The Lhota Nagas

by J. P. Mills

In addition to these immigrants we have (4) still another element in the Kol-Mon-Annam occupation which almost certainly extended over part of the area now inhabited by Naga tribes.[11] [[xviii]]

There is evidence to support a contention that traces of all these race movements are to be found in the culture and composition of the tribes now occupying the Naga Hills and known collectively as “Nagas.”

First of all we have the Naga traditions of origin themselves, indicating, as one would expect to find, almost all the points of the compass. From Tamlu northwards there are the various Konyak tribes, whose traditions of origin at least include an ascription of their origin to the hills to the north and to migration from the plains in the west or north-west as well, though others, perhaps with Singpho affinities, reached their present country from the north-east, while one or two Konyak villages, indistinguishable from the Konyaks generally in culture, claim an origin from the country to the south of them at present occupied by Aos. Like the Konyaks, the Aos claim a part origin from the plains to the north-west, though the bulk of the tribe claims an autochthonous source at Chongliemdi.[12] The Khoirao again, or some of them, for the Khoirao Naga villages are hardly uniform enough to be described as forming a tribe, claim a western origin from the plains of Assam, and this in particular is the case with Ngari and perhaps one or two neighbouring villages, who have been less affected by Memi Angami culture than the others, and of whose connection with the Semas there can be no doubt. The Semas trace their origin to the south, and may certainly be connected through the two villages called “Swemi” (one of which is still Sema though surrounded by Angamis) with the Khoiraos of Ngari and so with a western origin;[13] while a connection [[xix]]is to be traced between the Sema with this western origin, and the Kacharis, Garos, Lynngams and Bhois. The same probably applies to the Kezami-Angamis, though the infusion of Angami blood and culture has swamped the Sema characteristics. It is to be noted that Grierson classes the Khoirao language as Naga-Bodo, and Kacharis, while allowing Nagas, or at any rate Kacha Nagas, to eat and sleep in the porches of their houses, refuse to allow Kukis inside them at all, giving as their reason for this that the Kacharis and the Nagas were originally descended from two brothers, whereas the Kuki is an alien entirely. Possibly there may also be some connection between certain elements of these Bodo tribes and the Manö and Southern Brè tribes of the Karens in Burma. At the same time the Semas have absorbed numerous villages of Sangtams who trace their origin to the south or south-east, the Southern Sangtams putting it ultimately in Burma.

From the north-east or east, as has been mentioned, some of the Konyaks derive their origin. The Kalyo-Kengyu tribe, with perhaps Singpho affinities, trace their origin to the north in so far as can be ascertained from the two or three villages on the Ti-Ho river with which we are at present in contact. The Sangtam claim to a south-eastern origin has been mentioned. The Northern Sangtams merely point to the south, but the Southern Sangtams derive their origin from the Chindwin valley to the south-east of them, and have a vague tradition that their tribe has become separated into two parts of which one went apparently west, while remnants are believed to exist in the Chindwin valley still. It seems likely that the part of the tribe that went westwards may be represented to-day in the Lhota tribe, who have a similar if more definite tradition about the splitting of their tribe into two parts, of which one stayed behind at the time of migration. The Tamans, again, located round Tamanthi in the Chindwin valley were at one time located in the hills to the east of them and returned to the valley, leaving some of their fellow-tribesmen behind in the hills, and might possibly be [[xx]]connected with those same Southern Sangtams. In any case they trace their origin to China across the Irawadi valley, and the descendants of part of their tribe are presumably still somewhere represented among the Naga tribes.

Of tribes with a southern origin, the Angami is the principal if not the only representative, though here again we find strong indications of a mixed origin. To their present site they came from the south-east, having come into their present country from the Tangkhul country to the south of them, but unmistakable traces of terraced cultivation have been found far to the south in the Lushai Hills, and it is possible that the immigrants, who brought in this method of agriculture so peculiarly the attribute of the Angami and, though in a less perfect form, of their Tangkhul neighbours, came from further south still. While a spirit in the sky is regarded by Angamis as the ancestress of them all, one legend of their origin, a legend apparently of the Kepepfüma division of the tribe, derives the Memi Angamis from the daughter of a local god at Mekrima (Maikel) impregnated by a cloud that came out of the south, and while a common Angami tradition points to a village, in the Tangkhul country, known to them as Piwhema, as the remotest place known to have been a fount of the Angami tribe, a commoner legend still traces the two divisions of the Angami tribe, the Kepezoma and the Kepepfüma, to two brothers who emerged from the bowels of the earth at Mekrima just as the ancestors of the Ao tribe emerged at “Six-Stones” on Chongliemdi Hill. In Kohima itself, however, the biggest Angami village, one important clan, the Puchatsuma, came from the west like the Khoiraos, while another clan claims to have come from the south-west where the present country of the Kacha Nagas is. Part of the Chang tribe again claims an origin from the south, though part admits to a common origin with the Aos from Chongliemdi, perhaps due to the Ao blood incorporated with the Changs in the course of their extension westwards. They would seem also to have Konyak, Kachin, or Singpho affinities in some respects. But the Changs have a very [[xxi]]clear and definite tradition of a complete change in their language, habits, dress and everything else having taken place a few generations ago.

