (Yanthang)
Daos are carried in a wooden holder (lechap). This, like that of the Aos and Semas, consists of a solid block of wood some eight inches long by two and a half inches broad, pierced from top to bottom by a slit about six inches long and broad enough to admit the blade, but too narrow to let the handle slip through. The holder is carried at the back attached to a loose belt (lechapsü), which may be either dark blue or white, and in the case of a man who has done the head-taking “genna” is embroidered with red.[20] The dao, of course, hangs blade down, but whereas all other tribes carry their daos with edge to the left, the Lhota carries his with the edge to the right.
Next in importance is the spear (otso), which is always thrown, and never used for thrusting, the extreme effective range being about thirty yards. The length of the whole weapon is usually about six feet or rather more. The favourite wood for the shaft is “nahor” (mesna ferrea), but palm and other woods are also used. The shaft is [[17]]tightly fitted into a socket in the head without binding of any kind, and terminates in a sharp, socketed butt. No counterpoise is used. Occasionally spears are made of one piece of iron—head, shaft and butt. These are especially useful in tiger hunting, where the animal is liable to bite off the shaft of any spear that wounds him. Among the Northern Lhotas the blades are usually of the elongated lozenge type. They are both bought from the Aos and made locally. The Southern Lhotas usually buy Rengma-made blades of the Angami type, which are leaf-shaped with two short flanges at right-angles to the mid-rib. The average length of the blade is about ten inches, but on some ceremonial spears they may be seen up to two feet in length. A big blade with long barbs such as Angamis sometimes carry (noringtso) is occasionally used in Moilang and the neighbouring villages. There are several kinds of decorated shaft. That of the ceremonial spear (phui) carried by religious officials, such as the Puthi and Wokchungs, is covered throughout almost the whole of its length with long black goat’s hair. The doing of the head-taking “genna” entitles a man to carry a spear the shaft of which is ornamented with scarlet goat’s hair, bound on with string and then clipped short till it resembles very coarse velvet. If he has also been in at the death of a tiger there will be one or two narrow bands of black hair inserted in the scarlet. None of these red shafts are of Lhota manufacture. The northern section of the tribe buy theirs from the Aos, who in turn get them from the Changs. One type, called kamang, is only covered with red pile for about a foot of its length from the top. In the other type (chovemo) a space for the hand separates two long pieces of pile, the bottom one of which terminates in a deep fringe of red hair. The Rengmas supply the Southern Lhotas with their red shafts. One type, called tandhro, resembles kamang; another type is very like chovemo, but has no fringe and is called rophutung.
The cross-bow (olo) is still used for shooting birds and monkeys. The stock, made of hard wood, is about twenty-seven inches long, with a groove to keep the arrow in place. [[18]]When strung the string, which is of twisted tchhütsang bark, catches in a piece of notched bone inserted in the stock near the butt. Underneath is a trigger, which on being pulled tips the string forward and releases it. The bow itself, which is about five feet long and tapered off at the ends, is usually made of bamboo. To be strung the bow has to be held on the ground with the foot with the stock pointing upwards, and the string pulled up to the notch with both hands. An arrow (lotsi) is then placed in the groove. The arrows are merely pointed slips of bamboo about a foot and a half long, with a little bit of “hair-brush palm” (shawo) or bamboo leaf-sheath fixed in a slit at the end as a feather. They are carried in a small bamboo quiver (lotsiphu). The weapon is amazingly effective up to about eighty yards. Poison is never used.
In the old days shields (otsung) were always carried in war and are still used at tiger and leopard hunts. Usually they are of strong bamboo twilled pattern matting, but hide shields (tsungkuk) are also used. Sometimes a piece of buffalo skin is simply cut to the right shape and dried in the sun, and sometimes a piece of bear skin is stretched over a bamboo matting foundation. Shields are of two types. Those of the Northern Lhotas are about four and a half feet long and twenty inches broad, with a rounded top and parallel sides. Those of the Southern Lhotas are of about the same length, but have a square top and are only some fourteen inches across at the bottom, broadening out to twenty inches at the top. In battle shields were always carried held well away from the body, for though they were not tough enough to turn a spear thrown directly at them, they would check any spear which pierced them sufficiently to prevent it reaching the body.
Stout cane war-helmets (kiven), about six inches high in the crown, are still worn by the Southern Lhotas as a protection for the head at tiger hunts, and also at dances, when they are often ornamented with serow horns. Among the Northern Lhotas only a very few now exist, and these, gorgeously ornamented, are only worn by Puthis and very senior warriors at the dance connected with the building [[19]]of a new “morung.” They are covered with a coarse cloth made of scarlet dog’s hair, with long strings of the same material hanging down behind. On the covering are sown pairs of boar’s tushes, each pair forming a circle, while two long flat pieces of wild mithan horn, shaved down to the thickness of cardboard, fixed one on each side complete the effect.