The Nagas

Hill Peoples of Northeast India

Project Introduction The Naga Database

manuscript Christoph von Furer-Haimendorf notebook three

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notes on Chongwe clans and rituals

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person:	Furer-Haimendorf
date:	8.1936-6.1937

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School of Oriental and African Studies Library, London

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(19) Wakching 7/8/1936

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Chong-we, Longmien, Shoa, Nongching.

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Chong-we has an Ang-ha-ba Ang, his name is Cha-wong, his wife: Niou-pei, of his own village.

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In Chongwe are six morungs:
1. Mu-lieng
2. Hung-tok
3. Shai-geang
4. Ban-ha (the Ang's morung)
5. Won-ban
6. Wak-ban

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There are no morung Angs.

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They call Ghawang and Gashi like Wakching.

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(20) In front of the morungs are no stones like in Wakching.

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The heads remain for one month in the morungs, then they are taken into the head-taker's house.

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When a head is brought in chillies are put into his eyes and his mouth, to make him blind.

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Their own dead are first put on platforms and the heads then buried. Every clan has a separate cemetery, the heads of women are buried near those of their husbands.

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(21) The Ang receives the head and one hind leg of each animal killed in hunting, - he receives no tribute in rice, and the people do not work on his fields. His house is built by the Hung-tok morung, not by his own, Ban-ha.

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When a man of the Hung-tok or of Shai-geang morung kill a mithan or a pig, he gives the head and one leg to the Ang. The Ang house is between the two morungs. The other three morungs give no part of the mithan to the Ang.

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(22) Ban-ha, Hung-tok and Shai-geang don't intermarry. All these three morungs intermarry with Mulieng, Won-ban and Wak-ban.
Mulieng and Wak-ban do not intermarry.
Banha and Won-ban intermarry.
Banha and Wak-ban intermarry.
Won-ban and Wak-ban do not intermarry.

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All clans are monogamous - even the Ang-ha-ba people, - Ang-ha-ba men marry sometimes girls of other villages.

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(23) At weddings first the bride's father gives a spear to the boy's parents. Then the boy's father (or the boy) give to the girl's father a dao, cloths, ivory-armlets, layas etc.
1. Tap-me
2. Ou-ling-bu
3. Wan-ha
4. Yim-ling
5. Ta-pak

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In 1. the jungle is cut down and burned, pigs are killed in the fields.

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In 2. the rice is already 10 inches high.

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In 3. the rice is a little higher, this is a small feast.

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(24) In 4. the ears of the rice come out, - no animals are killed, the old men drink madhu in the fields.

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In 5. the rice harvest begins, chickens are killed in the house and people drink madhu in their houses.

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