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But the most exciting things in Chungtia and its neighbour, Aliba, are the log drums. They are carved and hollowed from an enormous tree trunk, about five feet in diameter. The front is carved into the most beautiful flowing forms which remind one of Graham Sutherland's trees. Originally, the villagers say, the front was carved to represent a buffalo head. The basic form is still there, but the horns have grown larger and larger until they fold back and flow into the body of the drum. The nose is flattened, the tongue has turned into a human head and the whole looks like a magnificent figurehead surging from a galleon. |
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The drum is beaten with great wooden strikers and two levers and its hollow boom reverberates through the hills. (8) The rhythm of the beat proclaims its purpose. It used to be beaten when an enemy approached or when a head had been taken, but now it is used chiefly at festivals or as a fire alarm. |
