Thus left in charge for a considerable period, I felt justified in doing more than I should have done, had my stay only been of a temporary nature, and I went most thoroughly into all questions connected with the hills and their administration. My long experience in charge of a native state full of wild hill tribes, and my personal knowledge of many of the Naga and other wild tribes of Assam (a knowledge that went back as far as 1860), were a great help to me, as I was consequently not new to the work. The eastern frontier had always been to my mind the most interesting field of work in India, and now it was for me to learn all I could.
[1] The Assam Administration Report of 1877–8 writes of it as “notoriously unhealthy, and it had long been proposed to move the troops to a higher and less feverish spot.”—Ed.
[2] When I first went to Assam almost all elephant-catching was done by noosing.
[3] The country bordering on the Bhootan Dooars in the Ringpore district.
[4] See subsequent sketch of Naga tribes in [Chapter III].
[5] Sir James (then Lieut.) Johnstone headed a party to clear an Assamese village from a panther that had killed several natives and was terrifying the district. It retreated into a house which he ordered to be pulled down, and as his men were thus engaged it sprang from a window on to his shoulder. With his other arm—the left—he fired at it behind his back and wounded it sufficiently to make it loose its hold, and rush off into the jungle, where it was killed in the course of the afternoon. His arm was terribly injured, and he always considered that he owed complete recovery of the use of it to the kindness and skill of an English medical friend who came from a great distance to attend him. Every one else who was wounded by the same panther died.—Ed.
Chapter III.
Historical events connected with Manipur and the Naga Hills—Different tribes—Their religion—Food and customs.