8. Decisions of disputes. The chief of each village, assisted by his upa, was the one and only court of justice in the village, and from their decisions there was no appeal, but nevertheless an unsuccessful litigant found a way of getting his case reheard. If the matter in dispute were of sufficient value to make half of it worth a great chief’s acceptance, the would-be appellant could generally find some powerful chief who would accept him as a subject and take up his quarrel on those terms. The custom of settling disputes by ordeal or by oaths, which is so common among the Naga tribes, is almost unknown to the Lushais. During the fourteen years I was among them I have only twice heard a party to a case offer to accept the other’s oath.
In ordinary cases, a man wishing to be believed will take an oath holding a tiger’s tooth, saying, “If I lie, may a tiger eat me as I now gnaw this tooth”—suiting the action to the word.
An oath of friendship between chiefs is a serious matter. A mithan is tied up to a post and the parties to the oath, grasping a spear with their right hands, stab it behind the shoulder with sufficient force to draw blood, repeating a formula to the effect that until the rivers run backwards into the earth again they will be friends. The animal is then killed and a little of the blood is smeared on the feet and forehead of the oath takers. To make this oath more binding they both eat a small piece of the liver raw.
9. War and head-hunting. The true Lushai method of making war was to raid the enemy’s villages and carry off as many captives and as much loot as possible. In this they form a great contrast to the Chins, whose plan of action was systematically to ambush the paths in the enemy’s country and kill as many passers-by as possible. The Lushais consider this unsporting and say pathetically, “How can men live if for fear of ambushes no cultivation can be carried on?” The Chins were fully aware of the effectiveness of their method of warfare and resorted to it whenever they wished to extend their boundaries, piqueting the coveted piece of land so effectually that it was soon abandoned to them.
The essence of success in Lushai tactics was surprise, and no disgrace attached to a party of warriors which, on finding the enemy on the alert, quickly returned home without attempting any attack.
The wars between the different Lushai clans lasted sometimes for several years, but were not very energetically prosecuted. Thus in a war between the Thangluah and Sailo chiefs which lasted from about 1833 to 1850, about six villages were destroyed on each side, but, except on one occasion, but few lives were lost. The exception was the massacre of Thaurang, a Sailo chief’s village, which is still spoken of with pride by the descendants of the perpetrators. The people of Thaurang were celebrating a great feast, and in all the principal houses in the village zu was being dispensed to all comers. There had been no hostilities of late, and the guards gradually abandoned their posts and joined the groups round the zu pots. With song and dance the night passed merrily, and by two or three in the morning no one was in a fit state to notice that a large number of strangers, whose drunkenness was only assumed, had mingled with the crowd. Suddenly a gun-shot gave the signal, and, drawing their dahs, the Thangluahs fell on their enemies, who, too drunk to know friend from foe, were slaughtered without mercy. Having burnt the village, the successful warriors returned dragging with them many captives. The Sailo chiefs tried to play the same trick on the Thangluah when some time later the latter were celebrating their victory with a large feast, but their intelligence department was inefficient and the attack was not delivered till some days after the feast.
At that time there were but few guns in the country, and so little was the use of those they had understood that the wad on the top of the bullet was often omitted, with the natural result that when the time for firing came there was no ball in the gun, and hot were the arguments as to the value of this new-fangled weapon. In those days also they had not acquired the art of making stockades, which they subsequently copied from the Chins, and consequently there was but little chance of resistance if the surprise was successful, and the shouts of the assailants were a signal for a general stampede on the part of the whole population. The attack was always delivered just before daylight, and, if successful, but little time was lost; as many captives as could be caught were collected and loaded with as much loot as they could carry without retarding the retreat, and the whole party set off and seldom halted till they had travelled forty-eight hours. As a rule only strong women and children who could keep up in the retreat were taken, all other captives being killed on the spot, and should any captive lag behind a spear thrust quickly ended her career, and her head was taken on to form an ornament in the raiders’ village. Occasionally a few young men were carried off to be killed during the festivities which were held in honour of the success of the raid. If the raiders’ chief had a son too young to accompany them, a captive was frequently reserved for him to slaughter and thus prove his bravery.
Having put what they considered a safe distance between them and any possible pursuers, the party proceeded more leisurely, sending on messengers to announce their success, whose arrival set the village in a ferment, and everyone commenced preparations for the ensuing feast. As the brave warriors were seen in the distance the whole population rushed out to meet them with horns of zu for their refreshment, beating drums and gongs, and shouting praises of their bravery. The following is an accurate translation of an account given me by a Lushai of the proceedings which followed the return of a successful raiding party:—
“Formerly the Lushais raided the Tipperahs and captured about ten and dragged them back to their village, and killed them either in the street or just in front of their houses. Presently they said, ‘Let us dance.’ They danced before the heads of the slain, and a crowd collected and watched. The heads were placed on posts around the open space in the village, and those who had killed men came out into the space in the centre of the village with their guns and fighting dahs, wearing their ‘chhawn’ head-dress, and the girls came with beautiful plaits of red and black cotton thread and tied them round the knots of the young men’s hair. This is called ‘arkezen.’ Then the young men danced beautifully. ‘We are very magnificent,’ they said. In the middle of the open space a platform had been built of bamboos like those in front of the house. On this everyone collected any number of eggs, and those who had killed their enemies and those who had felt no fear ate up the eggs as fast as possible. This is called ‘mālchawh.’ Very tall ‘thingsia’ and ‘phulrua’ (kinds of bamboo) are put up in front of each man’s house and called ‘rālngul,’ and they hang to the end of the phulrua, by a piece of cane called ‘vawmhrui,’ a circle of pierced pieces of wood; these are called ‘hrangkhual.’”
In wars between Lushais it was considered wrong to kill chiefs. This, of course, was due to the chiefs being all of the same family.