The Nagas

Chapter twenty-one. Masang reincarnation of Gaidiliu books Masang Haichangnang Gaidiliu Dikheo Graham Bower/ Ursula I looked across the hearth at Haichangnang. I saw his face, his look; and I understo...
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Chapter twenty-two. The Coming of War Laisong books Laisong Graham Bower/ Ursula (161) Where lay the taste of Laisong, its special flavour; what brought us back, aching for it, after ten days away ? T...
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Chapter twenty-two. The Coming of War quality of life in Laisong books Laisong Graham Bower/ Ursula Life itself was hard and uncertain. One never let a quarrel linger. A bout of fever, or a falling tr...
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Chapter twenty-two. The Coming of War visit to Calcutta books Namkia Haichangnang 12.1941 Graham Bower/ Ursula I went to Calcutta again in December, 1941, on my annual holiday, and once more took Namk...
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Chapter twenty-two. The Coming of War Mr Perry takes over at Mahur books Perry/ Mr. Graham Bower/ Ursula We came back to Mahur to find the former S.D.O. gone and the new one, Mr Perry, encamped at the...
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Chapter twenty-two. The Coming of War news of Pearl Harbour, fall of Singapore and the invasion of Burma books Graham Bower/ Ursula (165) With the first post to reach Laisong after our return came the...
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Chapter twenty-two. The Coming of War recruiting Zemi volunteers books Graham Bower/ Ursula The war was on us. There was one thing I didn't intend to do, despite the general confusion, and that was to...
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war work: running a canteen at Lumding junction Chapter twenty-two. The Coming of War books Namkia 3.1942 Graham Bower/ Ursula Our luck was out. They had stopped sending women workers up the roads, be...
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war work: running a canteen at Lumding junction Chapter twenty-two. The Coming of War Zemi fear for safety books Graham Bower/ Ursula When it became generally known that we were going, there occurred ...
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war work: running a canteen at Lumding junction Chapter twenty-two. The Coming of War Namkia's fears books Namkia Graham Bower/ Ursula Namkia was strangely silent on the way down. On our last night in...
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Chapter twenty-three. Refugee Canteen Lumding Junction books Rankin/ Mrs. Lumding Graham Bower/ Ursula (169) Lumding was unique, in that it was pure junction. It had no other 'raison d'etre' whatever....
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Chapter twenty-three. Refugee Canteen refugee trains books Graham Bower/ Ursula Early each morning the refugee-trains rolled in loaded to the roof. In theory, they passed through during the night, rea...
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Chapter twenty-four. Famine return to Laisong books Laisong 5.1942 Graham Bower/ Ursula (174) Not till the middle of May 1942 did we see Laisong again. We came crawling back over the Tolpui pass, exha...
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Chapter twenty-four. Famine monsoon stops invasion; famine in Asalu books Asalu Graham Bower/ Ursula Then the rains broke. Invasion was halted till autumn. A wall of falling water, a grey screen, shut...
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Chapter twenty-four. Famine famine concealed from authorities through fear of debt books Asalu Graham Bower/ Ursula It was all as tragic as misunderstanding as one could find. A generation before, in ...
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Chapter twenty-four. Famine headmen ask for a private loan; letter to Perry books Perry Graham Bower/ Ursula The headmen arrived to see me that same afternoon. They were a tragic sight, lean ghosts of...
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Chapter twenty-four. Famine refusal to take rice even when starving books Miroteung Perry Graham Bower/ Ursula The crust of Zemi secrecy so rarely cracked that when it did, what emerged was startling....
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Chapter twenty-four. Famine attack of malaria books Graham Bower/ Ursula No woman could have been more gentle, no nurse more devoted than Namkia was to me then. I was very ill for a time and quite hel...
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Chapter twenty-four. Famine dysentery outbreak in Nraitsak books Nraitsak Graham Bower/ Ursula In July came the dysentery outbreak in Nraitsak. This tragedy, like the famine, sprang directly from Zemi...
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Chapter twenty-four. Famine monsoon gales books Graham Bower/ Ursula As if to match the confusion in human affairs, the Rains were the wildest and windiest we had known. The short bushes on the south ...
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Chapter twenty-four. Famine mounting tension as Japanese advance books Graham Bower/ Ursula Lastly, there was the atmosphere of those three months. The Japs were just beyond the border, there was tens...
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'V' Force - 'watch and ward' Chapter twenty-five. The Colonel books Wright/ Col. Rawdon Dinekamba 8.1942 Graham Bower/ Ursula (180) In early August I heard from Haflong that a Colonel Rawdon Wright wa...
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'V' Force - 'watch and ward' Chapter twenty-five. The Colonel necessity for Zemi involvement books Graham Bower/ Ursula We brought out a map and spread it on the table. There (182) were the tracks; th...
