| caption: |
significance of village gates |
| text: |
Omens and dreams - ways of gauging the gate's efficiency. |
| text: |
When the tree is felled a white cock is sometimes released and its actions observed. If it leaps over the trunk and crows, the tree is believed to be particularly powerful. Such a thing happened about 50 years ago then the [] Khel of Kohima was erecting an earlier gate. The omen was regarded as excellent and so long as the gate remained, the whole Khel prospered. |
| text: |
The same inference was drawn from an old man's dream. In the dream a voice said to him 'The tree is very strong. It has two sons [] and []'. There was great rejoicing in the Khel when he narrated this experience, and subsequent events merely confirmed their conclusion. |
