Formal friendships are of great importance. Two men become friends (okam) by exchanging gifts, consisting of half a pig, and a spear or dao or some such present, a piece of iron invariably forming part of the gift. It is usual for the sons of “friends” to become friends in turn. A man will often possess friends of this kind belonging to different villages, and frequently to a different tribe. When travelling a man will stay in his okam’s house in each village he reaches. He in turn will entertain any of his okams who come to his village. A man may not kill his okam even if he belongs to a hostile village. Should he happen to kill him in battle with a spear thrown at a venture he will not take his head. Even if no gifts be exchanged, two men of the same name regard one another as okams. I have known a man go out of his way to entertain a stranger whom he had never met before because he bore the same name as his dead son.
War and Head-hunting.
By putting a stop to head-hunting the British Government has profoundly changed the mode of life of all the tribes in the administered area of the Naga Hills. In the old days war was the normal and peace the exceptional state of affairs. War between Lhota villages was rare, and it was absolutely forbidden for one Lhota to take another Lhota’s head.[10] But unless peace had been definitely arranged, any village of another tribe was regarded as hostile and fair game. This never-ending state of war affected every man, woman and child in their daily lives. In the morning a band of young men fully armed scouted round the village and had to [[105]]report no enemy lying in wait near before any women and children were allowed to leave the protection of the village fence. All went down to the fields for the day’s work in a compact body, the men fully armed, leaving behind the small children and old men and women in the village with a guard. Careful watch, too, had to be kept while work was going on in the fields, for a favourite method of attack was to rush isolated family parties while they were weeding or cutting the jungle. Like all Nagas the Lhota was very keen to take heads, but preferred to do so with the minimum of risk to himself. A strong, forewarned enemy was rarely attacked. Usually a party of raiders would either lie in ambush by the village spring, and kill a woman as she came down to take water, or rush an unsuspecting party working in their fields, or cut off a straggler on some path. If a whole village turned out to destroy another village a surprise attack at dawn was generally attempted. Once the defenders had a few casualties or found the enemy were through their fence they generally turned tail and fled in a wild rout out at the other end of the village, leaving the wounded and aged to the tender mercies of the raiders. Similarly, an attack was rarely pressed home against a stout defence, and once the attackers began to make for home the defenders followed them, cutting off stragglers. Though heads were not taken, prisoners were captured in affrays between Lhota villages, and were kept in the “morung” in a sort of stocks consisting of a heavy log cut to receive a man’s ankle, with a bar of “nahor” wood to keep the foot from being withdrawn.[11] These prisoners had to be well fed and looked after till they were ransomed by their friends. Akuk once, having captured a rich man from Pangti, had to send a message to his relations asking that he might be ransomed without further delay, as he drank so much that the village was beginning to run short of “madhu.” Lhotas took the heads of men, women and children indiscriminately, except those of infants who had not yet cut their teeth. These were merely killed, for a head without teeth did not [[106]]count in a warrior’s toll of heads, and so was not worth cutting off. A woman’s head, however, was regarded as a finer trophy than a man’s, for women were likely to be carefully guarded. Ordinarily, from each of the slain, the head, toes and fingers were taken. But if the enemy were pressing close and there was no time to take the head, an ear only would do as well. A Lhota[12] who died recently much desired when he was young to marry a certain Phiro girl. The minx said she would only accept him if he would take the head of a Rengma girl and show it to her as a proof of his valour. This put the ardent lover in a quandary, for, with the British established at Kohima and Wokha, it appeared that he must either lose his well-beloved or take a head and get into serious trouble. But a brilliant idea struck him. He caught an unfortunate Rengma girl, cut off her ears without killing her, and after giving this proof of his valour and devotion, triumphantly married the Phiro girl.
When a raid had been decided upon, those who were to take part in it, having slept apart from their wives the night before, assembled in the morning at the ekyung’s house. There a cock and a pig were killed and a meal eaten. If the cock squawked when its throat was being cut it was regarded as a bad omen and the expedition was usually put off. Similarly, anyone who hiccoughed when he was eating the pork stayed behind, for if he went misfortune would befall him. The credit for every head taken was shared equally by the men who got in first, second and third spear, called respectively Lingta, Ethung and Kiwen. It did not matter who actually cut off the head. The head, fingers and toes were brought home wrapped in a cloth. When the party got within earshot of their own village they began to chant “O Shamashari!” (“O we have killed an enemy!”). The hearing of this in the distance was the signal for wild excitement and uproar in the village. All streamed out to meet the returning heroes and see the trophies, replying to each [[107]]chant of “O Shamashari!” with “O Imaiyali!” (“O we are glad[13]”). From each head a few hairs were taken and put in a cleft stick which was set up outside the village gate. The meaning of this is obscure. Lhotas call it orrülama, deriving the word from orrü (“enemy”) and lama (“warm”), and say that it means “warming the earth with an enemy’s head,” so that the crops will grow and the village increase and multiply. The term may be compared with humtselama (post-warmer), the piece of the scalp which used to be nailed to the post of a new “morung.”[14] The writer has made careful inquiries and can find no trace of any definite belief that the spirits of dead enemies were in this way made to act as guards of the village gate, though in some vague way they were believed to help the village. When the heads were being brought in, anyone who wished to do so and proposed to perform the proper ceremonies afterwards could touch them with his spear and thereby share in the credit of the raid. The procession of warriors went round the village, and halting in front of the house of each man who had taken part in the expedition sang for a few minutes. Then all the men went to the “morung,” where the old men brought them food and “madhu,” and sat and listened to their account of their exploits. Every man who had taken a head or jabbed his spear into one had to pour a little “madhu” on the ground and throw away a little rice before he could eat or drink anything. This was an offering to the spirits of the slain enemies. It was believed that if this was not done the “madhu chunga” and food would be knocked [[108]]out of his hand by a blow from an invisible spirit. One man assured the writer that this did actually happen to him once when he forgot to make the necessary small offering. If there was time that day the heads were hung up at once on the mingetung. If not they were left in the “morung” till morning. Preparatory to hanging them up the man who had taken most heads in the village pushed a sharp piece of wood through each head from one ear to the other, so that a piece of wood about six inches long stuck out on each side of it. A man’s head was ornamented with the big cotton wool ear pads which are worn with full dancing dress. A long bamboo with a cane string ornamented with cane leaves on the end was leant against the branches of mingetung, and the head tied by the piece of wood running through it to the string, so that it hung about six feet from the ground. Anyone could assist at this. The fingers and toes were enclosed in bamboo basket balls and hung up like heads.[15] Everyone who had jabbed the head or any part of the corpse could have a basket ball hung up as if he had taken a head. That day all who had taken heads or jabbed a corpse killed a cock. They had to sleep apart from their wives for six nights, and were forbidden to eat meat from a tiger’s kill. Further, a woman had to remain chaste while her husband was away on a raid.[16] Any breach of this rule, it was believed, would cause her husband to be killed by the enemy. She was also forbidden to weave lest her husband’s foot should become entangled in jungle creepers and he should be caught and killed. The blood was not wiped off daos and spears till the day after the warriors had returned.
Mingetung
Showing bamboo balls containing pieces of enemies’ heads and fence set up at the oyantsoa “genna.”
[To face p. 108.