| caption: |
mistake in receiving head by Aukheang morung |
| text: |
On the last evening in Tamlu I packed what was left of the divided head into one of the joppas while putting Shankok's piece and three smaller bits for the other morungs which had not yet participated (The Balang had already received a piece) into the small bag which I always carry with me on my walks. When early in the morning the Wakching boys came I handed out the pieces for Thepong, Bala and Angban and as no one was there to claim for the Aukheang, I gave the remaining piece to some people from Kongan. "Headless" I then started off and when Yongem met me near Wanching I could not give him anything from the head as the joppas had been sent ahead. (101) But later in my bungalow I gave him a piece as well as the gaonbura, Chinyang, but this turned out to be not nearly so valuable as if he had received it on the way and they brought it home triumphantly. That then would have given sufficient support to the fiction that he himself had captured the head. Now as he had received it, so to speak, in his own village, difficulties arose and while the boys of all the other morungs were wearing the full regalia of head-hunters, in particular monkey heads on their baskets, the Aukheang people had scruples to put on these symbols of victorious deeds. |
