The Nagas

footnotes 34. Vide infra, pp. 143-4, for a brief account of the final ceremonies for the dead.
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footnotes 35. Although women have no share in public business and the administration of the village, they still wield a considerable influence on affairs. When Nzemi were being recruited as guerrillas...
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footnotes 36. Central Nzemi kinship will, it is hoped, be treated more fully later in a separate paper.
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footnotes 1. Mathai, meaning a headman, is a term in common use in North Cachar. Its origin is obscure.
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footnotes 2. The feast is called Hegwong-ngi, 'the chief's feast'. The Nzemi root -wong is found also in Kabui, with the same meaning of a chief or ruler. Compare the Konyak ang.
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footnotes 3. There is no information as to how frequently men not of Kadepeo Tsami served as administrative village heads before administration. I suspect that this practice has increased since admini...
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footnotes 4. In the case of Samrangba (vide infra, p.96) his mother was also in danger. Samrangba having no father alive, it may have been felt that she was to some extent to blame for Samrangba's lac...
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footnotes 5. This is a statement of fact, not a figure of speech.
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footnotes 6. Vide note 4.
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footnotes 7. For a close parallel, see J.H.Hutton, The Angami Nagas, p.144.
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footnotes 1. Certain clusters of Central Nzemi villages have not and never seem to have had boundaries between them. Until 1910 the present Laisong, Haijaichak and Kepelo formed the two large villages...
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footnotes 2. An Ao villager may prevent fellow-villagers cultivating his land if he so wishes, even though the community is cultivating the area in which his holding lies. The difference may gain be d...
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footnotes 3. Vide infra, p. 106
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footnotes 4. It is uncertain whether the holder of the right of usufruct from tsami land could claim rent from another member of the same tsami. No case has arisen to settle the point.
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footnotes 5. For the Kabui parallel, see Hodson, Naga Tribes of Manipur p. 172.
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footnotes 6. Vide supra, p. 56.
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footnotes 7. From the end of the harvest in December to the hoeing of the burned-off fields at the end of March, women use any time not taken up by any other household tasks in the preparation and dye...
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footnotes 8. In the dry Spring of 1946 a single fire near the writer's camp burned for 3 days and devastated 30 sq. miles of grass and woodland.
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footnotes 9. In the Central Nzemi area the average annual rainfall is of the order of 200 to 300 inches, most of which falls during June, July and August.
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footnotes 10. Vide supra, pp. 56.
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footnotes 11. In Asalu, Pokpat-ngi generally falls in the last week of August; in Laisong, about September 15th.
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footnotes 12. The average amount carried per domestic family unit is of the order of 90 to 100 loads of 60 lbs.
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footnotes 13. Zao kasang ("true rice-beer") is a thick white beer made from rice-flour. It is the only kind offered at important ceremonies when food and drink are set out for the spirits, and is used...
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footnotes 14. Red, a favourite colour, was once produced by the Central Nzemi from rubia sikkimensis, and dark blue was derived from strobilanthus flaccidifolius. During a period of extreme Angami pre...
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footnotes 1. Because of the gentler slopes surrounding it, the Angami village of Kohima can use fields up to 7 miles from the settlement. It may be noted in passing that among the Naga tribes the dist...
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footnotes 2. "With a taungya system on the other hand the low proportion of total cultivated land used at any one time implies that large settlements require a most unwieldy total farm area". Leach, C...
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footnotes 3. Leach, op. cit. p.260-1. "In practice, where this ideal type of slow rotation taungya is in operation, as in the Kachin Triangle, the component villages of the village cluster tend to be ...
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footnotes 4. Vide supra, pp.28-29.
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footnotes 5. Tesenmi, Impai and Bopungwemi are Northern Nzemi villages. The other sites are shown on the accompanying sketch-map. SKETCH
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footnotes 6. Haichangnang of Asalu, who in 1946 was the senior member of the Nubumheungtsami, is eighth in descent from Mbairaong.
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footnotes 7. See Appendix B.
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footnotes 8. In resettling a site it is usual to place the hangseoki in the positions they occupied in the earlier village. There are three reasons for this; the ritual associations of such sites, the...
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footnotes 9. Leach, op.cit., p.257.
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footnotes 10. On the Northern Nzemi-Angami tribal border Nzemi villagers have for many generations seen a wet-rice terrace system carried on most efficiently and with great success. Only three Nzemi v...
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footnotes 1. Village rituals are always performed by the priests. Ceremonies in individual houses, whether as an accepted part of a village festival or purely privately, to cure sickness or avert misf...
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footnotes 2. Vide supra, p.112.
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footnotes 3. It may flare up briefly at any time when the young men are in active competition, especially at the catching of pigs and other sacrificial animals, when a high state of excitement prevail...
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footnotes 4. Vide supra, p.48.
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footnotes 5. The Nzemi have two theories about this custom. One is that the death is directly caused by the neglected and slighted ancestors; the other, and more common, holds that the hera think that...
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footnotes 6. Wormwood (hega-zing) is believed to be able to wound spirits as a spear does a man; spirits also cannot abide the smell of it.
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footnotes 7. See T.C.Hodson, Naga Tribes of Manipur, pp.119 and 170.
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footnotes 8. Vide supra, p.29.
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footnotes 1. Vide supra, pp.124-133.
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footnotes 2. Kepelo and Haijaichak, which split on a political issue regarding relations with the administration, is the only exception known to me. Those opposing the Government formed a separate vil...
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footnotes 3. Compare the Konyak morung. (C. von Furer-Haimendorf, The Morung System of the Konyak Nagas, J.R.A.I., Vol. LXVIII, 1938, pp. 349-378.
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footnotes 4. Central Nzemi folklore and tradition give a vivid and detailed picture of the functions of the kienga and hangseoki in unadministered conditions. These functions were, as I have mentioned...
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footnotes 5. Vide supra, pp. 142-3.
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footnotes 6. All members of the village community, even the humblest, are entitled to their share at a feast of merit or a feast held by the kienga to which they belong, and in the past even slaves we...
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