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'V' Force - 'watch and ward' Chapter twenty-five. The Colonel visit to Hangrum with Col. Wright books Wright/ Col. Hangrum Graham Bower/ Ursula (183) I didn't realize until we came to keep pace with h...
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Chapter twenty-six. Recruiting recruiting for 'V' Force books Critchley Perry Paodekumba 10.1942 Graham Bower/ Ursula (186) Nothing much happened till October. Then, quite suddenly, another "V" Force ...
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Chapter twenty-six. Recruiting recruiting in Hangrum fails books Namkia Graham Bower/ Ursula It was about a week before Namkia and I went up there, as I had a bad leg and wasn't fit to march. In the m...
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Chapter twenty-six. Recruiting recruits from Asalu and Impoi books Perry Asalu Impoi Graham Bower/ Ursula Asalu and Impoi, on the other hand, were eager to do so. There were so many candidates we were...
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Chapter twenty-six. Recruiting return to Hangrum; Perry tries to persuade; attempt to foist cripples on 'V' force books Hangrum Graham Bower/ Ursula By the time I went back to Perry to report, the sma...
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Chapter twenty-six. Recruiting oath taken books Tseva/ of Hangrum Graham Bower/ Ursula They came back again next day with a fresh selection. One or two of the old ones were, it is true, still there, b...
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Chapter twenty-seven. The Scheme Begins 'watch and ward' in operation books 12.1942 Graham Bower/ Ursula (193) By early December Watch and Ward was in operation, though, pending invasion, it had not b...
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Chapter twenty-seven. The Scheme Begins red cloths books Graham Bower/ Ursula The difficulty now was to put into the Zemi, so long trodden on by everybody, a little backbone. After the first week or s...
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Chapter twenty-seven. The Scheme Begins pay and rations books Scott/ Col. Graham Bower/ Ursula Our connection with H.Q. was not always close in the very early days. Drafts and the Haflong Treasury's o...
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Chapter twenty-seven. The Scheme Begins visit from commander of 'V' Force, Assam, bringing guns books Binny/ Col. Namkia Rintening 1.1943 Graham Bower/ Ursula In January Colonel Binny, our immediate C...
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Chapter twenty-seven. The Scheme Begins passes books Paodekumba Ramgakpa Graham Bower/ Ursula Binny had devised a system of passes by which people moving through the area on lawful business could carr...
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Chapter twenty-eight. The Hangrum Incident visit to Khangnam books Khangnam Graham Bower/ Ursula (198) On the south of the Barail, a series of the steepest highest spurs possible fanned out from the c...
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Chapter twenty-eight. The Hangrum Incident observation post at Khangnam books Khangnam Graham Bower/ Ursula Khangnam commanded no route, covered no ford. It was, on the ground, as remote as ever. But ...
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Chapter twenty-eight. The Hangrum Incident bombing of air-strip books Graham Bower/ Ursula We were just at the outcrop, Namkia and I, at nine that morning, when there was a deep, insistent, piercing h...
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Chapter twenty-nine. Crisis Japanese advance books 28.3.1944 Graham Bower/ Ursula (205) On March 28th, 1944, the midday news which came over on the amenities radio was not good. The Jap attack along t...
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Chapter twenty-eight. The Hangrum Incident search for wreckage of 'plane books Perry Paodekumba Tsevo Graham Bower/ Ursula Then, some days later, after we returned to Laisong, the Kuki wet-rice demons...
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Chapter twenty-nine. Crisis medical assistance to Zemi books Graham Bower/ Ursula We could look back now on eighteen months of North Cachar Watch and Ward. This last year had been on the whole a good ...
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Chapter twenty-nine. Crisis scouts books Graham Bower/ Ursula Namkia came into the room. I could tell by his look, as surely as though the dogs had barked, that strangers were coming. "Who is it?" " T...
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Chapter twenty-nine. Crisis meeting at Mahur books Mahur 1.4.1944 Graham Bower/ Ursula I'd had a brief note from Perry by then, summoning me to Mahur on April 1st for a conference. I found him at the ...
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Chapter twenty-nine. Crisis on patrol books Graham Bower/ Ursula Namkia and I went back next day with the patrol, a company of the Chamar Regiment. We reached Asalu the first night, instead of Laisong...
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Chapter twenty-nine. Crisis news of Kuki defection books Albright Zhekuingba Graham Bower/ Ursula Zhekuingba came from the camp to meet us, and said : " There's a 'V' Force Sahib here." I tramped down...
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Chapter twenty-nine. Crisis watch and ward books Graham Bower/ Ursula Our orders were to hang on as long as we could and watch the roads for the enemy advance. As soon as contact was made we should wa...
