[22] There are two distinct types of Naga dog—one with a short and hard coat, sometimes red, but usually black with white chest and often with white paws and collar or a white splash on the back of the neck; the other long-haired and either black or red, though sometimes all white or white with a few black blotches. The long-haired type, like the other, has a good nose, but its coat is too thick for it to be able to hunt game for long.—J. H. H. [↑]
[23] It is probably also thought that the preservation of the shell aids the preservation of the chicken during its infancy.—J. H. H. [↑]
[24] Corresponds to the Angami Tsikeo.—J. H. H. [↑]
[25] By the Semas, at any rate, something, if only a scrap, must be given by the owner of the dogs to the dogs themselves. Cf. S. C. Roy, The Oraons of Nagpur, p. 157.—J. H. H. [↑]
[26] In some villages of the Northern Lhotas the curse is removed by cutting off the head, not the paws. [↑]
[27] Cf. T. C. Hodson, Naga Tribes of Manipur, p. 57. [↑]
[28] This fruit, thrice cooked, is used as food by the Konyaks and pronounced very good—“like ghi.” Cooked once only, it is used by them as a rat poison.—J. H. H. [↑]
[29] A Chang who loses his way cuts off a bit of his hair and sticks it in a cleft stick or the fork of a tree, no doubt as a substitute for his own person. After which the python lets him go and he finds his way home. A Sema under similar circumstances offers a bit of the fringe of his cloth.—J. H. H. [↑]
[30] My experience of fish “poisoning” by Lhotas is that the discipline of the leaders over the younger men beating the “poison” into the river is so poor that the invariable result is that almost the only fish taken are a few labeo, a bottom-feeding fish more susceptible to poison than mahseer, and any cat-fish (Bagarius yarrellii or Silundia gangetica or some similar Siluroid) that there may be in the river. Ultimately I came to the conclusion that, as far as game-fish at any rate were concerned, poisoning by niro did more good than harm, as it cleared out the predatory fish while scarcely affecting the mahseer and its kin. I found later that Mr. Soppitt’s experiences among the Kacharis in the North Cachar Hills had led him to precisely the same conclusion (see C. A. Soppitt, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Kachari Tribes in the North Cachar Hills, Shillong, 1885. Reprinted with an introduction by E. C. Stuart Baker, 1901, pp. 51, 52).—J. H. H. [↑]