Their immediate origin several tribes place in the south. The Rengmas thus migrated from the Kezami-Angami country, throwing out the Naked Rengmas eastwards to Melomi, and ultimately sending the bigger portion of the tribe westwards to the Mikir Hills. Tangkhuls point to the south or to the east, Lhotas to the south with Rengmas and Angamis, though there is one element in the Lhota country that points very definitely to the snows of the Himalayas seen far to the north-west as the home of their ancestors. All Naga tribes also have legends of clans descended from indigenous women out of caves or wild men caught in the jungle and tamed, whose descendants are now no longer distinguishable except by this tradition from the rest of the tribe. Thus there are many Lhota clans usually described as descended from jungle “spirits”[14] captured by men of their tribe; the Phoms have a clan descended from a woman with a child who emerged from a cave when they occupied the country; the Angamis of Kohima have a clan descended from a far-distant ancestor “of the wood-cutting generation” who was caught in the forest and tamed by one of the earliest Angami occupants of Kohima village.

Again, just as each tribe, almost, contains traditions which cannot be reconciled with a homogeneous origin, so marked differences of type and physique are everywhere traceable, not only as between different tribes, where they are in some cases most pronounced, but as between individuals in the same tribe. Of course within the tribe each village tends to form its own type, and after some experience of any tribe it is possible to locate with some accuracy the villages of persons met by the shape and appearance of their faces, but beyond this the physical types are different. The Angami is tall and well proportioned, the Tengima and Memi sub-tribes in particular having straight eyes and a [[xxii]]nose sometimes even aquiline,[15] but in any case features that are far more regular than the very Mongolian-looking Sema, whose tendency is most decidedly towards a flat nose and oblique eyes, combined with a figure shorter and squatter than the Angamis. Another distinguishing mark of the Angami among Naga tribes is the huge calves he has on his legs. This is so marked that it finds a place in Sema folk-lore and is a proverbial characteristic of the Angami. Yet one can see no reason in external circumstances for the development of the calf of the Angami leg any more than that of any other Naga leg. The Angami’s mountains are no steeper than any other Naga’s, nor does he descend and ascend them any oftener. The Kukis have a similar calf development, but it is not combined as a rule with the tall stature of the Angami. The Chang has the stature but not the breadth nor the calf, being rather curiously built on very marked lines of his own—tall, lean and narrow, though muscular enough.

In colour again there is much variation, and though the height at which a village is situated seems most definitely to affect the complexion of its occupants, it will by no means entirely account for the variation in colour to be found both between different tribes and again between different individuals within the tribes. Generally speaking three distinct colour types may be traced, corresponding more or less to the “straight-haired light brown race,” the “wavy-haired brown race” and the “crisp-haired dark-brown race” into which Ratzel divides the races of Indonesia.[16] Generally speaking the predominating colour among the Naga tribes is red. A really dark skin, such as that of the Central Indian or Santali coolies who work on tea gardens, is spoken of with contempt and aversion, and the Changs go so far as to say that the only decent colour for a man is red, disliking white less than black, it is true, but nevertheless regarding it as decidedly unpleasing and classifying Nagas only as Mat-mei, “real men,” of whom a red skin is an attribute. With this red or light brown [[xxiii]]skin wavy hair is usual. In villages at a high altitude the skin is often so fair that the pink of the blood can be seen in the cheeks and a blush is easily detected. On the other hand, a fair and sallow complexion and straight hair are often to be seen in all tribes and at all altitudes, being apparently independent of climate and little affected by it, but much more prevalent among Manipuris and Kukis, in Ao Nagas and in the Konyak tribes, than among other tribes. It is less common in Lhotas and hardly to be seen at all among the Angamis, who are a very pronounced red, while among the Semas, who are a darker brown than the Angamis though in some high villages very fair (when washed), the sallow type is rarer than among Lhotas. Everywhere and in all these tribes alike the children are apt to have rusty-coloured reddish hair, which usually turns black[17] as they get older.

Much rarer than the sallow type is that associated with a decidedly dark brown skin and fuzzy hair suggesting the Negrito type.[18] Individuals of this type may be met with occasionally in all tribes, but they are nowhere very common, though perhaps least rare among Phoms, Konyaks and Aos. The fuzzy hair is always a subject for derision, being regarded as most unsightly (straight hair is by all looked on as the most becoming), and more so perhaps even than a dark skin.

Cephalic indices, as far as data are available, suggest a connection between Aos, Manipuris and the Ahoms and perhaps some other sub-Himalayan tribes of Assam, which might be due to a common infusion of Tai blood.