Amongst the Nagas, marriage is contracted with near relatives, such as cousins, in preference to other women. A widow, having no children, cannot marry a stranger, but must marry her late husband’s brother; and if he happens to be a mere boy, she will still live with him as his wife; nor can the boy take another damsel: he must marry his brother’s widow. The custom is one of great antiquity, and apparently cannot be infringed. If the widow has one or two children she cannot marry again, but must remain in her own house. No Naga marries more than one wife, and if she dies he is at liberty to marry again.
The crimes of adultery and seduction are treated with the utmost severity: the offenders are brought before the Khonbao and the people assembled to investigate the offence; on proof of which, the Khonbao, or his Ticklah, decapitates the man in a conspicuous part of the road, between two or three villages; or he is tied with cane cords to a tree and there crucified. In some clans it is the practice to deprive both the seducer and seduced of their lives; in others, the former is placed in a basket, his hands and feet tied together, and he is rolled many times from the summit of a hill until life be extinct.
Funeral Ceremonies.
The Nagas consider sudden death as particularly unfortunate: even if a person dies after one or two months’ sickness, the period is still deemed too short to be lucky; and his corpse is instantly removed and placed in the jungles on a platform four or five feet high, where it is left to decay. For three or four days after a death, the relatives do not leave the village; neither do other villagers resort to the village in which death has occurred during the same period. If a person dies who has been afflicted with a long illness, a platform is raised within his house, and the corpse being folded in clothes is placed thereon. By night and day the corpse is watched with great care, and as soon as it begins to decompose, large quantities of spirituous liquor are thrown over it; and whatever the deceased was in the habit of eating and drinking in his lifetime (such as rice, vegetables, and liquor) is placed once a month on the ground before the body. The virtues of the deceased are frequently rehearsed; the heirs and relatives throw themselves on the earth, and make great lamentations for many months after the death has occurred. At the expiration of the period of mourning, a great feast of liquor, rice, buffaloes’ and cows’ flesh is prepared by the survivors; and an immense number of people, armed with their swords and spears, and dressed in the most fantastical garb, as if preparing for a war expedition, are assembled to partake of it. They commence the festival by repeating the name of the deceased, singing many kinds of songs, dancing and cursing the deity or spirit in these words: “If to-day we could see you, we would with these swords and spears kill you. Yes, we would eat your flesh! yes, we would drink your blood! yes, we would burn your bones in the fire! You have slain our relative. Where have you fled to? Why did you kill our friend? Show yourself now, and we shall see what your strength is. Come quickly,—to-day, and we shall see you with our eyes, and with our swords cut you in pieces, and eat you raw. Let us see how sharp your sword is, and with it we will kill you. Look at our spears, see how sharp they are: with them we will spear you. Whither now art thou fled? Than thou, spirit, who destroyest our friends in our absence, we have no greater enemy. Where are you now?—whither hast thou fled?”
NAGA MODE OF DISPOSING OF THE DEAD ON A BIER OR PLATFORM.
With these and similar speeches and songs, they clash their swords and weapons together, dance, and eat and drink throughout the night. On the following day the corpse is folded up in a cloth and placed on a new platform four or five feet high; and the whole of his weapons, swords, spears, panjees choonga (hollow bamboo joint, for holding water), rice-dish,—in fact everything used by the deceased in his lifetime, is now arranged round his bier, which is held sacred: no one would dare to touch a single thing thus consecrated. After this ceremony is concluded, the whole of the party disperse to their respective homes.
On the death of the Namsungea Khonbao, who, it is said, was one hundred and twenty years of age, his corpse was removed in December 1843, and according to an ancient custom, a tusk elephant was purchased from the Muttuck Bur Gohain, and killed, with three hundred buffaloes and pigs; when the Nagas enjoyed a magnificent feast. The usual practice of reviling the deity, while singing and dancing, was kept up with uncommon fervor, and the bacchanalian scene has perhaps seldom been exceeded. The heads of the slaughtered animals were suspended round the platform within a large enclosure, and the corpse was strewed over with an abundant supply of all kinds of forest flowers.
Theft is held in great abhorrence amongst the Nagas, and is consequently so rare that they leave everything exposed in the open fields. If any person is detected in committing the offence no mercy is shown: the Khonbao pronounces sentence of decapitation without a moment’s hesitation. The Nagas are remarkable for simplicity, candour, and integrity; even the comparatively small vice of lying, to which the natives of British India are so seriously and universally addicted, is unknown among them, and will probably continue so until they have been corrupted by their more enlightened neighbours, the Assamese, or by the advance of civilization, refined arts, and manners. The Nagas have no names for the days of the week, and know not their own ages. Summer and winter are the only divisions of the year they recognise, distinguishing them as dry and wet seasons of six months’ each. Time is counted by the moon, or by the number of crops they can recollect reaping. They believe in a God or Spirit called Rungkuttuck Rung, who created the earth and all things, but they have no hope of future rewards, nor any fear of punishment hereafter; neither do they believe in a future state of existence.
For the above information we are indebted to Bhog Chund, who is the son of a West Countryman of the Khetree caste, by an Assamese mother, and having lived many years amongst the Nagas, is thoroughly acquainted with them. He is now a resident and industrious cultivator in the plains. He reads and writes Assamese, and is a most straightforward character. He would be an invaluable companion and guide in travelling through the Naga territory.