The Nagas

Hill Peoples of Northeast India

Project Introduction The Naga Database

typescript 'Journey to Nagaland', by Mildred Archer. An account of six months spent in the Naga Hills in 1947

caption: garden at the bungalow, Mokokchung
medium: diaries
location: Mokokchung
date: 24.9.1947
production:
person: Archer/ Mildred
date: 9.7.1947-4.12.1947
text: 24 September. Mokokchung.
text: Last night there was a great storm and downpour, but this morning the sky is a clear pale blue and the hills a deep indigo. As we walked in the garden before breakfast we suddenly saw the snows above a scarf of mist. They were standing tiny, clear and jagged along the far skyline. As the sun rose they turned an apricot pink - frail and ghostly in the morning air.
text: As the end of the rains approaches, the garden is entering a new phase. Two great clumps of mauve orchids have blossomed on a tall oak. The graceful sprays of delicate blooms look strangely out of place on these gnarled branches. To my townish eye their proper place is on a velvet mount in a Bond Street florist's.
text: The fernery which was in a green stupor also suddenly sprang to life with a mass of Morning Glory. The brilliant blue trumpets are draped all over its canopy. As the day advances, the flowers turn purple and by the evening they are a bright magenta pink. They remind me of the salmon pink hibiscus we had in Dumka which gradually turns bright red as the day passes.
text: Besides the fernery is a tall chestnut tree and as we turned from the snows, red and yellow minivets were fluttering in its branches like autumn leaves tossing in a breeze. (90)