| caption: |
significance of village gates |
| text: |
1. If a tree is felled and some bark is discovered inside the bole, the whole tree must be discarded and another chosen. |
| text: |
2. The plank selected for the gate must be free from cracks. When the Tsotonoma Khel of Kohima was compelled to replace its highly auspicious gate, it erected one which contained a few minor cracks. No one took serious heed of them but 3-4 years later, a large number of its young men died. Various people had dreams in which they were told that the gate was at fault, while one young man dreamt that an enemy had buried iron beside it. Although the Khel searched the wall no iron was discovered, and it was decided that the cracks had caused the danger. They were on the point of making a new one when the war came and it was only in 1947 that they were able to do the ceremony. |