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Chapter thirty. Looters evacuation books Tamenglong Graham Bower/ Ursula (213) We didn't have leisure for long to worry only about the Japs. In a few days they were merely incidental. Bodies of Bengal...
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Chapter thirty. Looters Mohendra Dals (Nepalese State Troops); looters books Albright Khuala/ Dr. Hailamsuong/ of Haijaichak Gailuba Impuiloa Hajaichak (Haijaichak) Graham Bower/ Ursula Our only force...
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Chapter thirty-one. Interlude relief of Kohima; Assam Rifles books Tibbetts/ Lt. Riki Ram Supbahadur Rana Kohima Graham Bower/ Ursula (219) Then Kohima was relieved. The story of its amazing defence h...
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Chapter thirty-one. Interlude Mohendra Dals withdraw and Mahrattas arrive books Archer/ Capt. Namkia Graham Bower/ Ursula Then the Laisong forces were further augmented. The Mohendra Dals, who had bee...
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Chapter thirty-one. Interlude leopard in camp books Archer Graham Bower/ Ursula One night about nine o'clock Archer's quartermaster-havildar, passing the store, which stood across the path from the qu...
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Chapter thirty-two. Tamenglong crossing the Barak River books Tibbetts/ Bill Albright Ison Archer Barak R. 5.1944 Graham Bower/ Ursula (224) In the middle of May we received permission to move forward...
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Chapter thirty-two. Tamenglong Tamenglong camp; failure due to bungling books Thongkim Archer Tibbetts Ison Tamenglong Graham Bower/ Ursula Tamenglong had just been strafed in error by the R.A.F. and ...
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Chapter thirty-two. Tamenglong back by Joute ferry books Tibbetts Archer Joute Graham Bower/ Ursula The day we left, Bill's illness lit up again. I was scared, after a while, that he wouldn't make the...
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Chapter thirty-two. Tamenglong leave in Calcutta, then 'watch and ward' wound up books Perry Albright Scott Laisong Magulong 11.1944 Graham Bower/ Ursula I was due for leave and took it, Bill staying ...
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Chapter thirty-three. The Man Who Came to Catch Butterflies Colonel Betts comes to catch butterflies books Betts/ Col. 5.1945 Graham Bower/ Ursula (231) There was nothing very much in the mail that da...
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Chapter thirty-three. The Man Who Came to Catch Butterflies proposal of marriage books Graham Bower/ Ursula On the fourth day of his stay he came home particularly early. I, who hadn't expected him ba...
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Chapter thirty-four. Magulong VJ celebrations at Haflong books 1946 Graham Bower/ Ursula (238) Except for flying visits, Tim didn't get back till the spring of 1946, when he appeared finally, demobili...
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Chapter thirty-three. The Man Who Came to Catch Butterflies Colonel Betts and the 'Naga Queen' to Shillong and marriage books Betts/ Col. Mills 7.1945 Graham Bower/ Ursula His baptismal names, it appe...
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Chapter thirty-four. Magulong invitation to stay in Magulong books Khutuing Magulong Graham Bower/ Ursula Magulong was a remarkable settlement, a thing I had come increasingly to realize in the last f...
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Chapter thirty-four. Magulong to Magulong books Khutuing Magulong 5.1946 Graham Bower/ Ursula Various things held us up during April and we didn't start till the beginning of May. Eastward we went, do...
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Chapter thirty-four. Magulong singing books Graham Bower/ Ursula Tim and I stopped and stared. Still it came; faint, far and haunting. Then, with the field-glasses, we saw. Ranged on a ledge of rock a...
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Chapter thirty-four. Magulong insistence on re-marriage by Naga rite books Namkia Khutuing Graham Bower/ Ursula Then we took stock of the wide street nearer at hand. There were the village council, se...
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Chapter thirty-four. Magulong visit to Magulong village hide-out books Namde/ of Magulong Gaidiliu Graham Bower/ Ursula There were three or four days to wait before everything was ready for the ceremo...
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Chapter thirty-five. Finale Zemi wedding at Magulong books Khutuing Magulong 5.1946 Graham Bower/ Ursula (246) In the next mail came the news that Tim had his appointment in the North-East Frontier se...
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Chapter thirty-five. Finale leaving Magulong books 5.1946 Graham Bower/ Ursula The next morning we left. Half the bucks of the village wanted to come with us to work. The village suffered from the Bar...
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Chapter thirty-five. Finale final departure books Namde Lungchiwong Khutuing Namkia Graham Bower/ Ursula There was all Laisong camp to pack. While we hammered cases shut, Khutuing, discovering we had ...
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Chapter thirty-five. Finale crossing the flooded Jiri River books Jiri R. Graham Bower/ Ursula It was already late in May, an unpredictable month, and as we reached Saipimual the weather broke. Out of...
