| caption: |
drumming and feasting in Tamlu on receiving a skull |
| text: |
The meaning of the song was apparently often up to date. Formerly they themselves had captured heads but now they were glad to get a piece taken by the Government, and so on. Once the old gaonbura of Kanching stepped forward as a singer and what he said must have been quite funny judging from the laughter. Several fires were burning in the morung itself where the men were cooking madhu and the girls and young women beat the drums, which stand in the morung with the exception of the one of the Ung morung. One man also was beating a skin covered drum. The noise was often literally deafening but some of the drum beating women had their babies tied onto their backs and these seemed to sleep through all the noise. Everywhere the drums were richly decorated with bundles of palm leaves and the boys' baskets were hung up on the drum itself. |