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footnotes 1. Accurate figures in this connection are difficult to obtain. Those given here and in Chapter One are based on the results of the 1941 census as supplies by the Subdivisional Officer, Hafl...
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footnotes 2. See J.H.Hutton, "A Negrito Substratum in the Population of Assam", Man in India, 1927, p.258. Angami migration traditions relate that the Angami immigrants found in the present Angami cou...
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footnotes 3. Vide infra, pp. 118-139.
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footnotes 4. Khutuing informed me that he saw no need to present me with the usual axe and weaving implements as he would have difficulty in procuring them at such short notice and there was little li...
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footnotes 1. Stewart (Notes on Northern Cachar, J.A.S.B. Vol. XXIV, pp 656-675 and 685-691) calls them Aroong.
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footnotes 2. Stewart, op. cit., p. 588
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footnotes 3. Vide infra, Chapter Five, Land Tenure and Agriculture, pp 107-125, where this is dealt with in detail.
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footnotes 4. Where cattle are referred to, the domestic bison, Bos Frontalis, is meant.
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footnotes 1. The British occupation in 1879 effectively ended Angami raiding. During earlier operations in the Angami country a strong band of raiders slipped out from the then besieged Khonoma, raide...
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footnotes 2. Vide infra, pp. 126-151.
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footnotes 3. Vide infra, p. 145
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footnotes 4. The more individual work of the women is relatively unaffected by the size of the village, except that a larger share of the joint tasks, such as hoeing and weeding the fields, falls to t...
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footnotes 5. 'Upper' indicates the gate nearest to the main range or peak from which the spur derives, and 'lower' that furthest from it.
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footnotes 6. Stewart, op. cit., p. 589
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footnotes 7. Krre: the fortified circuit of a village, also a palisade or fence, and any space enclosed by a palisade or fence. Hence krre-poina, "little enclosure".
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footnotes 8. ntsukhang: a stone or rock. Ntsa is used of hearthstones only.
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footnotes 9. This was done during the Japanese invasion of Assam in the spring and summer of 1944, when the Nzemi revived many similar obsolete practices.
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footnotes 10. Hangseoki: from rahangmi, an unmarried youth. Similarly leoseoki, from heleomi, an unmarried girl. The Nzemi can give no translation of seoki here, but deny any connection with seoki, a ...
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footnotes 11. Ze: a bench, bed, or platform. The Nzemi can give no translation of nzun.
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footnotes 12. These combs are of two kinds, one coarse, for general use and the other fine, for the removal of vermin. Both measure about 6 inches long by 4 wide, and are made of bamboo splines bound ...
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footnotes 13. These are wooden cylinders 2 feet long and 18 inches in diameter, with a deerskin membrane at either end. They are beaten during the ceremonial spearing of wooden images during the winte...
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footnotes 14. Heramui is a potent and in many ways dangerous ceremony. The fourteen great spirits whose names are known are summoned one by one to a ceremonial feast set out as though on a table on th...
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footnotes 1. The only example of polygyny in the period 1940-6 occurred at Hangrum. The wife of the man concerned had borne him several daughters but no son, and as they were both no longer young, she...
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footnotes 2. The personal names of married persons are never used by the Central Nzemi, either in address or in the third person. The expressions "father of so-and-so", "mother of so-and-so", using th...
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footnotes 3. The rain-making ceremony must be performed by a man of the Neomi moiety. See also J.H.Hutton, "Races of Further Asia" Man in India, Vol. XII, No. 1, p.6, on the occurrence of dual organiz...
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footnotes 4. It is not known who was Nriami's wife.
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footnotes 5. Nui is believed to lie to the north-west of the present Nzemi country.
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footnotes 6. Compare the Angami putsa (Hutton, the Angami Nagas, pp. 115-117). The Nzemi word tsami appears to be derived from atsa (grandchild) and mi (people). The Magulong cluster use -nami from an...
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footnotes 7. There has been no Government survey, and there are no official figures of infant mortality rates among the Central Nzemi. Some information is obtainable from genealogical material, and in...
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footnotes 8. Vide infra, p.45-6
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footnotes 9. In 1935 a man named Hozekiemba returned to Laisong from Asalu, to which village his father had moved for reasons Hozekiemba was reluctant to disclose. An Asalu man, Haintseng, moved to Ma...
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footnotes 10. His personal property is inherited under a different rule. Lungdiliang is provided for during his father's lifetime. Namkia, the youngest son, makes a home for his parents in their old a...
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footnotes 11. Hutton, The Angami Nagas, p.16 "In many Kacha Naga villages exogamous clans are found bearing the names of Khonoma clans, probably adopted as a result of their subjection to Khonoma". Th...
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